Easy Green Bean Casserole Recipe

Hey, I’m John Canel and today on Preppy Kitchen, we’re making a delicious classic green bean casserole. So, let’s get started. I filled a large pot with water. It’s well salted over high heat and coming to a boil. I also have a big bowl here with ice water so I can drop those green beans in and stop them from overcooking. Now, grab one lb of green beans. If they’re frozen, you can use them as is. If they’re fresh, we need to trim them. I also have my oven preheating to 350 right now. This recipe comes together so quickly, but the nice thing is that you can make it in advance, have it hanging out in your fridge and then bake it off when people come over. When Thanksgiving rolls around, all of my side dishes are prepped and made at least a day in advance. That way, I can just bake them off when people come over, and I don’t have to stress out.

Grab a handful, level them out so all the ends are the same distance, and give them a cut. My green beans are trimmed. My water has come to a boil. These are going to go in for two to three minutes until they’re tender and a brilliant green color. All right, green beans in. And now just two to three minutes. You want them to become more tender and bright green, but they will finish baking in the oven once they’re bright green. And you can go ahead and give these a little taste test to see if they’re tender. Straight into an ice bath. You do not want these to overcook. They’ll lose their color and become like soggy. My green beans are going to hang out in that ice bath for 2 minutes just to calm down.

Mixing the Casserole

In a large bowl, I’m going to combine 1/4 cup of milk, one 10 and 1/2 ounce container of cream of mushroom soup. This is the classic way to do it. If you’re anti-mushroom, you can sub it out for a cream of chicken or cream of celery soup. And if you love mushrooms like I do, you could grab a container of sliced mushrooms, sauté them up with a little bit of butter and salt and pepper, and then mix those in. Delicious. I’m also adding 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 3/4 of a teaspoon of black pepper. Stir this together. That’s all done. We can drain our green beans. And we’re going to pop those right in. All the green beans are now in. So, we can mix this together. Stir together until evenly coated. This looks great.

Assembly & Baking

I’m going to grab a 1 and 1/2q casserole dish. But I want to mention there are so many things you could add to this. Sprinkling of fresh herbs like some sage or thyme would be lovely. You could add some cheese in here for added richness. Like a cup of pepperjack, cheddar, fontina. Really, it’s up to you. Or sprinkle cheese on top. And in my house when we make this, I love adding about half a cup of sliced toasted almonds. You could also use walnuts, though. Transfer your coated green beans to your casserole dish. And then just give this a nice tamp down so it’s even. This is one of the easiest recipes you could make. And I want to point out, you could double, triple, quadruple it so easily. You could make one or two to serve now and one or two to freeze for later. It’s really a very forgiving recipe.

My casserole, which is not finished, is ready to go into the oven 350 for about half an hour until the edges are bubbling. Then we’ll finish it up. After half an hour of baking, we’re going to give these guys a stir just so they’re, you know, evenly warmed up. And of course, we are going to top with about 3/4 of a cup of crispy fried onions. How else could you enjoy this without the onions? Classic. This green bean casserole will last for up to 5 days in the fridge, although it will not last that long because you’ll be eating it quickly. You could also make it in advance, freeze it without the topping, then allow to thaw, and then add the topping and bake. Once topped, you’ll continue baking for about five more minutes or until the onions are nice and brown. And just like that, your green bean casserole is ready to enjoy. Crunchy, creamy, delicious, and just as you’d expect it. I hope you get a chance to make this classic side dish.