Green Bean Casserole with Bacon + Brown Sugar Glaze

Green Bean Casserole with Bacon is a delicious holiday side dish of fresh green beans and crispy bacon in a sweet-and-savory brown sugar glaze. Green beans with bacon are perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or to make an everyday dinner special!

If you enjoy side dishes boasting bacon, you'll also love Brussels Sprouts Gratin, Ultimate Cornbread Casserole, and Creamy Peas with Bacon + Mint!

Get ready, y'all...holiday menu-planning season is upon us! And one of the sides I most look forward to each Thanksgiving and Christmas is this Green Bean Casserole with Bacon!

This recipe was the happy outcome when a certain someone wanted to put a green bean side dish on her Thanksgiving table, but some family members weren't yet huge fans of traditional Green Bean Casserole. And that same someone was looking for a shortcut to the Bacon Green Bean Bundles with Brown Sugar Glaze that she typically made for holiday meals.

In case you're wondering, someone was me. And when plans suddenly changed a few years ago and I found myself preparing an entire Thanksgiving feast all by my lonesome (on rather short notice), I wanted to keep our traditional favorites on the menu but cut corners wherever possible. That's when I decided to adapt my beloved, bacon-tied green bean bundles into an easy-peasy rendition instead...Green Bean Casserole with Bacon!

Ingredients

The star ingredients in these easy, sweet-and-savory green beans with bacon are the same as their more labor-intensive green bean bundle cousins:

• Fresh green beans. Cleaned and trimmed. You could use frozen or canned green beans here if you insist, but I just think fresh green beans makes this dish so much better.
• Bacon. I prefer roasting my bacon in the oven, but you may cook it using your favorite method.
• Butter. Salted or unsalted will work.
• Brown sugar. Light or dark will work.
• Soy sauce. I typically use low-sodium soy sauce to have more control over the saltiness of the dish.
• Garlic powder + freshly ground black pepper. For seasoning.

How to Make Green Bean Casserole with Bacon

Making green beans with bacon requires just a few simple steps!

1. Cook the bacon using your favorite method. I like to arrange slices in a single layer on a foil-lined pan (with or without an oven-safe metal rack), then cook at 400°F until crispy (which usually takes 15 to 20 minutes). Drain, chop, and set aside.

2. Clean and trim your fresh green beans.
3. Bring a large pot of salted water or chicken broth to a boil. Add the green beans and simmer for 15 minutes.

4. Drain and transfer the green beans to a baking dish.
5. Sprinkle your chopped bacon over the green beans in the baking dish. 

6. Melt the butter in a small saucepan on the stove (or in a glass measuring cup in the microwave). Stir in the brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic powder, and pepper until well combined.

7. Pour the sauce over the green beans and bacon in the baking dish and toss until all of the ingredients are coated. 

8. Bake your Green Bean Casserole with Bacon for about 30 minutes or until tender and heated through. Stir well, serve hot, and enjoy!

Make-Ahead Green Beans with Bacon

You may certainly make this Green Bean Casserole with Bacon on the same day that you're going to be enjoying it. But since I typically make it as a side dish on cooking-intensive holidays, I like to prep it ahead of time and then simply bake it off on the big day:

1. A day or two before dinner, boil a couple pounds of fresh green beans.
2. Simultaneously cook the bacon. Drain the grease and chop.
3. Combine the green beans and bacon in your desired casserole dish, tightly cover, and refrigerate.
4. Heat and stir together the simple, savory-sweet glaze. Cover and refrigerate.
5. The next day, pull the casserole dish out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature. Reheat the sauce in the microwave (to melt the butter), stir, and pour over the green beans and bacon.
6. Give everything a good stir and pop your green beans with bacon into a preheated oven to bake as directed. It's even okay if it has to share space with a variety of other side dishes!

