Green Beans with Bacon

4 servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
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Green Beans with Bacon are crisp, savory, and full of flavor, making an easy side dish that’s ready in under 15 minutes. Try making it today!

It’s super easy to make the perfect Vegetable Side Dish with green bean recipes, and in this kitchen, I love making Roasted Green Beans and Green Bean Casserole for the holidays!

long slender green veggies with cooked bacon in skillet

Sabrina’s Green Beans with Bacon Recipe

Green Beans with Bacon is the perfect vegetable to serve as a holiday side dish. This recipe is savory, salty, and crispy all in one. I always start with really fresh green beans, because this dish is all about that crisp-tender crunch you get from the beans. It’s my go-to when I have to feed a large crowd in a short amount of time.

Recipe Card

Green Beans with Bacon Recipe

Green Beans with Bacon are crisp, savory, and full of flavor, making an easy side dish that's ready in under 15 minutes. Try making it today!
Yield 4 servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 pound green beans
  • 4 bacon strips , diced
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 cup water , for boiling

Instructions

  • In a large skillet add ¼ cup water and the green beans on high heat and bring to a boil, cooking for 3 minutes.
  • Remove green beans and water, wiping dry with paper towels and add in the bacon, cooking until crisp before adding in the green beans and tossing with bacon and pepper.

Notes

Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.

Nutrition

Calories: 73kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 142mg | Potassium: 280mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 786IU | Vitamin C: 14mg | Calcium: 44mg | Iron: 1mg

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Sabrina’s Tip

I like trimming the ends of my green beans before cooking to remove the tough, fibrous texture. For extra flavor, I sometimes add garlic, onions, or a squeeze of lemon while cooking the bacon, and I can easily swap in pancetta or frozen green beans for a quick side dish!

About this Recipe

The bacon fat takes this side dish recipe to a whole new level. You can use a tablespoon of olive oil if you don’t want to use the bacon fat, but the flavor is going to change. I get asked time and time again for this side dish recipe, because of how good it is. As far as green bean recipes go, this is hands down my favorite one.

Pairing Suggestions

This vegetable recipe is perfect to serve with your favorite holiday dishes, like Scalloped Potatoes, Roasted Turkey Breast, Ultimate Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes, and Perfect Garlic Prime Rib.

Frequent Questions

How do you season green beans with bacon?

I don’t add extra salt or oil since the bacon provides plenty of flavorful drippings. For even more flavor, cook a little garlic, onion, or brown sugar with the bacon. Also, I don’t use precooked bacon so that the green beans can cook in bacon grease.

How to blanche green beans?

Blanche the fresh green beans in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then immediately transfer them to an ice bath to stop the cooking! Once drained, toss them in with the bacon until heated through for perfectly tender-crisp green beans every time.

How do you know if your green beans are fresh?

You can tell if you have fresh green beans by holding the bean and feeling the texture. If your beans bend without snapping, or the bean feels too soft or turns color, they are old and not the best choice for this recipe.

Delicious Vegetable Sides

pinterest collage of green veggies with bacon

These photos were in a previous version of this post:

Green beans in a skillet with bacon
green beans in a pan

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. My son would eat bacon with every meal if I’d let him. This is a great way to get him to eat green beans!