By Show Me Step by StepPublished Updated
Based on a video by Cooking Con Claudia.
Most green bean casserole comes out of two cans and tastes like it. This one does not. Claudia builds the sauce herself - bacon fat, mushrooms, onion, a proper roux, broth and cream, then a pile of grated cheddar - and the beans get blanched separately so they stay green instead of going grey.
It is still a weeknight-simple dish. Nothing here is harder than stirring. The whole thing takes about forty minutes start to finish, most of that hands-off in the oven, which is what you want on a day when the oven is already fighting over shelf space with a turkey.
The crispy fried onions still come from a can. Some traditions are worth keeping.
Fresh wins, and it is not close. Canned beans have already been cooked twice by the time they hit your dish, so they go to mush in the oven and taste of tin. Frozen are a reasonable second: thaw them and pat them dry, then skip the blanching step because they were blanched before freezing.
If you use fresh, blanch and shock. Two minutes in salted boiling water, then straight into ice water. That fixes the colour and stops the cooking dead, which is the whole trick to beans that still have a bit of snap after twenty-five minutes under a cream sauce.
Trim the ends, and cut them into pieces about two inches long so a serving spoon can get through the dish cleanly.
That is what the roux is doing. Butter or bacon fat, flour, then broth and cream whisked in slowly - you have made the soup yourself, and it tastes like mushrooms instead of salt.
If you are standing in the kitchen with no canned soup and no time, a cup of heavy cream plus eight ounces of sauteed mushrooms and a tablespoon of flour gets you to the same place. Season it harder than feels right. The beans and the fried onions will pull it back.
Twenty-five minutes at 350F, uncovered, until the sauce bubbles at the edges and the top has taken a little colour. If the casserole went into the oven cold from the fridge, give it forty and cover it with foil for the first twenty so the onions do not burn.
Hold the fried onions back until the last five minutes. Put them on at the start and they go dark and bitter while the middle is still catching up.
Yes, and this is the reason to make it from scratch on a day with one oven. Build the whole thing through folding in the beans, get it into the baking dish, cover it and refrigerate for up to two days. Add the onions and bake it the day you serve it.
Do not assemble it with the fried onions on top and leave it overnight. They go soft and there is no rescuing them.
It freezes well before baking. Wrap the assembled dish tightly, freeze up to three months, then thaw overnight in the fridge and bake as normal. Freezing after baking works too, but the sauce breaks a little on the way back and the beans lose the last of their bite.
Leftovers reheat best in the oven at 325F, covered, for about twenty minutes. The microwave turns the topping to paste. If the sauce has tightened, stir in a splash of cream or broth before it goes back in.
Canned is fine and we are not going to pretend otherwise. If you want to make them, slice an onion thin on a mandoline, toss the rings in buttermilk then seasoned flour, and fry them in an inch of oil at 350F until they are the colour of a paper bag. Drain on a rack, not on paper, or the bottoms steam.
Salt them the second they come out of the oil. They will hold in an airtight container for two days, which means this is another job you can move off Thursday.
This is one dish of about eight. If you are cooking the whole meal, work backwards from the bird: how to cook a turkey sets your oven schedule, and carving it is the part most people improvise badly.
The sides that travel well ahead of time are stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. Leave the gravy for the last ten minutes, because it wants the drippings. For dessert, pumpkin pie is better made the day before anyway.
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Fill a large pot halfway with water and salt it well. Bring it to a rolling boil, drop in the trimmed green beans and cook them for five minutes. Drain them and set them aside. They finish cooking in the oven later, so you want them bright and still a little firm.
Tip
Salt the water like pasta water. It is the only chance the beans get to season from the inside.
Wipe the pot dry and set it over medium-high heat. Cook the chopped bacon until it is properly crisp, then lift it out and leave about three tablespoons of the rendered fat behind. That fat carries the smoky flavour through the whole sauce.
Tip
Pour off any fat over three tablespoons. Too much and the sauce splits later.
Add the sliced mushrooms and diced onion to the bacon fat. Saute for five minutes, stirring now and then, until the mushrooms give up their water and the onion turns soft and translucent.
Turn the heat down to medium-low and stir in the minced garlic for thirty seconds, just until it smells good. Sprinkle the all-purpose flour over the top, mix it in and let it cook for one full minute. This cooks out the raw flour taste before any liquid goes in.
Tip
One full minute on the flour is not optional. Cut it short and the sauce tastes chalky.
Pour in the chicken broth slowly, whisking the whole time so no lumps form. Keep stirring and let it come together and start to thicken.
Tip
Add the broth in a slow stream. Dumping it in all at once is how you get lumps.
Pour in the heavy cream, still whisking as you go. Season with black pepper and salt, then bring the sauce up to a gentle simmer. By the time it simmers it should coat the back of a spoon.
Turn off the heat and add the shredded medium cheddar. Stir it through the hot sauce until it melts completely and the whole thing goes glossy.
Tip the drained green beans into the pot and fold them through until every bean is coated. Hold the bacon back for now - it goes on top at the end so it stays crisp.
Scrape everything into a baking dish and spread it into a single even layer. Scatter more shredded cheddar over the top, then a generous handful of crispy fried onions. Go heavy on the onions if you like them.
Tip
If nobody in your house minds soggy onions, stir half of them through the filling as well as on top.
Bake at 350F for twenty minutes. Pull it out, scatter the crisp bacon over the top and return it to the oven for five more minutes. Let it rest about fifteen minutes before serving so the sauce sets.
Tip
Fifteen minutes of rest matters. Cut it straight from the oven and the sauce runs off the spoon.
Keep going
How to Make Dinner Rolls
How to Make Green Bean Casserole
How to Make Green Bean Casserole
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Question 1 of 5
Why do the green beans only boil for five minutes?
Quick reference
5 questions, answers, and one-line explanations. Tap to expand.
1.Why do the green beans only boil for five minutes?
Answer: They finish cooking in the oven, so they stay bright and firm
The oven finishes them, so pull them while they still have some snap.
2.How much rendered bacon fat should stay in the pot?
Answer: About three tablespoons, with anything past that poured off
Three tablespoons carries the smoke through; more than that splits the sauce.
3.Why cook the flour for a full minute before any liquid goes in?
Answer: It cooks out the raw flour taste that would leave the sauce chalky
A full minute is what kills the raw flour flavour, so do not cut it short.
4.When does the shredded cheddar go into the sauce?
Answer: Off the heat, stirred through until it melts and goes glossy
Residual heat is enough to melt it, and it will not turn grainy that way.
5.Why does the crisp bacon go on for the last five minutes only?
Answer: It stays crisp instead of softening in the steam off the sauce
Bacon buried in a hot cream sauce goes limp, so it waits until the end.
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