Instant Pot Boston Baked Beans
Instant Pot Boston Baked Beans are made with dried beans, no soaking required, and cooked in a sweet sauce, made with molasses, and salt pork, for that traditional Boston baked bean flavor you love!
These amazing Instant Pot Boston Baked Beans are going to be your go-to side dish for all of your summer parties and pot lucks. Tender beans and cooked in a sauce made with molasses, and salt pork, for a sweet and salty side that goes great with barbecue!
If you love this you’re going to want to try our Instant Pot Navy Bean Soup, Pressure Cooker Black Beans, and Instant Pot Pinto Beans. They are all quick and easy to make in your pressure cooker.
What is the Difference Between Boston Baked Beans and Baked Beans?
Boston baked beans have been a New England tradition since the 18th century. Molasses and/or maple syrup, and salt pork or bacon, is added to Boston Beans to give them a delicious sweet and salty flavor.
This Instant Pot Boston Baked Beans recipe is made in two parts. It starts with cooking the dried beans. Now normally using dried beans would mean you have to soak the beans overnight before you use them but since we are cooking beans in a pressure cooker there is no soaking required!
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How to Cook Dried Beans in the Instant Pot:
- Place beans in a strainer and rinse under cool water to clean.
- Add the beans, water, carrot, onion, garlic, dried bay leaf, thyme, and salt to the Instant Pot.
- Lock the lid in place and turn the valve to SEALING. Cook on HIGH pressure for 30 minutes.
- When the timer goes off press CANCEL and let the beans naturally release for 20 minutes before turning the vent to VENTING to release any excess pressure and opening the lid.
- Pour the beans into a strainer, remove the carrots, onion, thyme, and bay leaf, and set aside.
The dried beans cooked in the Instant Pot come out tender but with a little bite to them and they continue cooking with all of the other baked bean ingredients.
How to Make Instant Pot Boston Baked Beans:
- Set Instant Pot to SAUTE and add your diced salt pork or bacon. Cook until the bacon begins to crisp. Remove the cooked bacon from the Instant Pot and set aside.
- Add the chopped onions to the Instant Pot and saute until the begin to soften. Press CANCEL to turn off saute.
- Add 1 cup of water to the pot and deglaze the pan, getting the browned bits up off of the bottom of the pan.
- Add molasses, brown mustard, and cider vinegar to the pot.
- Lock the lid in place and turn the valve to SEALING. Cook on HIGH pressure for 30 minutes.
- When the timer goes off press CANCEL and let the beans naturally release for 15 minutes before turning the vent to VENTING to release any excess pressure and opening the lid.
- Turn the Instant Pot to SAUTE and continue to cook for 15 minutes to give the baked beans a thicker consistency.
Can I use Canned Beans?
Yes! If you use canned beans you can skip the dried bean steps and follow the baked beans instructions. The only change is to cook the beans for 15 minutes on high pressure rather than 30 minutes.
What to Serve with Baked Beans:
INSTANT POT BOSTON BAKED BEANS
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Instant Pot Boston Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 16 ounces Dried Navy beans
- 8 cups Water
- 1 Carrot, roughly chopped
- ½ Onion, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 Dried Bay leaf
- 3-5 sprigs Thyme
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 8 ounces Salt Pork, or bacon
- 1 Onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup Water
- ½ cup Molasses
- 1 tablespoon Brown mustard
- 2 tablespoons Apple Cider vinegar
Instructions
Prepare Dried Beans:
- Place beans in a strainer and rinse under cool water to clean.
- Add the beans, water, carrot, onion, garlic, dried bay leaf, thyme, and salt to the Instant Pot.
- Lock the lid in place and turn the valve to SEALING. Cook on HIGH pressure for 30 minutes.
- When the timer goes off press CANCEL and let the beans naturally release for 20 minutes before turning the vent to VENTING to release any excess pressure and opening the lid.
- Pour the beans into a strainer, remove the carrots, onion, thyme, and bay leaf, and set aside.
Prepare Baked Beans:
- Set Instant Pot to SAUTE and add your diced salt pork or bacon. Cook until the salt pork begins to crisp. Remove the cooked salt pork from the Instant Pot and set aside.
- Add the chopped onions to the Instant Pot and saute until the begin to soften. Press CANCEL to turn off saute.
- Add 1 cup of water to the pot and deglaze the pan, getting the browned bits up off of the bottom of the pan.
- Add beans, salt pork , molasses, brown mustard, and cider vinegar to the pot.
- Lock the lid in place and turn the valve to SEALING. Cook on HIGH pressure for 30 minutes.
- When the timer goes off press CANCEL and let the beans naturally release for 15 minutes before turning the vent to VENTING to release any excess pressure and opening the lid.
- Turn the Instant Pot to SAUTE and continue to cook for 15 minutes, stirring continuously, to give the baked beans a thicker consistency.
Delicious! However, they were over soft after first cooking. Again, the flavor even then was delicious from the additions to the water. Also roughly chopped onions melted into the beans and were impossible to isolate for removal. I wasn’t able to do second cooking, as “Burn” message came on twice soon after reaching temperature. But since they were already more than cooked, I just used sautéed setting to thicken.
What about cooking in one stage, with significantly less water, perhaps just to cover? I’m curious to see the difference between sautéing onion before cooking and not sautéing it, just cooking all together.
These turned out beautifully. The beans were a bit softer than I thought they’d be after the first cooking but I realized later that I’d forgotten the salt so maybe that would help. But after the second cooking and then sautéing to thicken they were fine – almost all of them actually held their shape. Most importantly though, the flavor was perfect. This will be a new go-to this summer. Thanks!
So glad you liked them!!
I also got the burn error as soon as the pot was up to pressure on the second cook. Just released, opened and went right to saute as everything was already cooked. Another 30 min high pressure cook would have turned the beans to mush. As we say in Mass, wicked good!
Just made this recipe for a cookout. So good but made a few alterations. Added 1/3 cup brown sugar and one whole cut up keilbasa and another 1/2 cup water.. Did second PC time for only 20 min. Let sit for 15 min as written and hit saute to thicken it up about 10 min. It was PERFECT!
These beans were delicious, but the cooking times were off:
-When I started the second pressure cook, the Instant Pot told me the beans were burning. I turned it off after about 15 mins. The beans were done to perfection (only a few on bottom had started to darken). I did not need to do the final sautee step.
-I doubled the molasses and added about a cup of brown sugar. As a life long New England resident, trust me — beans should be sweet! 🙂
When cooking the dried beans, the addition of the carrot and onion made the beans taste much better. I added 1 tablespoon of brown sugar with the molasses to make it a little sweeter. The beans are soupy when they came out but thicken up beautifully when they cooled down. Great recipe, definitely a keeper.
The beans were mush. I used dry beans and followed the recipe to a T. I did the last step with molasses , mustard etc for only 1 min. Almost like baked refried beans. Disappointed
Really fun to play with! Used great northern beans because they were in the pantry. Took note of other reviewers and did 20 min for first round, 5 for the second. Probably could have done a few more minutes but I like a bean with form. Didn’t even need to saute after! They thickened up great as they cooled. Was short on molasses, had maybe 1/3 cup. And only used a half onion on the second part. Added a little maple syrup to sweeten. Very tasty. (These are truthfully notes for myself when I make it again LOL)
Side note- saved the bean water for a future minestrone! Seemed a shame to waste.
Really good flavor! I used red kidney beans and a meaty ham bone. These will be perfect for a holiday barbecue. July, 2021
I agree the beans were too soft after the first cook so I shortened the second cook time. Nice flavor. I will make this again!