Everyone loves Green Bean Casserole with tender green beans and crispy fried onions in a shortcut cream sauce. It’s topped with more crispy onions and baked until browned and bubbly.
Holly’s Recipe Highlights
- Fast prep: It needs just 5 minutes of prep—it’s the easiest side dish ever.
- Use any kind of green beans: It can be made with fresh, frozen, or canned green beans.
- Make ahead: Make this casserole a few days in advance and bake before serving (see notes).
- Serve anytime: Perfect for a holiday meal or alongside a Sunday supper like meatloaf.
Ingredient Tips For Green Bean Casserole
- Use fresh, frozen, or canned green beans:
- Canned green beans have a softer texture and require no prep—drain and stir (personal favorite).
- Frozen green beans require no cutting and have a tender-crisp texture. They should be boiled for about 5 minutes, and you’ll need to add extra salt.
- Fresh green beans have a tender-crisp texture and a fresh flavor. Simmer for 8 minutes.
- Sauce: Condensed cream of mushroom soup is the base of this casserole and makes it easy to prep. Use any flavor of “cream of” soup, such as cream of celery.
- Crispy Fried Onions – French’s Crispy Fried Onions adds both flavor and crunch.
Variations
- Cheese: I love to add cheddar cheese to the green bean casserole sauce. Try other favorite cheeses.
- From Scratch: Swap out the soup for mushroom cream sauce and replace the onions with fried shallots.
- Garlic: Add minced garlic cloves cooked in butter or ½ teaspoon of garlic powder.
- Topping: Swap the crispy onions with ¼ cup of Panko breadcrumbs mixed with 1 tablespoon each of melted butter and Parmesan cheese.
Prep Ahead Tips For Green Bean Casserole
- Prepare as directed, except store the crispy onion topping in a separate container or sandwich bag. Refrigerate for up to 48 hours.
- Remove the casserole from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before baking.
- Sprinkle the onions on top, bake as directed, adding up to 10 minutes of extra cooking time if needed.
Did you enjoy this Classic Green Bean Casserole? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Green Bean Casserole
Tender green beans, cheese, and crispy onions are tossed in a delicious creamy sauce and then baked!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 cups frozen cut green beans see notes for canned or fresh beans
- 10.5 ounces condensed cream of mushroom soup 1 can
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon seasoned salt more to taste
- 1½ cups crispy fried onions divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the frozen green beans and boil until tender crisp, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine green beans with soup, milk, soy sauce, pepper, salt, 1 cup of crispy onions, and cheese if using (see notes). Transfer to a 2-quart or 8×8-inch baking dish.
- Bake uncovered for 30 to 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
Green beans: Canned, fresh, or frozen beans work in this recipe. In place of frozen beans, you can use either of the following:
- drain 2 (14 ½ ounces each) cans of cut green beans
- 1 ½ pounds fresh green beans, trimmed and simmered for about 7-8 minutes
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese mixed into the sauce (favorite!)
- fried mushrooms, onions, garlic, and/or shallots
Nutrition Information
Calories: 112 | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 3mg | Sodium: 475mg | Potassium: 190mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 409IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 41mg | Iron: 1mg
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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Made this tonight for a dinner tomorrow but I baked it tonight, not realizing I should have just prepped the mixture, stuck it in the fridge and bake it tomorrow.
I will stick it in the oven just to re-heat tomorrow but hopefully the beans won’t be soggy. At least I didn’t do the topping yet, so it will stay crispy.
Darn! But I did just sneak a bite and it tastes delicious. It’s very rich and flavourful. But I expect nothing less if your recipes! You are my go-to for crowd pleasers.
It should be just fine, this casserole reheats beautifully as well!
This is my go to recipe. My family loves it! Very simple and always delicious!
made this Christmas day and it was gone in 30 minutes. The kids came back for more WHÀT!!!
Making it again today DELICIOUS
Made this tonight with the cheese. It was amazing. My husband doesn’t even like green beans and loved this. Definitely a keeper.
Great recipes, easy to make!
Planning to make ahead. Can I thaw frozen green beans and add to casserole?
The should be boiled according to the recipe as they won’t soften further as they bake.
Hi, I am going to double the recipe in a 9×13 dish. Walk me through please so I double all amounts of ingredients do I also double the time and add 10 min more or is it 40 min total? If I want to make a day ahead of time, I would still add everything except extra crispy onions on the top right? Cheese is ok to add in the sauce too?
Hi Teri, to double this recipe I would suggest a 9×13 pan and increasing the baking time by about 15 minutes. The mixture should be hot in the middle when you stir it before adding the onions for the last 10 minutes.
I just made your homemade condensed cream of mushroom soup in preparation for this recipe. it is fantastic and won’t ever go back to store bought.
what a wonderful receipe!
My family loved this.
Thank you! ❄️
Simple and delicious! I used fresh green beans which I think is the way to go. I doubled the recipe and the beans needed par boiled for about 9 minutes. Other than that I make the basic recipe, no cheese and it’s amazing!
do I need to cook the garlic and onions before putting them in or use raw?
Hi Russell, the crispy onions can be added into the casserole and used as the topping without additional cooking. If adding fresh garlic and onions to the casserole, we recommend cooking them first for the best result.
I’ve made this recipe with extra pan fried onions and cheese and I replaced the mushroom soup with cream of celery (I don’t like mushrooms) and everyone loved it !
I made this recipe with (a generally good level of) confidence (given the # of very positive ratings and alternatives for making it) for a Thanksgiving (bring a dish) event today. This was a total hit. I used Holly’s recipe exactly as listed: with her recipe link for the “creamed mushrooms” (with fresh mushroom sauté..) instead of the can of cream of mushroom soup AND I added the cheese (optional). At dinner, it got positive comments, “Oh my, who made the green beans? … they are so good”. But when it came time to request “leftovers” to take home, EVERYONE wanted to take some home. YES! Another GREAT recipe from Holly! Highly recommend!
I made a double recipe for Friendsgiving and there are NO leftovers. I made it vegan with unsweetened soy milk in place of dairy milk, & used the vegan condensed mushroom soup recipe from It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken. it was perfect. second year I’ve made this for thanksgiving and I think I’ll make it always. thank you!!!
Thank you for your easy to follow recipe! I am also enjoying reading your replies to other reviews lol happy Thanksgiving!
What should I do if I want to use a regular (non-condensed) cream of chicken soup instead of the condensed cream of mushroom soup?
The consistency is different, it will be quite runny.
While I can’t say for sure how it would work since I haven’t tried it, you can try thickening the soup. Bring 10.5 oz soup to a low bowl. Combine 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water. Drizzle it into the boiling soup while whisking to thicken, you may not need all of the cornstarch mixture.
Another option would be to make homemade condensed chicken soup.
Do I need to thaw and drain frozen French style beans before mixing rest of the ingredients?
Yes, the beans should be thawed and cooked to tender crisp before mixing.
I substitute Worcestershire sauce for the soy sauce. Love this classic holiday dish!