Green Bean Casserole
Updated Dec. 2, 2025

- Total Time
- 35 minutes
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2cups chicken broth
- 2pounds frozen cut green beans, thawed
- 1teaspoon celery salt
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2cups heavy cream
- ¼teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1(6-ounce) can store-bought crispy onions, such as French’s
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. To a medium lidded saucepan, add the chicken broth, 1 pound green beans and ½ teaspoon celery salt. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil over high. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer, still covered and stirring occasionally, until the beans are very tender, about 20 minutes.
- Step 2
About 10 minutes before the beans are done cooking, melt the butter in a large, oven-safe skillet over medium-high. Add the flour and whisk until smooth and beginning to turn golden, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Step 3
Slowly add the heavy cream to the flour mixture, whisking constantly, followed by 1 cup of the green bean broth. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, whisking occasionally, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the nutmeg and remaining ½ teaspoon celery salt, and season assertively with salt and pepper. (The sauce should taste overly seasoned at this stage.)
- Step 4
Drain the green beans and add to the sauce. Add the remaining thawed frozen green beans, season to taste again with salt and pepper, if needed, and stir to combine.
- Step 5
Transfer the creamy beans to a 2-quart casserole dish or keep in the skillet. Top with the crispy onions. Bake until golden brown on top, about 10 minutes. Let sit to cool and set before serving, at least 5 minutes.
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Comments
Thank you so much for this Eric. In Fall of 2015, my mother had been given a diagnosis of Stage IV Ovarian Cancer. As TYhanksgiving approached, she asked for only one thing to be served for her final Thanksgiving dinner, green bean casserole. The memories she had of this dish brought her enormous comfort. To this day, some version always ends up on my table for Thanksgiving. This yhear it will be yours. Thank you.
Marti, appreciate your assessment. The original is perfect, there's no doubt about that. My contribution is highlighting the flavor of the vegetables themselves, which is why you make a rich stock with half of the beans, then fold in the rest, frozen, for a mixture of textures and flavors. Hope you give it a try. Eric
If you get a chance, watch Eric’s YouTube video on testing many green bean casserole recipes, including the original invented by Dorcas Reilly. It will give you a lot of ideas. And he is just a joy to watch.
I loved this, but couldn't resist adding some sauteed onions and mushrooms. I also felt like 2 cups of heavy cream was overkill - may do 1 cup next time and 1.5 cups stock if extra liquid is needed. This was partly because my whole meal was overly rich though.
Cream sauce was just right. Next time I’ll use fresh green beans. Use a wider, shallower casserole dish so you get more fried onion per bean.
I used fresh green beans, trimmed to a spoonable length, cooking all of them in chicken broth for 10 minutes. I used half-and-half in place of cream. The flavored sauce was delicious with the green bean broth, celery salt and nutmeg. No one missed the cream of mushroom soup!
