Maple Baked Beans & Chicken

Steps

1. Rinse beans and add to crock of slow cooker along with the bay leaf. Cover with 12 cups (3L) cold water. Cover and cook in slow cooker set to LOW for 6-8 hours. It works well to do this step overnight. The beans should be tender but not falling apart. Alternately, you can boil them on the stove for an hour or so until tender but not splitting.

2. Remove 2 cups (500 mL) bean water from crock. You may use this later if beans are dry. Keep in fridge. Discard it later if you don’t use it.

3. Stir maple syrup, ketchup, cider vinegar, dry mustard powder, dried thyme, salt and pepper into beans. If you don’t like sweet beans add less maple syrup. You can always adjust sweetness later.

4. Cut onions in half and peel. Push two pieces of whole cloves into each of the halves. Add to the bean pot along with the skinless chicken pieces. Push them down to submerge as well as you can. Bone in chicken will give more flavour and match the longer cooking time.

5. Cover and cook on LOW heat 4 hours. Then cook up to one additional hour with lid off to evaporate liquid and you get the desired level of “sauciness.” How you want the beans is a matter of preference.