Green Bean Casserole
A homemade green bean casserole made from scratch with a creamy sauce and crispy fried onions. A classic old-fashioned Thanksgiving side dish recipe.
Growing up, I always had the green bean casserole straight from the back of the cream of mushroom soup can. There had to be a better way! I wanted to make a homemade from scratch green bean casserole that had all of the flavors, but used fresh ingredients. After some experimenting, I have to say that we were blown away by these creamy green beans with crispy onions! You will definitely forget you are eating a vegetable.
The key to a killer green bean casserole is to create layers upon layers of flavors. This all begins with sauteeing onions in a good amount of butter in order to caramelize them. Once the onions are tender and golden, the mushrooms are added to the pan to bring out their natural nutty flavors. Garlic is the ultimate flavor enhancer, bringing a punch to the sauce.
The cream sauce is made with half-n-half, spices, and flour or cornstarch to thicken it. It is a simple cream sauce, but the caramelized onions, mushrooms, garlic, and spices make it taste so savory.
The star ingredient is definitely the green beans. I use fresh green beans in this recipe and just snap off the stems. It is important to cook the green beans in boiling water before baking them with the sauce. This will give them the right amount of crispness! If you want the green beans to be a little more bite-size, I suggest cutting them in half.
If you want to use frozen or canned green beans, go for it! Canned green beans don’t need to be cooked ahead of time.
The green beans and creamy white sauce are topped with crisp fried onions. This is what brings another textural element to the dish while adding some salty goodness. These fried onions are addicting!
This Green Bean Casserole will be a huge hit at your Thanksgiving feast! Even if you don’t love green beans, you will love this green beans side dish.
If you are looking for more amazing Thanksgiving Recipes, click the recipes below:
- The Best Award-Winning Pumpkin Pie Recipe
- Caramel Apple Pie
- The Best Homemade Dinner Rolls
- Sweet Potato Brown Sugar Pecan Bake
- Gulliver’s Creamed Corn
- Cranberry Apple Sausage Stuffing
- Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
- Honey Butter Glazed Carrots
- Green Beans with Almonds
- All Butter Flaky Pie Crust Recipe
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- 1 lb. Fresh Green Beans (ends snapped off)
- 8 Tablespoons Salted Butter (divided)
- 1 Large Onion (chopped)
- 8 ounces Sliced Mushrooms
- 3 cloves Garlic (minced)
- 2 1/2 cups Half n Half
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Pepper
- 2 Tablespoons Flour or Cornstarch
- 2 cups Fried Onions (such as French's)
- 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated (optional)
In a large skillet, heat 4 Tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until tender and caramelized, about 7-8 minutes, stirring often. Add mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes longer. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a bowl.
After the onion-mushroom mixture has been removed, use the same skillet. Heat skillet to a medium heat and add remaining 4 Tablespoons of butter. Add flour or cornstarch and begin to quickly whisk the mixture. Let cook, whisking often, for about 2 minutes. Stir in half-n-half, salt, and pepper. Cook for 4-5 minutes until mixture thickens. Taste and check for seasonings.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add green beans and cook for 6-7 minutes. Drain and transfer to ice bath to cool (optional).
Add onion-mushroom mixture to cream sauce and stir. Add green beans and stir to coat. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if using. Pour into a 9 x 9 baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes or until bubbly. Remove from the oven and cover with fried onions. Bake for 5 minutes longer. Serve immediately, if possible.
- May use fresh, frozen or canned green beans. If using canned green beans, they don't need to be cooked ahead of time.
- Don't use anything less than half-n-half in these green beans as it creates a thick sauce.
- If you want bite-size green beans, cut the fresh green beans in half.
I hope you love this homemade creamy green bean casserole with fried onions!
Hello, for the green bean casserole recipe, I’m going to use 2 pounds of green beans. Should I double everything else as well? Thanks!
I doubled the recipe as well – everything but the butter. I put in 1/4 cup flour and 1 Tbsp cornstarch. Looks good so far!
Can I use a foil tray?
What kind of mushrooms do you use?
Can this be made ahead of time?
I would like to also know what type of mushrooms are best.
Baby Bellas worked great for me.
Hi, can I make this in a slow cooker?
Love this recipe! I use 48 oz of fresh green beans and keep everything else the same. We prefer more green bean to sauce/mixture ratio and it turns out great.
