Southern-Style Green Beans are cooked long and slow until melt in your mouth tender. Flavored with lots of bacon.
I’m always in for a home-cooked southern vegetable. A whole plate of them is best. There’s rarely a time I can resist a veggie plate at a restaurant. Especially if said plate includes Southern-Style Green Beans, slow cooked in a bacon-infused broth until tender and soft.
I know it is fashionable to serve green beans barely cooked so they still have some crunch to them and retain they’re bright green color. Admittingly, the color of Southern-Style Green Beans isn’t nearly as appealing as that of fresh green beans.
But cook green beans low and slow in a broth flavored with bacon, and you’ll go back for seconds and thirds. They’re so good, you’d be content to eat a big plate of green beans for a meal.
During the cooking process, they soak up an amazing amount of flavor from bacon grease, chicken broth, seasoned salt, and garlic powder. I start by cooking some diced bacon in a large pot. I then set the bacon aside, but leave all the grease in the pan. You can leave the bacon in the pot to cook with the beans, but it will get a soggy texture. But the up side is the beans will have even more bacony flavor. In this case, I’ve added the cooked bacon back once I’ve drained the beans, but sometimes I just leave it in the pot for the cooking process.
Many times a ham hock is used instead of bacon, or in addition to bacon. Traditionally, fat back (solid fat from a pig’s back) was a very popular choice for cooking green beans in the South and if you can get your hands on some good fatback, it is amazing. But good fatback is very hard to find these days. Pigs raised for the mass market are bred to be on the lean side and they are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, which can really build up in a pig’s fat.
You want to cook Southern-Style Green Beans for at least an hour, preferably closer to 2 hours. You want them to get really soft, but not mushy, so that they are melt in your mouth tender. Just before serving, you can mix in a tablespoon or so of butter to give the green beans some a buttery coating.
This is one vegetable no one will complain about eating.
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Southern-Style Green Beans
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon,,, diced
- 2 pounds green beans, ends snapped off and longer beans snapped in half
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon butter,, optional
Instructions
- Brown and crisp bacon in a large pot. Remove bacon from pot and reserve.
- Add green beans to pot along with all remaining ingredients, except butter.
- Bring to a boil and then turn heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Drain beans and add butter if using. Check beans for seasoning and add extra salt and pepper to taste. I like lots of black pepper. Sprinkle with bacon and toss to distribute the bacon and butter.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I was wondering about using frozen green beans rather than fresh. How would the cooking time change? Thank you.
People are still trying your recipe in 2017 and loving the result. I had some neck bones on hand because I am going to do some greens on Friday so I tossed one into my pot of beans.
Gaylord Mays
Your post brought ssmile to my face. My grandma cooked with neck bones alot. Beans, cabbage soups and most anyrhing with a broth. She was a sweet Christian woman and the best granddma ever. My min learned to cook from her and i learned from them both. Thanks for bringing back some great meemories
Love the smell wow amazing cooking well done. Made it for a get together and everyone loved it. Would not change a thing. Thank you for posting.
Forget every other Green Bean Recipe! This one is SIMPLY THE BEST!!! Easy and Delicious. I make them ahead of time and put them in a casserole dish. Great for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter….etc.
Although the chicken broth is an option, I would rather use the bacon drippings and add a little sweet butter, diced onion and fresh garlic ( powder is okay) to the mix. To me that is southern eating…lol . Cooking slow will allow all the flavors to incorporate into the beans. To those who think its a large recipe …Eat them for breakfast…lol its what I do, or better yet..>Freeze them until you need them again. Now understand the bacon will not have that crisp…but good no matter what.
Optional:
Himalayan Salt ( when using HS only use a small bit…it goes a long way)
Cracked Pepper ( you can taste the difference between the can (nothing wrong with ) and freshly grounded
Garlic ( I happen to love love garlic..but its not for everyone, use gingerly – 1 to 2 small cloves should be okay depending on the amount of beans you are cooking
Lemon Pepper
PS….If you have not heard…EVERYTHING GOES BETTER WITH BACON…hehe
I made this today followed every step turned out tasty! Ill have to show my mom my new skills..
What would be the best way to cut this in half? There are only 2 people in my house that will eat green beans but I’m desperate to find a way to fix them something new and yummy. Any input would be great thank you.
Cut the recipe in half.
You can always freeze the other half for later…right?
Could you do this recipe in a crockpot? If so how long would it take on low?
Yes, you can make them in the crock pot. I would cook on LOW for 7-8 hours.
Cook the bacon first or add in raw?
Quick question do you leave the bacon grease from the 4 pieces of bacon in the pot or do you use a clean pot? Thanks! These look delicious.
Alie…I like using the bacon drippings. You can always cut any additional oils ( butter) down . I like the flavor the drippings give the green beans. I also add onion and fresh garlic yummy
I love the idea of using chicken broth! Definitely going to be trying this recipe soon! Green beans and bacon are a match made in heaven.
Hope you love it Allie! The broth really gives the beans extra flavor!