Fresh green beans, blanched, tossed with bacon and onion, then baked in a brown sugar sauce.
Unbundled Green Beans
No doubt at some point you have seen or made bacon wrapped green bean or asparagus bundles. Marinated with either a brown sugar sauce or a seasoned olive oil vinaigrette, then wrapped in bacon and broiled, baked or grilled, they are indeed delicious, but pretty time intensive to make. This recipe gives you the flavor, in a casserole form, without so much work.A form of this recipe has gotten a lot of attention across the web as "crack green beans." For the record, I hate referencing foods as crack in any way, but when something grows a following with that name, it means simply that it's so good that it's practically addictive. It is what it is I guess.
As always, you'll find the full recipe text with exact measurements, instructions and a pdf printable document further down the page. Just swipe or scroll past the step by step pictures.
Here's how to make them!
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Fill a large bowl with cold water and ice; set aside.
Trim beans. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add 1 teaspoon of salt and bring back up to a boil, add beans and boil for one minute. Drain and immediately transfer the beans to the ice water bath to stop the cooking process and to retain the pretty green color. Leave in the water bath until fully cooled; drain, pat dry and transfer to a 2-1/2-to-3-quart baking dish (I'm using an 11 x 7-inch dish pictured). Add 1/2 tablespoon of butter to a large skillet and cook onion until softened. Transfer onion and butter to casserole dish with green beans.
I love using my oven style air fryer {affil link} to cook several slices of bacon, but I usually use my regular oven when I need to do an entire package because the air fryer requires adjusting the shelves, throughout and that can be messy with bacon drippings! You can certainly also simply pan fry the bacon.
To bake, spread bacon on a foil lined rimmed baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, or until cooked through, but not quite crisp. Remove from pan and roughly chop, reserving drippings and setting aside two tablespoons of the chopped bacon for garnish. Pour drippings over the green beans. Reduce oven to 350 degrees F.
While bacon is cooking, prepare the sauce.
Melt remaining butter in skillet and add brown sugar, soy sauce, Cajun seasoning, chili powder, garlic salt and pepper. Pour over green beans, toss, taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes, or until bubbly and fully heated through. Toss again and garnish with reserved chopped bacon before serving.
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