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. Ff 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.
- Combine soup, green beans, milk, soy sauce, pepper, salt, 1 cup of crispy onions, and cheese (if using) 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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Great recipe, I add Diced water chestnuts and add a bit of vanilla coffee Creamer. But “PENNIES TO MAKE?”
just a can of fried onions now are almost $5, water chestnuts $2, and everything else is probably now a $10-13 side dish.
Question- Does the cooking time remain the same if I doubled the recipe and how much cheese do I put- I’m I able to you Colby jacks or is cheddar the best one for this? I have mild cheddar but not sure. Thank you
The cooking time would need to increase if doubling the recipe, you want to make sure it’s heated through in the middle and the cheese is melted if you’re adding cheese. You can use either Colby jack or cheddar.
Could I use an alternative to milk? For example almond beverage? Thanks
Yes, that would work just fine.
op I just saw your reply to another! 2qt dish okay, I have a 3L dish. so hoping that will be alright!
For making ahead… do we bake first and then refrigerate until the day we need… OR do we just put everything in the pan uncooked and refrigerate then bake the day we need it? PLS specify lol
Hi Kay, you could do either. But I would put everything in the pan uncooked and then bake before serving if possible. Enjoy!
This recipe looks really good! My husband’s brother in law is allergic to onions so I was going to try to use panko breadcrumbs in the mixture instead and then add the crispy onions on top for everyone else. I’m assuming I’d have to use less than one cup of breadcrumbs since it will completely change the recipe right? Thanks!
If using a Panko bread crumb topping on the whole casserole I would follow the topping steps in this casserole recipe. I would love to hear how it turns out!
Hi, I wanted to try this recipe using the crockpot variation that you mention (mainly because I dont have space in the oven!) — Should I still cook the fresh green beans before putting them in the crockpot, or is the 2-3 hours on low cook them to a nice texture without the additional cook time?
Hi Taunisha, I would still simmer the fresh green beans for 8 minutes otherwise I worry they will not be soft enough. If you try it I would love to hear how it turns out!
Silly question, but I have vacuum sealed fresh (now frozen) beans from my garden. Any tips or just follow what you already laid out? I’ve only ever used canned and don’t wanna waste my fresh beans lol.
Hi Sydney, for frozen green beans you can skip cooking them, 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). Otherwise you can follow the recipe the same! If you try it I would love to hear how it turns out!
Hi Sydney, follow up to your question, you sound just like me, I’m using beans from the garden that have been frozen and vac sealed. I blanched the beans (I believe I did 4 min. boiling then 4 in the ice bath) before vac sealing, did you?
I just made this recipe and found that the 5 minute boiling time made my beans limpy. I was hoping a bit more crisp.
Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving and I’m sure however the Green Bean Casserole is made, everyone will love it!
Great recipe!
What size casserole dish 1 qt or 2 qt?
I use a 2qt dish.
How much cheddar cheese do you add ?
I add 1 ½ cups of cheddar cheese.
This came out extremely soupy—like green bean soup. The cream of mushroom soup in this recipe was way too much for the brand I used. It would have been helpful if you showed us what brand you used so I could see the texture. More pictures of the different steps would also be helpful.
Hi. This recipe looks great! Question — if you make the suggested alternative creamy mushroom sauce (https://www.spendwithpennies.com/creamy-mushroom-sauce/) — not the homemade mushroom soup — do you still put milk in the recipe? I wasn’t sure if that only replaces the soup or the soup and the milk.
Also if I was planning on doing the 3X quantity of the green beans, would it also be 3X the quantity of the creamy mushroom sauce or does that make a completely different quantity than you’d need for that recipe?
Buying groceries tomorrow so hope to hear from you soon! :)
If using the creamy mushroom sauce, you likely won’t need to add the extra milk. You’ll need about 10oz/1 ½ cups of mushroom sauce per recipe of casserole.
Okay, I haven’t tried this yet, but it looks yummy! I do have one questions regarding the shredded cheese; do you shred your own cheese or is okay to buy it already shredded in the bag? I do want to add the cheese to the recipe but want to know what you recommend regarding the cheese. Thanks! :)
Pre-shredded cheese works just fine in this recipe.
Pre-shredded cheese is coated in cellulose… that’s why it doesn’t clump. Shred your own.
I have been using this recipe for the past six years instead of the french cut green beans. I use standard frozen cut (thawed). The recipe is loved by all at my home for the holiday meals.
Thank you for all of your great recipes. I’m going to make this using your recipe for homemade condensed mushroom soup. The recipe states it serves 4. My question is how much of the soup do I use after making the recipe. As for the green bean casserole I’m going to make 1.5x but if works out better I could do 2x. Leftovers!!
You’ll need 10oz/1 ½ cups of the condensed soup mixture.
Trying this over the weekend. Hoping it’s good
If using fresh green beans, how much would I need to buy?
You will need 1 ½ pounds fresh green beans for this recipe Katie. Enjoy!
Looks great! To make ahead, would you just combine ingredients and then store in the fridge, or first bake, cool, and then store in the fridge? Thank you for your help!
To make ahead you can combine everything and then bake just before serving. I would suggest keeping the onions for the top separate and adding them right before baking. Enjoy
I can’t wait to try this, all the 5 star reviews, but I have a question, what size glass baking dish should I use? Thank you!
I use a 2qt baking dish.