Say goodbye to boring green beans, these Sautéed Green Beans are bursting with rich, earthy favors you’ll crave! Sautéed with crisp bacon and tender baby portobello mushrooms and topped with crunchy fried onions, these rock star green beans also make a great green bean casserole substitute!
This is a “stop dead in your tracks,” “I think I’ll have another helping” green bean recipe! I hope you and family enjoy!
A good green bean recipe is an absolute staple for the family table. But if you think bland, lifeless or just something to round out the meal when you hear green beans, then you’ve never had my Southern Green Beans & New Potatoes and you’ve certainly not whipped up these easy sautéed green beans.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- This recipe has all the goodness of a green bean casserole without any canned soup, cream or flour. So it’s a great scaled down option you can make any night of the week!
- It’s as pretty as it is tasty, so get ready to seriously elevate your vegetable side dish game!
- Because they’re sautéed, the green beans retain their color, firm texture and loads of real FLAVOR. No mushy vegetables here!
- This recipe is made in 4 easy steps, all in the same skillet, with the ingredients cooked in broth and bacon drippings to build flavor.
- The house smells amazing while you’re cooking this!
Recipe Ingredients & Overview
I’ll walk through an overview of ingredients & steps in these next sections along with helpful tips!
Look for specifics at the end of the post in the recipe card.
- fresh green beans
- thick sliced bacon
- baby portobello mushrooms
- chicken broth
- minced garlic
- dried minced onion
- salt & pepper
- crispy fried onion strips
RECIPE SUBSTITUTIONS: If you can’t find baby portobello mushrooms in your grocery story, then white button mushrooms will work just fine!
How To Make The Best Sautéed Green Beans
Cook the bacon. Chop bacon into large pieces before cooking. Cook bacon pieces and set them aside.
Sauté the beans. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease. Place skillet with reserved tablespoon bacon grease back on the stovetop over medium heat. Add ¼ C of the chicken broth. Stir. Add green beans. Toss beans to coat. Cover and simmer until beans are bright green and fork tender.
Remove beans from skillet, put into a medium bowl and set aside. Keep broth mixture in the skillet.
Cook the mushrooms. Add the rest of the chicken broth to the skillet with garlic and onion flakes. Stir while garlic browns. Add sliced mushrooms. Toss mushrooms in skillet to coat. Cook 2-3 minutes while mushrooms reduce.
When mushrooms begin to shrink, remove the skillet from the stovetop.
Add It All Together. Add beans and bacon back to the hot skillet. Add salt and pepper. Toss to coat the beans. Garnish with fried onion strips, if desired. And serve!
Cook’s Secret
Chopping the bacon before it’s cooked is an easy way to get nice uniform bacon pieces in the size you want for any recipe. Use a slotted skimmer spoon to easily remove those bacon pieces from the skilet.
Making These Green Beans Ahead of Time
To make these green beans ahead of time, I would suggest making the bacon a day or two before. It’s the component of the dish that takes the longest. Save your bacon grease, slice the mushrooms and when you’re ready to make your dish, start with Step 2 on the recipe card.
Reheating Leftovers
Individual servings can easily be reheated in the microwave. Be careful not shrivel the mushrooms to nothing! Or you can heat all of the leftovers at once by warming them in a skillet while stirring occasionally.
More Vegetable Side Dishes To Love
- Garlic Honey Glazed Carrots
- Skillet Fried Cabbage and Bacon
- Slow Cooker Black Eyed Peas & Ham
- Skillet Roasted Lemon Asparagus
- Parmesan Brussel Sprouts with Bacon
Sauteed Green Beans with Bacon & Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 12-16 oz fresh green beans washed and clean
- 12 oz thick sliced bacon
- 5-6 large baby bella mushroom caps
- ½ C chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon bacon grease from cooked bacon
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon onion flakes
- ½ tsp each salt & pepper
Garnish
- fried onion strips
Instructions
- Chop bacon into large pieces before cooking. Cook bacon pieces. Set aside.
- Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease. Place skillet with reserved tablespoon bacon grease on stove top over medium heat. Add ¼ C of the chicken broth. Stir. Add green beans. Toss beans to coat. Cover and simmer until beans are bright green and fork tender.
- Remove beans from skillet, put into a medium bowl and set aside. Keep broth mixture in the skillet.
- Add the rest of the chicken broth to the skillet with garlic and onion flakes. Stir while garlic browns. Add sliced mushrooms. Toss mushrooms in skillet to coat. Cook 2-3 minutes while mushrooms reduce.
- When mushrooms begin to shrink, remove from the stovetop. Add beans and bacon back to hot skillet. Add salt and pepper. Toss to coat beans.
- Garnish with fried onion strips, if desired. Serve!
Nutrition
Stacy, This is one of my all-time favorite ways to cook green beans. The only thing I do differently is to give the beans a light sprinkle of Cajun seasoning; like Slap Ya’ Mama. I got turned onto to that stuff several years ago. I’d put that stuff on my Wheaties. Won’t find stuff like that in the kitchens of NYC. Thank you. God bless.
Hi, Chris!
Can’t go wrong with some good Cajun seasoning! I will have to try that (but not on my Wheaties- I’ll draw the line there! Ha!).
I made this last night with just a tiny adjustment using less bacon. Delicious!! I told my husband I used less bacon and he says, Why??? I highly recommend this dish.
Hi, Lois! I love it! This is such a great story. (I am with your husband- haha! But I am so GLAD you made it work!)