Green Beans With Bacon

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Green Beans with Bacon is an easy side dish that your family will love. Fresh green beans, parboiled until just tender, then sautéed with smoky bacon. It takes about 20 minutes, uses five ingredients, and it's the side dish my family asks for more than any other.

If you've got a bag of fresh green beans and no plan for them, this is the recipe. The parboil is the step that makes the difference. It takes the squeak out of the beans, leaving them tender yet bright, and then the bacon fat does the rest of the work.

Why This Recipe Works

• The parboil guarantees tender beans. Sautéing alone leaves you with beans that are browned on the outside and squeaky on the inside. Two minutes in boiling water fixes that before the pan ever gets involved.
• Bacon fat replaces the oil. You're not adding fat; you're using the fat that renders out. That's where the salty, smoky flavor comes from.
• Five ingredients. Green beans, bacon, garlic, salt, pepper. Nothing to shop for.
• It fits nearly every diet. Naturally gluten-free, keto, Whole30 (if you use Whole30 bacon), and paleo, with no substitutions.

Ingredients You Will Need

• Fresh green beans. A pound, trimmed. Look for beans that snap cleanly rather than bend.
• Bacon. Four to six slices.
• Garlic. Two cloves, sliced thin, added at the end so it doesn't burn.
• Salt and black pepper. Go easy on the salt until the bacon's in.

How to Cook Fresh Green Beans with Bacon

1. Trim the beans. Snap or slice off the stem ends. The tapered tail end can stay.
2. Parboil for 2 to 3 minutes. Drop them into salted boiling water. They should turn a deeper green and still have snap. Don't walk away. A minute too long and they go army green.
3. Drain well. Wet beans steam instead of sautéing. Give them a shake in the colander, then let them dry for a minute.
4. Cook the bacon. In a large skillet over medium heat, render the fat until the edges are crisp. Take it out and leave the fat behind. If you're using precooked bacon, warm it briefly and add a little oil.
5. Sauté the beans. Cook in the bacon fat for 4 to 5 minutes, tossing. Add the garlic for the last minute.
6. Finish. Add the bacon back, season, and serve hot. Cook it a little longer if you want more browning.

How Long to Cook Green Beans

This is the question that decides whether the dish works, and honestly, it depends on what you want.

• 2 to 3 minutes parboiled. Crisp-tender and bright green. That's what this recipe uses.
• 5 to 6 minutes parboiled. Fully tender, still green, better for anyone who hates that squeak.
• 4 to 5 minutes in the pan afterward. Enough to coat them in bacon fat and pick up a little color.
• An hour or more. That's the Southern method. It's a completely different dish, and worth doing on purpose.

The test is bending a bean between your fingers. It should give without snapping in half. But everyone likes them cooked differently, so do what your family likes best.

How to Pick and Prep Fresh Green Beans

Most of what makes green beans good or bad happens before they ever hit the pan.

• Buy beans that snap. Bend one in the store. A fresh bean breaks clean with a real snap. A bendy one is old, and it'll cook up leathery no matter what you do. Yuck.
• Look for smooth pods. If you can see the beans bulging through, it's past its best, and the pod will be stringy.
• Skip the pre-trimmed bags if you can. They're convenient, but cut ends dry out, and those beans have usually been sitting longer. In a pinch, they will work, but I wouldn't make it the regular choice.
• Trim the stem end only. The thin tapered tail is tender and looks better left on. Line them up in a row and cut the stem ends off in one go rather than snapping them off one by one.
• Dry them properly after washing. Water in the pan is the difference between sautéed and steamed.

Haricots verts, the slim French ones, work here too. They cook faster, so cut the parboil to about 90 seconds.

How to Season Green Beans

Bacon does most of the seasoning here, but if you're cooking green beans plain, this is where people go wrong. They salt at the start and stop there.

• Salt the parboiling water, not just the beans. It's your only chance to season the bean itself, not just the outside.
• Add acid at the end. A squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar wakes up green beans more than extra salt ever will.
• Garlic goes in last. One minute, not five. Burnt garlic turns bitter, and it happens fast in hot bacon fat.
• Good pairings. Smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, toasted almonds, parmesan, fresh dill, or a spoonful of whole grain mustard stirred through at the end.

If you're working with canned green beans, drain and rinse them first. The canning liquid is where that tinny taste lives. Then treat them as already cooked and just warm them through in the bacon fat.

Southern-Style Slow-Cooked Green Beans

When I was little, we got fresh green beans from my grandfather's farm, and there was nothing like them. Mom would slow-cook them all day in lard. Yes, lard. She added raw onions and fresh heirloom tomatoes at the table, and that was often the whole dinner.

If that's what you're after, the method's different. Cover the beans in broth with bacon or a ham hock and simmer for an hour or more until they're soft and olive drab. They won't be pretty, but they'll taste wonderful. My own family likes them crisp, which is why the recipe below parboils instead. Add fresh salted tomatoes to make them even better.

Variations

• Green beans with bacon and onion. Add half a sliced onion to the bacon fat before the beans go in.
• With brown sugar. A tablespoon stirred in at the end gives you a sweet-salty glaze.
• With almonds. Toast a handful of sliced almonds in the pan.
• With potatoes. Add small parboiled potatoes along with the beans for a one-pan side.
• Canned green beans. Drain and rinse well, skip the parboil, and go straight into the bacon fat for 3 to 4 minutes.

Storing and Reheating

Leftovers should be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Reheat them in a skillet instead of the microwave. A minute over medium heat brings the bacon fat back and keeps the beans from going limp.

They're good cold too. Add chicken or another protein, and you've got a green bean salad for lunch the next day.

More Ways to Use Bacon

• Bacon and Egg Cups
• Gluten Free Breakfast Casserole with Maple Bacon
• Creamy Chicken and Corn Soup with Bacon
• Brown Sugar Bacon

Precooked bacon is good on a quick school-day breakfast, in pancakes or waffles, on a sandwich, in a salad, with roasted veggies, on rice or quinoa, in soup, or on a pizza.