Half an hour later, it'll be time to dig in. 🙂

Helpful Tips, Tricks, & Equipment

• By following the cooking times in the recipe, the green beans in this casserole will turn out very soft and tender. For green beans that have a slight bite and a brighter green color, boil for only 5 minutes. The green beans will continue to cook during their stint in the oven.
• I've found that boiling the green beans in chicken broth gives them extra flavor. However, since chicken broth is rather expensive to just throw away upon draining the green beans, I like to instead add a big spoonful of Organic Better than Bouillon chicken base to the pot of water in which I cook the green beans.

While I'm all about holiday menu traditions -- making the same recipes each year in hopes that our kids will fondly recreate them for their own families one day -- it's also nice to try new things every so often. And bonus points if one of those new recipes (like this Green Bean Casserole with Bacon years ago!) is so good that it sticks and becomes a part of the family tradition moving forward. 🙂

Everything on our holiday table is scrumptious, but I have to say that these green beans with bacon are always one of the first side dishes to disappear. Nobody can stop at just one serving! So I make this recipe at Thanksgiving, and then I have no qualms making it again the following month for Christmas.

I mean, it only makes sense with those festive shades of red and green, right? 😉

More Holiday Favorites

• Classic Green Bean Casserole from Scratch
• Holiday Honeycrisp Salad
• Thanksgiving Salad
• Cornish Hens with Citrus Glaze
• Slow Cooker Honey Cinnamon Carrots
• Brussels Sprouts Gratin
• Gruyère Scalloped Potatoes
• Cream Cheese Corn Casserole
• Roasted Butternut Squash with Cinnamon + Maple
• EASY + Flaky Butter Pie Crust
• Juicy Slow Cooker Turkey Breast
• Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy
• Old-Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole

Green Bean Casserole with Bacon + Brown Sugar Glaze

Green Bean Casserole with Bacon is a delicious holiday side dish of fresh green beans and crispy bacon in a sweet-and-savory brown sugar glaze. Green beans with bacon are perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or to make an everyday dinner special!

By Samantha Skaggs

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 servings

Calories: 167kcal

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Ingredients

• 2 pounds fresh green beans, cleaned & trimmed
• 8 ounces bacon, cooked until crispy & chopped
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Place rack in center position of oven and preheat to 350°F.
• Bring a large pot of salted water (or chicken broth) to a boil. Add the green beans and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain and transfer to an approximately 2 ½-quart baking dish.
• Sprinkle chopped bacon over the green beans in the baking dish. Melt the butter (in a glass measuring cup in the microwave or in a small saucepan on the stove). Stir in the brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic powder, and pepper until well combined. Pour over the green beans and bacon in the baking dish and toss until all ingredients are coated. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until tender and heated through. Stir well and serve hot.

Notes

• My favorite way to cook bacon is to lay it in a deep, foil-lined baking pan and bake it on the center rack at 400°F for 15 to 20 minutes or until done to your liking.
• By following the cooking times in the recipe, the green beans will turn out very soft and tender. If you prefer green beans that have a slight bite and a brighter green color, boil for only 5 minutes. The green beans will continue to cook during their time in the oven.
• I've found that boiling the green beans in chicken broth or stock gives them extra flavor. However, since the chicken broth gets discarded upon draining the green beans, I add a spoonful of Organic Better than Bouillon chicken base to the pot of water in which I cook the green beans (rather than using cartons of chicken broth).
• MAKE-AHEAD INSTRUCTIONS: Up to two days ahead of time, cook the bacon and boil the green beans as directed. Combine them in the baking dish, cover, and refrigerate. Assemble the sauce in a small glass jar or bowl; cover and refrigerate. When it's time to cook the casserole, remove the baking dish from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature while preheating the oven. Reheat the sauce in the microwave (to melt the butter) and stir well. Pour the sauce over the baking dish of green beans/bacon and toss to combine. Bake as directed.

Nutrition

Calories: 167kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 23mg | Sodium: 352mg | Potassium: 292mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 920IU | Vitamin C: 14mg | Calcium: 47mg | Iron: 1mg

Made this recipe? I'd love to see on IG!Mention @FiveHeartHome or tag #FiveHeartHome!

Post originally published on December 11, 2017 and updated October 20, 2019, December 4, 2020, and November 15, 2024.