Quick Look at Green Beans With Bacon
- Ready In: 25 minutes
- Serves: 6
- Main Ingredients: Thick-cut bacon, green beans, garlic, lemon zest, and seasonings.
- Dietary Info: Gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo, and whole30 compliant.
- Why You’ll Love It: The green beans cook in reserved bacon grease for extra savory flavor, while a little lemon zest adds brightness. It’s an easy way to make a simple side dish feel special!
Share and summarize this recipe:
Why You’ll Be Serving Green Beans with Bacon
at your Next Holiday Dinner
- Easy: This is one of my favorite holiday side dishes because it requires minimal prep and a handful of kitchen staples. That means more time to focus on other holiday favorites like grilled turkey and our popular dairy-free pumpkin pie.
- One Skillet: Everything cooks in our trusty cast iron skillet, giving the green beans and bacon a nice sear and making clean-up a breeze!
- Simple Ingredients: This recipe is proof that a recipe with fresh ingredients and the right amount of seasonings can hold their own against ones that take hours in the kitchen.
Key Ingredients & Substitutions
Be sure to see the recipe card below for a full listing of ingredients, instructions, and estimated nutritional information.
- Green Beans: We used string beans in this recipe as they’re the most common green bean at our local grocery store. If you’re using haricots verts, which are thinner and more tender than your standard green bean, decrease your cooking time by about 4 minutes or until the beans reach your desired tenderness.
- Bacon: We really wanted the bacon to pop in this recipe, so we opted for a thick-cut variety, which helps make this dish feel even more decadent. You can use regular-cut, but decrease the cook time by about 2 minutes.
- Lemon Zest: You wouldn’t think that a little bit of lemon zest would do much, but it adds so much brightness and the right amount of acid to make this one really shine.
How To Make Green Beans with Bacon
Step 1– Cut thick-cut bacon into bite-sized pieces and place in a hot cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.
Step 2 – Cook the bacon for 5–6 minutes or until fully cooked. Remove the bacon and place it on a paper towel-lined plate, leaving 2 tablespoons of bacon grease in the skillet.
Why Cast Iron?
After years of cooking, I’ve noticed that my cast-iron skillet provides the best sear on vegetables, chicken thighs, pork chops, and turkey meatballs to name a few. This is because cast-iron has the unique ability to hold heat, which helps protein and veggies quickly sear rather than steam like some other skillets.
Step 3 – Add the garlic to the skillet at medium heat, with the 2 Tbs of bacon grease, moving the garlic around the pan for 30 seconds.
Step 5 – Turn heat up to medium-high heat and add the green beans and let them cook for 8-10 minutes, tossing every few minutes.
Step 6 – Add the bacon back into the skillet along with lemon zest and crushed red pepper flakes.
Step 7 – Season with salt and pepper and enjoy!
What To Serve with Green Beans and Bacon
This recipe is definitely on the lighter side compared to some other classic side dishes, so feel free to pair it with a hearty main dish like our cast iron flank steak, dutch oven whole chicken, or smoked pork belly. And you can’t go wrong serving this at Thanksgiving dinner alongside any of our other spectacular side dish recipes.
What We Learned Testing this Recipe
- Enjoy Immediately – These green beans are best served right out of the skillet. If you’re making them for a holiday dinner, plan to cook them about 30 minutes before it’s time to eat.
- Bacon Grease – During our first test, we drained all the bacon grease and used butter to cook the green beans. The flavor was missing something, so we used bacon grease in our second test, and the difference was noticeable! The green beans had a much richer, more savory flavor.
- Lemon Zest – In our first test, we felt like this dish needed to be brightened up ever so slightly. And just a sprinkling of lemon zest did the trick! Let this be your sign to get a microplane for zesting!
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 slices thick cut bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
- 1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional (more to taste)
- kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Cook Bacon: Bring a large cast iron skillet to medium-high heat. Add bacon and move around pan until fully cooked, approx. 5-6 minutes (total cook time will depend how crispy or not you prefer your bacon). Remove with slotted spoon and place on a paper-towel lined plate; set aside. Leave approx. 2 tablespoons of bacon grease in the pan and discard the rest.
- Cook Green Beans: Setting the same skillet to medium heat, add 2 teaspoons garlic and move around pan until fragrant. Increase heat to medium-high and add 1 pound fresh green beans. Let green beans cook approx. 8-10 minutes *or until they have reached your desired firmness* tossing them quite often. Test along the way as some people prefer a more crisp green bean, while others like them quite soft – taste and continue cooking and moving around the pan until they reach this point.
- Combine + Taste: Add 1 teaspoon lemon zest, ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (if using) and the bacon. Toss to combine. Taste and add kosher salt and/or ground black pepper, as desired.
- Serve: Enjoy right away!
Notes
- Storage: store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Liz Sipley says
What a nice change to have an easy AND delicious holiday side dish recipe! Thank you!