There are lots of delicious ways to prepare green “string” beans...but here’s the one you've been waiting for. Awesome Creole Green Beans. Fresh green beans smothered with bacon, onions and tomatoes in a rich stock and just a hint of Louisiana cane syrup sweetness. No-angst and packed with flavor, these will have ‘em coming back for more. This great side dish goes with any occasion and elevates any meal. All I can say is...everyone will love them!
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Here’s What You Need
I like fresh green beans for this but frozen works very well. I think using whole green beans is the way to go, but if you have cut or even French cut those will work as well. These beans will be smothered with yellow onions, garlic and peeled tomatoes in chicken stock. The real flavor enhancers are the bacon and bacon grease in which you’ll saute the onions, as well as the creole seasoning and cane syrup, a rich syrup made from juices extracted from raw sugar cane stalks and boiled down into a thick syrup. It’s a Louisiana staple, similar to molasses in general appearance and consistency but molasses is a byproduct of sugar refining while cane syrup is pure cane juice boiled down. Cane syrup is pretty strong, so we won’t use too much, just wanting a sweet hint in the background.
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Here’s What You Do
First…you have a beer. You want to prepare yourself and prepare all the ingredients so that all you have to do is assemble the dish. Mise en Place for the cook and Mise en Place for the meal! Pop the cap off of an ice-cold bottle of beer and read the recipe through and make sure you have everything you need.
Mise En Place
If you are using fresh green beans, leave them whole but pull off any stems that are still on. Slice the bacon into 1’ slices, do a rough chop on the onion because large pieces work well when you smother the beans. The garlic can also be kind of rough-I just smash the clove with my knife blade then peel it and give it a quick rough chop. If you use canned tomatoes, drain them before using. For fresh tomatoes, make sure they are very ripe and peeled. Cut a shallow cross-hatch over the stem end, then parboil them for a few minutes, then into an ice bath...they will peel very easily after that. Measure out the stock, cane syrup and creole seasoning. Place a heavy bottom dutch oven with a heavy lid on the stove and take a sip of your beer.
Fry the bacon over medium-high heat
Toss the bacon into a cold Dutch oven placed over medium-high heat. The chopped bacon should fry pretty quickly; you want to leave the bacon in the pot thorough out.
Saute the onions in the bacon grease
Throw in the onions and stir them pretty much constantly for about 10 to 12 minutes until they're getting clear and starting to brown on the edges. At this stage, some of the sugars are being extracted from the onions and this will add a lot of flavor to the beans.
Add garlic
Stir in the garlic and you’ll notice it will be quite aromatic in about 2 minutes. That's all it takes.
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Next, add the green beans
Add the green beans to the pot and stir to mix the green beans, bacon grease, onions and garlic altogether. Make sure the heat is still fairly high so that the green beans can just start to char, but don’t let them burn. This will also bring out some sugar from the beans and make them very flavorful. This should take about 10 minutes.
Add the Creole seasoning and salt and pepper
Stir this for a minute or two until everything gets mixed up.
Add the tomatoes, stock and cane syrup
Mash the tomatoes a bit with your hand and mix them into the beans. Then add the stock, a quick stir followed by the cane syrup. Give it all a good stir and bring it to a boil.
Cover the pot, simmer for 1 hour
Once it starts to boil, lower the heat to a simmer, cover the pot and let it simmer for an hour. Stir it occasionally so that it does not stick.
Uncover and low boil for about 15 minutes
After simmering for an hour, the beans will be tender and the tomatoes and stock will have made a nice sauce. We want to thicken it a bit, so uncover, increase the heat to a low boil and let it go about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring often.
There you have it. Taste them for salt and pepper and add some if needed. These are a great side dish that goes with just about anything. Next time someone wants you to bring a side dish to the party, these will blow them away.
Hints and Tips
- I like fresh green beans for this, but frozen works really well also. I recommend keeping them whole!
- Fresh green beans can be refrigerated for a few days without a loss in quality. Snip the stem end off just before using.
- For this recipe, there is no need to soak the green beans prior to cooking. The long, slow simmer will make these fresh green beans very tender.
- The most important ingredient? Time...make sure to simmer everything slowly while the flavors come together. That will bring out the sweet and smokey flavor!
- Many commercial creole seasoning blends contain salt, as does commercial chicken stock. Make sure to give the green beans a taste before adding more salt.
You'll also love these other side dishes from Sweet Daddy D:
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Yeah You Right!
Creole Green Beans
Here's What You Need
- 1 ½ pounds fresh green beans
- 4 slices smoked bacon
- 15 ounces peeled tomatoes drained
- 1 large yellow onion rough chop
- 4 cloves garlic smashed and rough chop
- ¼ cup cane syrup or molasses
- 1 cup Chicken Stock
- 2 tablespoons Creole seasoning
- Kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste
Here's What You Do
- Slice bacon into 1" pieces; rough chop the onions, smash, peel and rough chop the garlic. Measure out the stock, seasoning and cane syrup.
- Fry bacon over medium high heat until crispy and the fat has rendered.
- Add the onions and saute until starting to brown, about 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic and stir well until aromatic, about 2 minutes.
- Still over a medium high heat, add the green beans.
- Sauté, stirring frequently until the green beans are starting to have a slight char.
- Add the creole seasoning and salt and pepper, mix well.
- Mix in the tomatoes and mix well with the green beans.
- Add the chicken stock and the cane syrup and stir well to combine all the ingredients.
- Bring to a boil then lower heat to a simmer and cover.
- Simmer on low, covered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
- After an hour, remove the cover, increase the heat to medium high and high simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until the sauce is slightly thickened.
Recipe Notes
If you don't have Louisiana Cane Syrup you can substitute molasses. But try the real deal...get it here from Amazon!
I like fresh green beans for this, but frozen works really well also. I recommend keeping them whole!
Many commercial creole seasoning blends contain salt, as does commercial chicken stock. Make sure to give the green beans a taste before adding more salt.
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