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!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!?!
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!

- 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
-
To begin preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Then trim the green beans & slice the mushrooms.
-
Bring a pot of water + 3 tsp salt to a boil. When water is ready, add green beans. Blanch for 5 minutes.
-
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.
-
Into a large skillet, melt 2 tbsp of butter over medium heat.
-
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.
-
Add chicken broth to skillet and allow to simmer for 2 minutes.
-
Finally add cream of mushroom to the skillet and simmer for 5 minutes.
-
When sauce is ready, add in your green beans. Stir all ingredients together.
-
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.
-
Bake casserole in oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the foil and allow casserole to continue cooking for 5 more minutes.
-
When dish is finished cooking, remove from oven. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, serve & enjoy!
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.