updated November 2025, originally posted December 2005
Every year, I try to introduce something new to my family's Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. And every year, my plot is foiled because my family loves what they love: creamed corn, Idaho potatoes mashed with nothing but butter and milk, simple cranberry sauce, Stovetop-style plain bread stuffing, and of course, kimchi.
Once I used red skinned potatoes, left the skins on, added garlic and made garlic "smashed" potatoes.
One year, I made roasted butternut squash soup that was beautifully swirled in each bowl with a chive cream.
Arugula pear salad. Corn soufflé. Creamed spinach.
No. No. No. Everyone ate it all. They said it tasted good, but I could tell they were wishing for the old standards, especially the green bean casserole. Not a casserole made from blanched fresh green beans mixed with baby portabella mushrooms, tossed with a creamy bechamel and topped with caramelized onions. No, my family loves green bean casserole brought to us in 25 minutes by a Green Giant, the Campbell's kids, and the French('s). It's not like I hate green bean casserole because I think it tastes bad. I just hate green bean casserole.
This year, though, I may have cured my family of green bean casserole. (Though the garlic and herb roasted red potatoes still won't replace mashed potatoes).
But if we have green bean casserole with bacon in it next year, I think I'll cry.
What Ingredients You Need for Bacon-wrapped Green Beans
This is the EASIEST recipe, with only TWO ingredients, four if you count salt and pepper as ingredients:
- Green beans, 1 pound fresh, stems/end trimmed
- Bacon, 6-12 ounces, depending on how much your family loves bacon
Salt and pepper are optional. You don't need to add salt because bacon is already pretty salty!
Bacon Wrapped Green Bean Bundles Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh green beans
- salt + pepper
- bacon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Blanch 1 lb. fresh green beans for a few minutes. I err on the side of crisp and definitely took the green beans out within one minute.
- Microwave bacon in a single layer for about 1 minute to start their cooking process.
- Wrap one slice of bacon around a bundle of about 4 or 5 green beans. Instead of wrapping the bacon on top of itself, the way a roll of Scotch tape looks, start closer to one end of the bundle and slightly spiral the wrapping.
- Place bundles with the loose bacon end tucked underneath.
- Roast in for 15 minutes, or until bacon is cooked through and beginning to crisp around its edges.
Kelvin says
Kia Ora (hello) from a blogger down under in New Zealand. I was surfing the blog world, when your blog popped up.Very nice & very interesting. Can I mention your blog on one of my blogs - 21 21 21 Blogs?
Gloria says
Ooooh, that looks amazing! Who ever would want green bean casserole when offered this?
Gloria says
Ooooh, that looks amazing! Who ever would want green bean casserole when offered this?
sarah says
kelvin: mention away!
gloria: thanks! i know. i am hoping that the family will forget about green bean casserole.
Bassbiz says
kimchee? there has to be rice involved, only an asian family could do that :) we do up our rice plain though, maybe a little furikake on the side!
that dish looks delish! my mom makes something similar to that on new year's (oshogatsu) but with beef wrapped around the asparagus. yummy!
sarah says
hi bassbiz :)
suprisingly, this year's christmas dinner had no steamed rice. i was pretty shocked myself. (thanksgivign we did of course)
and i loooove beff wrapped around asparagus! (i think they have it a lot at the robatayakis)
Fran says
Hi Sarah!
I made these last night as a side dish for dinner and they were a huge hit with my husband and myself. These will probably make it to this year's Thanksgiving dinner with friends as an appetizer. Easy and delicious!
sarah says
WOO HOO!
glad they worked out as well as they did for me! isn't paula deen a genius?!? :)
gaga says
Yum, this is VERY paula deen, haha. I was thinking of trying something similar for Thanksgiving this year. I'm glad it worked out for you, hopefully it'll work out for me too!
Nate-n-Annie says
oh wait, I thought this was a new post on TDL. Tricky!
lollers says
I'm drooling... Everywhere.
Kevin says
What a great way to enjoy bacon er, I mean green beans!
Jenny says
Okay...I make bacon wrapped green beans fairly often, and I've found that roasting the green beans in a dish makes the bacon not get crispy, and there's not much I hate worse than slimy, undercooked bacon. I tried searing the bacon stove top with no success, than started using turkey bacon. The flavor is good, but the texture is off. I am going to try cooking them on the oven rack tonight, with a baking dish with a bit of water in the oven to collect the drippings. Hope this works!
I wanted to ask if you cook yours in a dish, and if you have run into the same problem?
Sarah J. Gim says
Jenny:
To be honest, I've never noticed the crispness of the bacon! I think the sheer fact that there's bacon is enough. However, I'm guessing that the bacon does stay pretty soft, because I do just throw the bundles right onto the surface of the roasting pan.
Do you pre-cook the bacon a little before you throw it into the roasting pan, as I do in the recipe above? Since the green beans require less time to cook, it's a good idea to cook the bacon a little first separately. Then perhaps you can keep them in the oven longer, which will definitely crisp the bacon!
Jenny says
I've not tried to pre-cook the bacon. I will be trying that method next, as the drip pan idea did not work all that well. Somehow, in my mommy-addled brain, the fact that the baking dish under the bacon was to catch the grease didn't compute properly. There was the dish, below some..but not all of the green beans. Real bright Jenny, real bright.
Nicole says
We do these for holidays or anyday but we brush barbaque sauce on these wrappings and then cook it! Yummy!
Sarah J. Gim says
Nicole: brushing with barbecue sauce is GENIUS! might have to try this year.
JUDY says
You might try tossing your green beans in soy sauce before baking...its awesome!
Jan says
I tryied this tonight for a side dish for dinner. I too left out the salt, pepper and olive oil since i thought the bacon would cover it. I put the bacon in the microwave for 1 minute and blanced the green beans for 3 min. Cooked in oven as directed after roasted rosemary potates were were almost done. They were perfect. Served with grilled chicken breast and summer salad. Since our green beans are coming in slow due to the dry weather this recipe was the perfect way to use the few that were ready for harvest.
Sarah J. Gim says
Jan! Thanks so much for the comment! So happy to hear that the green beans came out perfectly!
kimbedone says
Try the recipe with low sodium bacon and half a slice works better at getting the bacon crisp.Plus I wont eat the bacon unless it's crisp.
Deb says
I, also, do not like green bean casserole. This is why I am searching for something else to make out of green beans. I made a similar recipe using asparagus in the bundles but I don’t like asparagus and it is just me and the hubby for Christmas dinner.
But this is not why I am responding to this. I read the story out loud to my husband and we both thought it was soooo dang funny. We loved it!
Keep going, you’re bound to find something besides the dreaded green bean casserole.