Creamy Green Bean Casserole With Bacon

This creamy fresh green bean casserole with bacon is gooey, cozy, and tasty! Your tastebuds will sing with the delicious savory homemade onion and garlic cream sauce, crispy bacon, and crunchy onions. No canned soup here, this delicious easy side dish will impress for the holidays or Sunday dinner.

 

Why We Love This Green Bean Casserole With Bacon

• Simple Ingredients – No hidden, unknown ingredients in this smooth and creamy dish, just deliciousness.
• Make It Ahead– You can prep this recipe up to a day ahead of time. Simply add the crispy onions right before you bake, which can ease some of the prep time on the holiday itself.
• Creamy Sauce– That ooey gooey creamy sauce paired with crispy fried onions is what most people think of when they think of green bean casserole. The recipe makes a smooth, creamy and luscious sauce without using canned cream of mushroom soup, and is the perfect dish for your holiday table.
• Crispy Bacon Brings It Up A Level– If you want to impress your guests, adding that bacon to this casserole will make it feel like a party!

If I’m totally honest, the traditional green bean casserole is the dish I used skip at Thanksgiving and go straight to the turkey with cranberry sauce, the garlic cream cheese mashed potatoes or the sausage stuffing instead. While it’s cozy and warm, it always just felt too salty and mushy to me, until I met THIS version of homemade green bean casserole!

Creamy sauce packed full of savory garlic, onion, tender fresh green beans, salty bacon and crispy crunchy french fried onions on top! This casserole just explodes with flavor when you take a bite. This has got to be the best bacon green bean casserole and will be a big hit with your family.

This is the green bean casserole I look forward to every Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the compliments always come whenever I bring it to share. This is the casserole that even the green bean haters love at the holiday meal!

Ingredients For Green Bean Casserole With Bacon

• fresh green beans – ends trimmed and green beans snapped in half
• cooked bacon – diced
• crispy fried onions – they usually sell these in the store around the holidays
• garlic – minced
• yellow onion thinly sliced, you can use white onion or purple onion
• salted butter – if you have unsalted butter, just add an extra 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the entire dish
• all purpose flour
• chicken broth
• milk – I recommend whole milk or 2% milk. Skim milk is a little too light for this dish and your sauce won’t be as creamy.
• heavy cream
• salt
• pepper

How To Make Green Bean Casserole With Bacon

1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Fill a large bowl with ice water. Grease a 9×13” baking dish, or two 1 1/2 quart baking dishes.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add green beans to the boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes until they turn bright green.
3. Remove the green beans and place in the large bowl filled with cold water to stop them from cooking, you can add ice cubes to help cool the water. This is called blanching. Once the green beans have cooled, drain well and set aside.
4. In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat then bump the heat down to medium-low. Add sliced onions and garlic. Cook about five minutes stirring frequently until onions are soft and translucent.

5. Add flour to the saucepan and stir over medium low heat for one minute until flour just begins to brown.

6. Slowly add the chicken broth while whisking until the liquid is smooth and the flour dissolves.
7. Slowly add in milk, and then heavy cream, each time whisking well. Add salt and black pepper and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt and pepper to taste if desired. The mixture will be the consistency of a cream soup. If the liquid is too thick, add a liitle more chicken broth at a time and whisk until everything is smooth and creamy.

8. Place green beans in a greased 9×13 baking dish or two 1 1/2 quart baking dishes. Pour the cream mixture over the green beans and stir in gently. Add the bacon and crispy fried onions to the green beans and stir.

9. Cover the pan with aluminum foil. Bake the green bean mixture for 30 minutes covered until it is hot and bubbling.
10. Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes or until bubbly and the top os golden brown. Serve and enjoy!

What’s the easiest way to cook the bacon?

With fresh bacon, I think baking the bacon is the quickest and least messy way to prepare the bacon. My friend Alicia over at Balancing Motherhood has a great method for making crispy twisted bacon that makes the bacon super crispy.

She even has instructions for making it in the air fryer which is perfect for making the prep for this green bean casserole recipe with bacon faster.

Can I Use Pre-Cooked Bacon?

You can use pre-cooked bacon in this recipe but go for something that’s a little better quality and a little thicker cut if you can. I don’t recommend using imitation bacon, like Bacos in this dish. Crisp the bacon up in a pan quickly just for a minute or two for the best results. Pull it out of the pan when you just start to see the oil bubble on the bacon and it will be perfect.

Costco sells great pre-cooked bacon in their Kirkland brand but it’s a giant bag. We also like the Simple Truth brand precooked bacon found at Kroger stores and all the other brands they operated. (Fry’s, Meyer, etc.) Using pre-cooked bacon in my dishes sometimes is my sneaky time-saving trick.

Can I Add Mushrooms?

Mushrooms are delicious in this dish, and pretty classic! I don’t add them every time, but sometimes I do! To add mushrooms, cook them before you make the sauce. I like using crimini mushrooms but other kinds can be used too.

• Add two tablespoons of butter to a large skillet.
• Saute two cups of sliced mushrooms in the butter over medium heat. Cook for 3-4 minutes until they are browned, then remove from the pan and set aside.
• Continue making the cream sauce.
• Add the mushroom mixture to the onion and cream sauce just before adding to the green beans.

Can I Use Frozen Green Beans?

Yes, you can use frozen green beans in this recipe. Simply add the beans straight to the casserole dish and keep following the directions. There is no need blanche frozen green beans like with fresh.

Frozen green beans don’t have quite the same texture as fresh green beans, they will be slightly mushier in texture in this recipe. The casserole will still be tasty, but I prefer using fresh green beans when I can.

Can I Use Canned Green Beans?

You could use canned green beans but the casserole will likely be pretty salty and also pretty mushy using canned green beans. I recommend sticking with fresh green beans to take your casserole from ok to great!

Can I Make Green Bean Casserole Ahead?

You can make this green bean casserole up to a day in advance. If you do this I strongly recommend not adding the onions until right before you bake the casserole. I also wouldn’t prep this casserole more than a day in advance or the moisture from the sauce will start to change the texture.

If you add the onions too early they will soak up too much moisture from the sauce and become soggy on top. While I don’t mind eating the green beans a little soggier as leftovers for the holiday you want them to be nice and crispy. You can also sprinkle extra crispy onions on the casserole right before you reheat leftovers to help give it the crispy texture again.

How Do I Store Green Bean Casserole?

You can store green bean casserole in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for up to three days. You can also cover the pan with plastic wrap tightly to store in the refrigerator easily.

How Long Will Green Bean Casserole With Bacon Last?

Expect this green bean casserole will last for about 3- 4 days when stored in the refrigerator in a covered airtight container.