Upgrade Canned Baked Beans With This Flavor-Packed Thai Sauce

Depending on the brand you buy, baked beans can have a solid base of sweetness and hearty protein but still lack that special something. No matter what kind you end up taking home, though, Thai peanut sauce is a surefire way to elevate them with little effort and great results.

The best peanut sauces are nutty and tart, creamy, and sweet. If you prefer a more British-style, tomato-based recipe, the sugars help balance the sharpness a bit without completely overriding the tang. Plus, the touch of heat from the chiles works perfectly with the tomato. If, however, you like an old-school American style rich in brown sugar and spices, the sauce has an effect similar to the way it changes your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Just as its acidity contrasts with sweet jelly, it creates a dichotomy of flavors with the brown sugar and immediately makes the whole meal taste more nuanced and complex.

To upgrade a can of beans, all you need to do is warm them through, then add your desired amount of peanut sauce. This helps the fats and solids melt and disperse throughout the beans, rather than leaving you to mix them together cold and end up with inconsistent pockets of sauce. Still, peanut sauce is an effective condiment to drizzle over the beans at the end in case not every diner is excited about the new flavors.

Baked beans have a couple of solid, universal flavors, but most families and brands put their own spin on the dish to make it even more delicious. What you pair with your peanut sauce mostly boils down to the sauce itself, since it may make a dish overly sweet or acidic, but there are a few staples that always work well with it.

Pork, from bits of ham to strips of bacon, is one of the most delicious ingredients you should add to baked beans. Just as its animal fat works wonderfully with the beans, pork is delicious with the nutty heartiness of peanut sauce. Between the meat and the Thai chiles, the combination makes a store-bought can taste almost like chili, though far sweeter and richer. Combined with aromatics like ginger and lemongrass, which you can find in some sauce brands, it creates something that's just a touch tropical and incredibly satisfying.

Fruit, from slices of pineapple to splashes of orange juice, tastes delicious with Thai peanut sauce, much like the combination of tamarind and nuts found in Thailand's massaman curry. Fruit also elevates a can of baked beans with some much-needed fresh aromas, helping cut through the heavier flavors. When you bake peanut sauce, baked beans, and fruit juice together, the heat caramelizes the sugars and brings out extra nuttiness, making everything taste even more powerful without requiring huge amounts of any one ingredient.