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These classic baked beans made in the Instant Pot are sweet, smoky, and so much faster and easier to make than traditional baked beans! Inspired by my family’s favorite baked beans recipe, they cook in about an hour, thanks to the Instant Pot, and are perfect for a BBQ, potluck, or anytime you’re craving this delicious side dish.

What Makes This Recipe So Good

These baked beans go perfectly with classic Southern dishes like Grilled BBQ Ribs, Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes, Cornbread with Honey, and Air Fryer Okra!
There’s so much delicious flavor in these Instant Pot baked beans. Molasses and brown sugar make it perfectly sweet, then there’s the tanginess of the ketchup and mustard, and the savoriness of the salty bacon… OH, it’s so good.
No bean-soaking required! Yup, thanks to the Instant Pot, you don’t have to soak your dried navy beans in advance. Just toss them in the pressure cooker with water and they’ll come out the perfect texture!
It’s much faster than traditional baked beans! With traditional baked beans, you’ve got to soak the dry beans overnight, then cook them, then fry the bacon, then mix everything together, AND THEN you still have to bake the beans for a couple of hours. We’re talking a minimum of 3-4 hours’ worth of cooking here, not including the soak time. With Instant Pot baked beans, though, it only takes a fraction of the time. You’ll go from dried beans to tender, saucy, perfect baked beans in a little over an hour.

Key Ingredients

Navy Beans – Navy beans are generally the traditional bean-of-choice for baked beans, whether you’re making them in the Instant Pot or not! I love them. They’re creamy and full of protein, fiber, and good-for-you nutrients. You should be able to find dry navy beans pretty easily in the bulk foods section of your grocery store. If you don’t have them, you can use dry pinto beans or Great Northern beans instead.

Molasses – The molasses gives the sauce this really incredible sweet, rich, sort-of smokey flavor that I can’t get enough of! There’s not much in this recipe, but it has a big impact.

Bacon – You’ll want to use good quality, thick-cut bacon for the best results. If you want vegetarian baked beans, all you have to do is leave out the bacon!

Chef’s Tips

If you like a really smokey flavor in your baked beans, you can add a small amount of liquid smoke to the sauce mixture. I don’t find that it needs the extra flavor, but some people really like that touch!
I prefer my Instant Pot baked beans with dried beans, but you can use canned ones if you want! Make sure to drain and rinse them very well. Skip the step where you cook the beans in 8 cups of water and go straight to sautéeing the oil and onion. Follow the rest of the recipe as written.
Older beans will need a longer cook time, so you’ll want to factor that in if you’re pulling dried navy beans from the back of your pantry!
Don’t skip the deglaze! After you sauté the bacon and onion, pour in ½ cup water or even water and a little apple cider vinegar, then scrape any browned bits of food off the bottom of the Instant Pot. This is important not only to prevent the dreaded burn warning but to make sure you get all that flavor!