How to Make Green Bean Casserole From Scratch (Without Canned Soup)

The classic version was created in 1955 by Dorcas Reilly in the Campbell’s test kitchen. It uses canned cream of mushroom soup, milk, soy sauce, pepper, green beans and French-fried onions, baked at 350°F. A from-scratch version keeps the idea and swaps the can for a sauce made with fresh mushrooms, butter, flour, broth and cream. Recipes differ on quantities, so treat these as a starting point. One popular from-scratch version uses 2 pounds of green beans, 8 ounces of mushrooms, 3 tablespoons of butter, 1/4 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of chicken broth, 1 cup of half and half and about 1½ cups of crispy fried onions.

Trim the beans and cut them into 1 to 2 inch pieces. Boil them in well-salted water for about 3 to 5 minutes, until bright green and just tender, then drain them and cool them in ice water so they stop cooking. Drain them well and pat them dry, because extra water thins the sauce. They cook again in the oven, so leave a little bite now. Sources differ on the time, from about 2 minutes for crunchier beans to 5 to 7 minutes for softer ones, so taste one before you drain.

Frozen beans work. They are blanched before they are frozen, so skip the boiling step: thaw them, drain them well and pat them dry before they go into the sauce. Watch the time in the oven, because a second cooking is what turns them soft. Canned beans are already cooked, so they only need heating through, and they give a softer casserole than fresh or frozen.

1. Melt the butter in a large pan and cook the sliced mushrooms over medium-high heat until they have given up their liquid and turned golden.
2. Stir in the garlic and a teaspoon of soy sauce, as in the original recipe, or a splash of Worcestershire sauce, and cook for about 30 seconds.
3. Sprinkle in the flour and cook, stirring, for a minute.
4. Whisk in the broth, then the half and half, a little at a time so the sauce stays smooth.
5. Simmer until it coats the back of a spoon, then season with salt and pepper.
6. Fold in the beans.

The better the broth, the better the sauce. Kwame Onwuachi shows three stocks in his Stocks: Chicken, Vegetable & Shrimp lesson, including a chicken stock, and Edward Lee‘s meat stock is another base to build on.

Spread the beans and sauce in a baking dish and bake uncovered at 350°F for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges are bubbling. Scatter the crispy onions over the top for the last 5 to 10 minutes so they stay crisp instead of softening in the sauce. Store-bought French-fried onions are what the classic recipe uses, and you can also fry thinly sliced onions until deep golden. Treat the timing as a guide, because it depends on your dish and on how hot the sauce was when it went in.

Assemble the casserole without the onion topping, cover it tightly and refrigerate it for up to 3 days. Bake it straight from the refrigerator, adding 5 to 10 minutes if the dish is very cold, and add the topping for the last bake. You can also bake it ahead without the topping, cool it, refrigerate it for up to 3 days and reheat it at 350°F until hot and bubbling, then add the onions for the last few minutes. That second version bakes the beans twice, so they come out softer. Sources disagree on freezing, and a cream sauce can turn grainy, so refrigerating is the safer plan.

Refrigerate leftovers in shallow containers within two hours of cooking, eat them within 3 to 4 days, and reheat them to 165°F. If you want a green bean side with no cream at all, Asma Khan teaches Bengali Beans in her Saffron Chicken Korma lesson, a flavor-packed, fiery side dish. If you are still choosing the rest of the sides, you will find more to pair with it in our roundup of holiday side dishes.