Green bean casserole with cream of chicken soup and bacon

This Bacon Green Bean Casserole is the perfect side dish for your holiday meal! A common side for Thanksgiving and Christmas, this casserole dish is made with fresh green beans, fresh mushrooms, and is made without any cream of mushroom soup!

When it comes to planning your holiday dinner menu, we have your back! Whether you need a classic Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe or you want to try a delicious Vegetable Stuffing for a change! Both are amazingly flavorful. My Candied Yams and Easy Sweet Potato Casserole are both loved that I often have to make each recipe! And check out my Thanksgiving Pies for some dessert help!

Why This Recipe Works

• No cream of mushroom soup. This bacon green bean casserole recipe is without cream of mushroom soup! Instead we use fresh mushrooms, chicken bouillon, spices, and flour for a mush healthier and more flavorful option!
• Perfect for holidays or Sunday dinner. I’m sure you’ve seen a traditional green bean casserole at a family or holiday dinner. It’s a popular holiday menu tradition for Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner! This recipe is by far the best because it uses fresh green beans, fresh mushrooms, and no cream of mushroom soup! Top that with some crispy French fried onions and you have the most amazing homemade green bean casserole!
• Real ingredients. Since we are making a green bean casserole without cream of mushroom soup, with fresh mushrooms and fresh green beans, our flavors are much fresher and the textures are much richer!

Ingredient Notes

• Fresh Green Beans: This fresh green bean casserole with bacon is by far the best green bean casserole with bacon because of the fresh beans. If you don’t have fresh green beans, I would recommend getting the frozen green beans from Costco! Those are cheaper than fresh but still high quality. Last resort should be to use canned beans. If you use canned, just note that there will be a loss of flavor and texture in the beans.
• Bacon: Use what bacon you prefer. You can use thick bacon or thin bacon. I would recommend using raw bacon and not precooked bacon since it produces the bacon grease in the skillet which enhances the flavor in this amazing crispy bacon green bean casserole.
• White Mushrooms: If you don’t like mushrooms and choose to reduce the amount of mushrooms (or omit them entirely), note that the mushrooms will absorb some of the sauce, so the sauce will be thicker. Without the mushrooms, or with less mushrooms, there will be much more sauce in the bacon green bean casserole.
• Flour: Typically you’ll find green bean casserole recipes with cream of mushroom soup. However, we are making green bean casserole without cream of mushroom soup! So, the flour is important because it will help thicken the sauce without the soup.
• French Fried Onions: These are a crispy fried onion that will be used to top the green bean casserole recipe with bacon.

Step-byStep Instructions

1. Blanch the green beans. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook for 5 minutes. Remove, drain, then place the beans in an ice bath for 2-3 minutes. Remove and pat dry.
2. Cook the bacon, onion and mushrooms. Add the bacon to a large skillet over medium heat. Cook until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp (but not over cooked). Add the onion and cook until translucent (about 5 minutes). Add the garlic and mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes.

1. Make the creamy sauce. Transfer the bacon, onion and mushrooms mixture to a large bowl. In the now empty skillet, add the butter and melt (leave any leftover bacon grease). Add the flour and cook for 1 minutes. Gradually pour in the milk while whisking constantly. Add the parmesan reggiano, chicken bouillon, pepper, and salt. Stir and bring to a simmer. Cook the cream sauce until somewhat thickened.
2. Combine. Add the bacon and mushroom mixture and the blanched green beans to the sauce. Mix to coat. Pour the green bean mixture into a baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

1. Bake. Place in a 350°F preheated oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove and top with the crispy fried onions. Return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes minutes. Remove and let sit for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Recipe Tips

I use my kitchen shears to cut the bacon into bite size pieces, I find it to be so much easier than using a knife.

I recommend using raw bacon since you’ll use some of the bacon grease from the pan to make the yummy sauce!

Using fresh green beans will give you the best flavor and texture! You can use frozen green beans if you’d like, just blanch them from frozen (will take a minute ish longer in the boiling water since they were frozen) – note frozen green beans are typically already blanched so this point we are mainly just trying to thaw the beans and get them ready to cook in the oven.

Make Ahead, Storing, and Freezing

For make head, I would just blanch the green beans and chop the onions and mushrooms. You’ll want to cook the bacon and make the sauce on the day you are serving the dish so that the bacon stays crispy and the sauce is fresh.

Store any leftover bacon green bean casserole in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days. The longer the leftovers sit, the quicker the bacon will go soft.

You’ll find this dish will be gone before you can even think of freezing it! If you do freeze it, note that the bacon will go soft!

Recipe FAQs

More Thanksgiving Recipes

• Praline Pumpkin Pie
• Mashed Potatoes with Half and Half
• Dinner Rolls Recipe
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
• Pomegranate Jello Salad

Top 6 green bean casserole with cream of chicken soup and bacon edited by Family Cuisine