This Green Bean Casserole recipe is a classic holiday side dish that needs just a few minutes of prep and can be made with fresh, frozen, or canned green beans.
Tender green beans and crispy fried onions are tossed in a shortcut creamy mushroom sauce. Top this casserole with more crispy onions and bake until golden and bubbly.
This is the perfect side dish to serve along with your roast turkey for the perfect meal!
A Classic Holiday Casserole
I love green bean casserole, it reminds me of holidays from my childhood. This is a version of Campbell’s green bean casserole developed by Dorcas Reilley in the test kitchen (although I do love my from-scratch version too)!
- This dish needs only 5 minutes of prep time making this the easiest side dish ever.
- Can be made ahead of time, placed in a baking dish, and baked just before serving.
- Top with crispy onions or even a Panko mixed with butter and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.
- It’s perfect as a Thanksgiving side dish, for Easter or Christmas dinner but it’s also great alongside Sunday supper too.
Ingredients in Green Bean Casserole
Green Beans – For this recipe, you can use fresh, frozen, or canned.
Canned green beans are softer but are easy to use because they require no prep. Simply drain and enjoy.
Frozen green beans require no cutting and have a tender-crisp texture. You can skip cooking frozen green beans but I prefer the texture if they’ve been cooked in boiling water for about 5 minutes (and you’ll need a bit more salt).
Like frozen, fresh green beans have a tender-crisp texture and a fresher flavor. Simmer for 8 minutes.
Sauce – Using a can of condensed mushroom soup is what makes this recipe so easy (and is the base of the creamy mushroom sauce). Any “cream of” soup will work just fine in this recipe or you can use homemade condensed mushroom soup or chicken soup!
Crispy Fried Onions – Crispy Fried Onions (or french fried onions) are essential to this recipe (so much that it’s even sometimes called French’s Green Bean Casserole)!
If you’ve never had them, these onions are delish and great on all kinds of casseroles, burgers, and more! They’re added both in and on this casserole!
Variations
- I love to add cheddar cheese to this recipe (optional of course!), it melts into the sauce making it extra yummy.
- Make your own homemade mushroom cream sauce instead of canned and/or swap out the onions for fried shallots.
- Add minced cloves of garlic cooked in butter, some roasted garlic, or a dash of garlic powder.
- Simmer the green beans in chicken broth. Reserve the drained chicken broth for making your stuffing!
How To Make Green Bean Casserole
There’s a reason this dish has been around for years, it’s simple. It’s delicious. Perfect in every way.
- Cook Beans: Simmer fresh or frozen green beans. (drain them if they’re canned)
- Mix Sauce: Combine mushroom soup, milk, soy sauce, and pepper (per recipe below).
- Toss Together: Add the sauce, green beans, some crispy onions, and cheese to a bowl.
- Top & Bake Top the green bean mixture with more crispy onions and bake until golden and bubbly!
Voila!
How To Prep Ahead of Time
You can make green bean casserole ahead of time.
- Prepare as directed except keep the crispy onion topping in a separate container. I usually place them in a sealed sandwich bag right in the dish and sprinkle on top before baking.
- Refrigerate for up to 48 hours.
- Remove the dish from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before baking. If it’s really chilled, you may need to add up to 10 minutes of extra cooking time.
Green bean casserole needs to cook for about 40 minutes at 350°F. If your green bean casserole has been in the fridge, you will likely need to add some extra time!
Yes, it can be made up to 48 hours ahead of time. Add about 10 minutes to the baking time.
Yes, this casserole can be frozen. Prepare as directed and freeze before baking. Thaw in the fridge overnight and bake as directed adding 10 minutes to the baking time.
More Thanksgiving Side Dishes
A turkey dinner wouldn’t be complete without a spread of our favorite side dish recipes!
Did you enjoy this Classic Green Bean Casserole? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Classic Green Bean Casserole
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 cups frozen cut green bean defrosted (see notes for canned or fresh beans)
- 10 ½ ounces cream of mushroom soup
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon seasoning salt or to taste
- 1 ½ cups crispy fried onions divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- If using fresh or frozen green beans, boil just until tender crisp. (see note)
- Combine green beans with soup, milk, soy sauce, pepper, salt, 1 cup of crispy onions, and cheese (if using, see note) in a casserole dish.
- Bake uncovered for 30-35 minutes or bubbly.
- Remove from oven and stir. Top with remaining onions and return to oven for an additional 10 minutes or until golden.
Video
Notes
- drain 2 (14 ½ ounces each) cans of green beans
- 1 ½ pounds fresh green beans, trimmed and simmered for about 7-8 minutes
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese (favorite!)
- fried mushrooms, onions, garlic, and/or shallots
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Casserole, Side Dish
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Is the cream of mushroom soup the condensed kind?
Yes it is condensed, you do not need to add any water or milk to the soup.
Legitimately fantastic. Wouldn’t change a thing.
This was my first time making this, and it was a huge success! Delicious!
Thank you.
If you use the mushroom sauce recipe, do you still add the milk when mixing it with the green beans?
It depends which mushroom sauce you’re using. The sauce will thicken slightly as it bakes so you can add a little bit if needed.
I cant find the directions, just a bunch of fluff explanation. KISS – keep it simple s,
Hi Mary, the information is not fluff explanation, it is so that people who are making a recipe and have a question can find the answer in the post and continue with the recipe. None of the writing is irrelevant however you can use the JUMP TO RECIPE button to skip to the recipe on any page on the site. Hope you enjoyed it!
My first time making this dish and it was a success! I used canned beans and used one regular can, one no salt added. I think it was a good call as the original recipe calls for fresh or frozen beans (without added salt). I also cut soy sauce in half, I didn’t want it too salty. And it turned out perfect! My brother in law said it was the best one he’s ever had. My secret is bake it as instructed, but do the topping last minute so it doesn’t get soggy. Hope this helps someone.
I used just one can of cream of mushroom like the recipe stated, but it doesn’t seem like near enough?
Very good. I used one can regular and one can french cut green beans and shredded chedder and it was delicious.
I made this recipe without anything different than what the recipe states. I took your tip about making my own cream of mushroom sauce which is absolutely so much better than canned soups. It added so much flavor and everyone noticed a difference in the taste. I will never used canned soup again. Delicious recipe!
What size is the casserole dish?
I use a 2 quart dish but any dish from 1 ½ qt to 2 qt will work.
This was a big hit yesterday! I added mushrooms, fresh onions and cheese.
This is the exact recipe I was looking for as I was making the green bean casserole for Thanksgiving, 2023. I used approximately 7 cups of fresh blanched green beans, a half a cup of milk, two cans of cream of mushroom and half a can of cream of celery, along with pepper, no salt, a teaspoon of soy sauce, and a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce. I added a little more than a cup of the French fried onions into the mixture. No cheese. I loved the thicker gravy like consistency. It did need to bake for closer to 45 minutes, but was delicious and not too salty. This is a keeper!
how do you thicken casserole. put a little to much milk in?
You can add extra green beans or another blanched (cooked) veggie like broccoli. You could also stir in a little bit of potato flakes if you have it. If it’s a larger amount of liquid, you could also add some extra cream of mushrooms or a bit of sour cream. Hope that helps!
Perfection!!! We used roasted garlic cream of mushroom soup, so we got the garlic flavor but without any extra work. And we added some cheddar as suggested. Best GB casserole I’ve had yet!! Thank you for sharing your recipe with us ☺️