When I was little, I hated green beans. And when I say I hated them – I mean, y’all, I would count them out so I only ate as many green beans as my mom said I had to. Oh, three bites so I could leave the table? The three shortest beans, it was then!
Now, as an adult, I find myself making green beans a lot. It’s sort of a side dish staple for me – and I’ve come up with a recipe that I absolutely adore!
If you are a vegetarian or are preparing meals for a vegetarian, I hate to break it to you: this is not the blog entry for you.
Here’s what you need:
- Fresh green beans
- Onion Flakes
- Salt & Pepper
- 5-7 cooked slices of bacon
- 1 can of chicken broth (14.5 oz)
First and foremost, make sure that bacon is fried up! (I make a whole pound and then eat some, honestly – and use the rest for this recipe. The more bacon, the better – always!)
Next, rinse off your green beans in a colander and then start breaking! If you’ve never been taught to break beans, this is important: you HAVE to snap both ends off – the reason green beans are called “string beans” is because they literally have string-like fibers along each side. When you break the ends, the strings will pull out. You don’t want to have strings in each bite of green beans – and you’re bound to miss a few, but I made some recently that I somehow missed the strings on a good handful and it was like nature’s floss on my plate. Do NOT cut with kitchen scissors or a knife – physically snap the ends of the beans off so that the string pulls with the break.
Once you’ve snapped them all, put them in the crock pot. Pour in your chicken broth, then sprinkle in onion flakes, salt, and pepper to your preferred taste.
Break up your bacon strips into small chunks and add to the mixture. You can use bacon bits if you want, but I prefer the grease and flavor of real bacon in mine if I have it.
Stir everything together well so your bacon and seasonings disperse somewhat evenly. You can put this on low for 4 hours or so, and they will be ready to serve.
Enjoy with your regular weeknight dinner or a holiday or special event dinner!
Kate with a Twang 