This Instant Pot Southern Green Beans Recipe turns garden fresh green beans into a tender, smokey, bacon-flavored side dish in just minutes. This southern side adds flavor to any meal.
Usually you need close to an hour of simmering to get that mouth-watering southern green bean flavor. But not with the Instant Pot. Just 7 minutes!
I love the convenience of being able to saute and pressure cook right in the Instant Pot. And you just can’t beat how quickly you can get supper on the table using one.
As a bonus, for all you low carbers, these Instant Pot Southern Green Beans are low carb and keto-friendly.
To make these pressure cooked southern green beans I use bacon, onion, chicken broth, seasoned salt, garlic powder, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, and butter. It’s not a ton of ingredients but so much flavor gets infused into these green beans.
Tips for making Instant Pot Southern Green Beans:
- When sauteing in the Instant Pot, be sure to let the pot get hot before adding the bacon. This will help prevent sticking.
- I like my southern green beans to be very tender. If you want your green beans to still be a little crisp, only pressure cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
- I like to cut the green beans, especially the larger ones in half so they are easier to eat.
Check out these other ways to make green beans:

Instant Pot Southern Green Beans
Equipment
- 6-Quart Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon, chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed and cut in half
- 3/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot on SAUTE mode. When hot, coat inner pot with cooking spray and add bacon. Cook until bacon is crisp.
- Add onion and cook 1 more minute.
- Hit "Cancel" and add chicken broth. Scrape up any browned bits on the bottom.
- Add remaining ingredients. Place lid on Instant Pot and set to Pressure Cook for 7 minutes. Let pot do a Natural Release for 10 minutes. Then open valve to let out any remaining pressure. Remove the lid when the pin drops.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
These are delicious & easy. I doubled the recipe & pressure cooked for 10 minutes. They turned out perfect! Wouldn’t change a thing about this recipe.
These sound delicious. I’d like to make them on Thanksgiving. Do you know if I can double the recipe? Would that change the cook time?
Can you use prebaked ham instead of bacon and if so, would any of the instructions change?
How long should I cool if using frozen beans?
We enjoyed this recipe very much!
I’ve always cooked green beans the regular way in the Instant Pot, but I tried this recipe for a family gathering. It was a hit! So delicious. I won’t make them any other way.
Loved these beans. I had a small bunch of kale, which I tossed in. Delicious
The flavor and texture was just right. I’d used the plain instructions for cooking green beans before and it turned out bland and too crunchy. Some of my green beans were overripe so they were stringy. I’ll need to monitor their ripening better.
This was wonderful ❤️ everyone really loved this and it took less time than cooking on the stove. “Fresh beans from the garden”. Hoot-hoot – I will definitely cook this again.
I’ve been making (and loving) this recipe on the stovetop for years. Doing so with the Instant Pot produces the same great result in much less time. Way to go!!
This is awesome. Fresh beans out of garden. Faaaavorite.
I’ve used the Southern-Style Green Beans Recipe (on this site) for several years — it’s just like the smothered green beans I grew up eating.
Any ideas for adapting this Instant Pot recipe for canned, not fresh green beans? Drain the liquid? Cook much less time? It would save me several hours cooking on holidays as well as freeing up place on the stove. Thanks!
I made this recipe recently & it tasted wonderful! It sure did beat cooking them for over an hour & the flavor was better! This is a keeper, thank you!