I used canned coconut milk instead of animal milk and it was ammmmmmazing. So creamy!
No one in my family has ever been a fan of green bean casserole ala cream of mushroom soup, so I decided to give this a try—it won EVERYONE over! And it was so simple and easy to make, too. I don’t know why anyone would use something from a can!
This is the best green bean casserole ever! I finely diced the mushrooms before cooking and I threw in a bit of parmesan cheese to the sauce once it thickened. All the flavors came together nicely. It is seriously delicious! Thank you for sharing!
This is so tasty. I made it and we all enjoyed it. I think the caramelized onions in it add to the flavor too. This recipe is so much better than the old recipe I used to make years ago. I’ll be making this again because we all loved it so much.
This was delicious and fresh!! I added diced bacon this time per Dads request. Everyone raves about this dish. Thank you for posting!!
Can heavy cream be used in place of half and half?
Made tonight. Flavors are great but it came out much more soupy than I expected. I followed the directions to a tee so I’m not sure what happened. Even after removing a few ladles of the liquid prior to cooking, it was too wet. Regardless, it’s yummy!
I made this for an early Thanksgiving last weekend, and felt it was kind of runny when the sauce was still on the stove. I just added some more corn starch before I moved it to the casserole dish. It ended up being thick enough when done. I don’t know how much I added, I just shook a little in. I’d guess 1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons though.
I made this for the first time tonite.
It was amazing. The only changes I made was using mini portabella mushrooms and adding 1 tsp of soy sauce to the cream sauce and adding about a 1/4 cup of crispy onions to the casserole like the classic recipe. I will never buy canned soup again. Simply amazing thank you!
Can you put this together ahead of time and bake the day of?
Can this dish be prepared in the morning and reheated mid-day before eating? If so. would it be best to refrigerate and then re-heat or leave covered with foil on counter until re-heating if only a couple hours? Thanks in advance!
Can you please give some insight on whether or not this can be made ahead of time?!
You bet! You can make it ahead of time and do everything but bake it and top with the fried onions. The green beans will soak up some of the cream mixture once it is in the refrigerator but that is okay. If you desire, you can always add 1 Tablespoon of heavy cream before baking. I hope that helps! 🙂
Oh my goodness! This green bean casserole is fabulous. Best I’ve ever had!
Thank you and Happy Holidays.
Hello, I was wondering if this recipe can be made in advanced?
Absolutely! You can put it all together (except for the fried onions), place in the refrigerator, and bake the day of (don’t forget to add the fried onions). I hope this helps!
Hi all – If you’re finding this turns out soupy for you, it’s because the roux is off. It’s a 1:1 ratio. Increase the flour to 4 TBS. Melt the butter, add the salt & pepper, then add 4 TBS. of flour – whisk as you slowly add the half & half. I also take my half & half out of the fridge as ai start prepping this recipe so it’s not such a hot to cold contrast. This recipe turns out absolutely delicious and perfect (and thick) with the above change – trust me. It’s my favorite!
I was looking specifically for a made from scratch (no canned soup) green bean casserole recipe. I am so glad I found this. It was hands down the best green bean casserole we have ever had. The only thing I did differently was I used a mixed peppercorn grinder instead of black pepper. We did use the parm as well. Amazing dish and will now become part of our family gatherings! Thank you.
Dude! All I’ve got to say is YUM!!! I tweaked it a little because it’s what I do…
-added 4 slices of diced up cooked bacon 🥓 drained off most of the fat then caramelized the onions in it added mushrooms and garlic.
-added 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper to the sauce
-doubled the amount of beans but kept the other ingredients basically the same, seemed like it was a lot of sauce for 1 lb of beans plus I already had 2 lbs… sauce was perfect not overly soupy at all as some other comments stated..love that this recipe doesn’t use canned condensed soup with MSG and other yuck. This is definitely going to be part of our holiday tradition… thanks so much.
Made this yesterday for a side for Thanksgiving and it was AMAZING. I cannot go back to the canned condensed and canned green bean recipe now that ive had this version. 100x better.
Absolutely AMAZING and DELICIOUS casserole! It was a huge hit for Christmas Eve dinner tonight! I used a 24 oz bag of fresh green beans, baby bellas, and followed the recipe (even added the parm). Seriously… SO GOOD! Thank you for great instructions… easy to follow!