“Halfway Homemade” Green Bean Casserole

My most memorable meal is every Thanksgiving. I love the food: the turkey and the stuffing; the sweet potatoes and rice, which comes from my mother’s Southern heritage; the mashed potatoes, which comes from my wife’s Midwestern roots; the Campbell’s green bean casserole; and of course, pumpkin pie.

-Douglas Conant

There is little I love in this world more than green bean casserole. I have never fully understood why people only make this dish for holidays? Why not all year round?

Regardless, it is my FAVORITE! I could literally eat an entire large casserole sized dish of it by myself if it was left unattended during a holiday meal. Thankfully I fall asleep from too much turkey before I can do that.

Last year my little sister made a future Thanksgiving request, she asked me to use fresh green beans in the casserole. Apparently girlfriend is too fancy for the canned french style green beans I love (just kidding) but I like a good challenge this year I gave it a try.

Let me just first say, Avery you knocked it out of the park with this idea. I thought for sure fresh green beans would be a pain to prep & wouldn’t taste as good but I was so wrong! This casserole is easily the best version I have ever made!

I call this dish my “Halfway Homemade” Green Bean Casserole because 80% of the meal is made from scratch but you really can’t beat Campbell’s cream of mushroom & ain’t nobody got time to fry their own onions!Half-Way Homemade Green Bean Casserole

Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

How to add a new level of freshness to your Green Bean Casserole:

As mentioned above, the #1 reason I didn’t want to change my casserole recipe is because fresh green beans seemed like a painful task to prep…I’m not sure if you ever helped your grandmother snap pounds of fresh beans before, but believe me, it will give you nightmares.

Thankfully I found the save-all when it comes to getting fresh green beans…Trader Joes Haricot Verts aka fancy snap beans. All you have to do is snap them in half, cut the ends & voila fresh beans!


Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

To make this dish you need to preheat your oven to 375 degrees & bring a salted pot of water to a boil.

Next, melt butter and sauté your slice mushrooms until begin to brown. Add garlic, onion powder, salt & pepper into the skillet and cook for 1 minute before adding in a splash of chicken stock/broth.

Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

How to blanch fresh green beans:

Let’s talk about blanching. This is essentially a fancy term to mean you flash cook your beans & then shock them with cold water to stop the cooking almost as quickly as you started.

To do this, you will boil your green beans in a pot of boiling water until they turn bright green (between 2-5 minutes). Then immediately drain the beans & place them into a bowl filled with ice water. This will stop the cooking process so the beans will be ready to eat!

Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

After you blanch your beans & you give your mushroom broth combination a few minutes to simmer, add 1 can of cream of mushroom soup to the skillet. Stir all ingredients together and simmer for 5 minutes.

Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

When your “sauce” is ready, add in your freshly blanched green beans. Coat your beans & then transfer them to an oven safe casserole dish/skillet.

Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

Top your dish/skillet with fried onions. Cover the dish with foil & place in oven. Cook your green bean casserole for 15 minutes until bubbly.

Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

Do you like your fried onions crispy?

If you like your onions extra crispy like I do, remove foil in the last 5 minutes of baking. This allows for your onions to crisp up without burning!

Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

Fresh vegetables + an entire can of cream of mushroom + pre-made fried onions = the greatest “Halfway Homemade” Green Bean Casserole dish ever, am I right!?!

Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

Halfway Homemade Green Bean Casserole

This dish is sure to be a huge hit at any Friendgiving/Thanksgiving gathering you bring it too. It is just fancy enough to impress your friends and family without loosing the classic green bean casserole taste that you love.

ENJOY!

 

 

 

5 from 3 votes
"Halfway Homemade" Green Bean Casserole
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
30 mins
 
Course: Side Dish
Author: laurel
Ingredients
  • 16 oz fresh green beans, washed and trimmed
  • oz cream of mushroom
  • 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/4 cup fried onions
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1.5 tbsp chicken stock or broth
  • 4 tsp salt, divided
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
Instructions
  1. To begin preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Then trim the green beans & slice the mushrooms.

  2. Bring a pot of water + 3 tsp salt to a boil.  When water is ready, add green beans. Blanch for 5 minutes.

  3. Immediately drain beans when done & place them into bowl filled with ice water. Allow to cool for 5 minutes then drain and set aside until needed.

  4. Into a large skillet, melt 2 tbsp of butter over medium heat. 

  5. Next add mushrooms and sauté for 3-4 minutes until begin to brown. Add garlic, onion powder, salt & pepper. Continue cooking for 1 minute until fragrant. 

  6. Add chicken broth to skillet and allow to simmer for 2 minutes. 

  7. Finally add cream of mushroom to the skillet and simmer for 5 minutes.

  8. When sauce is ready, add in your green beans. Stir all ingredients together.

  9. If using an oven safe skillet: sprinkle fried onions over top and cover dish with foil. 

    If using a separate dish: place casserole ingredients inside the dish, sprinkle fried onions over top and cover dish with foil.

  10. Bake casserole in oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the foil and allow casserole to continue cooking for 5 more minutes.  

  11. When dish is finished cooking, remove from oven. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, serve & enjoy!

 

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Recipe Rating




  • 5 stars
    This chicken looks so beautifully succulent and flavourful, and coriander and lime is such a great flavour combination. Love your suggestion for turning this into a salad to. Yum.