These brown sugar and bacon green beans are my favorite vegetable. They might actually be the only vegetable I like. I think I’ll start adding brown sugared bacon to all my veggies. This recipe is simple and full of flavor, and it’s the perfect time of year to get those green bean bundles from your local farmer’s market.
We love to serve these delicious green beans with our holiday meals, it’s a family favorite and packed with flavor. Our brown sugar green beans are the perfect simple side dish for any holiday dinner, Thanksgiving dinner or weeknight meal.
Recipe Ingredient Notes
To make our brown sugar and bacon green beans, you need the following ingredients:
- Bacon strips
- Butter
- Brown sugar
- Fresh Green beans (or Frozen Green Beans)
- Garlic salt
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Brown Sugar and Bacon Green Beans
- In a large skillet, fry the bacon over medium-high heat until done (but not quite crisp).
- Drain off bacon grease by scooping the savory bacon with a slotted spoon onto a paper towel and crumble the bacon.
- Add butter and 1/4 cup of brown sugar to skillet and add the crumbled cooked bacon back in. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat until the brown sugar has dissolved.
- Steam the Green Beans in the bag if they are steamable, otherwise place the green beans in a pot and fill with about 1 inch of water. Bring water to a boil and then place the lid on the pot.
- Steam the beans over medium heat until cooked through, about 5-8 minutes.
- Drain the water from the beans, season with garlic salt, and stir in the brown sugar glaze with bacon pieces.
- Serve immediately.
- Store any leftover green beans in an airtight container in the fridge.
Storing and Other Tips
- Store any leftover green beans in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave or stove top.
- If the brown sugar mixture starts to go hard, you can quickly reheat it before pouring it over your beans.
Enjoy More Delicious Green Bean Side Dishes
Need the perfect compliment to your main dish? You’ll want to try these delicious side dishes. Browse our comprehensive collection of simple side dish recipes.
- Cheesy Garlic Green Beans
- Classic Green Bean Casserole
- Homemade Green Bean Casserole
- Instant Pot Green Beans
- Oven Baked Green Beans
- Slow Cooker Green Beans
Brown Sugar and Bacon Green Bean Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 bacon strips
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 16 ounces frozen green beans, or fresh, 1 bag
- ¼ teaspoon garlic salt
Instructions
- In a large skillet, fry the bacon over medium heat until done (but not quite crisp).
- Drain off grease and crumble the bacon.
- Add butter and brown sugar to skillet and add the crumbled bacon back in. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat until the brown sugar has dissolved.
- Steam the Green Beans in the bag if they are steamable, otherwise place the green beans in a pot and fill with about 1 inch of water. Bring water to a boil and then place the lid on the pot.
- Steam the beans over medium heat until cooked through, about 5-8 minutes.
- Drain the water from the beans, season with garlic salt, and stir in the sugar and bacon mixture.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
I love putting bacon in green beans, this definitely sounds like a yummy recipe! Thanks for sharing 🙂
These are so very yummy in a way that even my kids will enjoy. Thankyou
Those look fantastic!! Thank you for sharing – I am going to have to try that one out soon. 🙂
I would absolutely say healthy. Use some grass-fed butter and nitrate-free bacon. The great thing is that many vitamins are fat soluble, which means you need fat to absorb them. So having some fat with vegetables is actually better than not!
Ok, so the sugar I cannot justify as healthy, but overall I think this is a pretty good side dish.
These look so good! We have some green beans that are almost ready in the garden and I can’t wait to try them in this recipe:)
Absolutely going to make these for the boyfriend and I. They look delicious!
Even if you wanted to make it a bit healthier, you could ditch the sugar and just use some turkey bacon.
But really, who would wanna do that?! xP
Thanks so much for the recipe!
Yum, I love green beans anyway, and adding brown sugar and bacon sounds like it would be delicious!!! Pinning this!
I was looking for something new and different to use up the bumper crop of green beans my dad grew. This was so easy and everyone loved them! These were definitely good enough to make for my Thanksgiving Dinner!
I would love to make these but it says serve immediately. I need them to carry to my sisters for Thanksgiving. if I make this early in the day, how good is it reheated?
Martha,
I made them recently and put them in my pre heated crockpot (put it on keep warm when I started the recipe) and they served great 5 hours later!
Love this recipe! I tweaked it a bit by using Jalapeno Bacon from our local grocery store making it a Sweet & Spicy Green Bean dish 😉 It’s really not to spicy at all and pairs well with the brown sugar. Thanks for sharing !
These sound amazing! I would like to make them for thanksgiving lunch tomorrow! How would I prepare them if I am using fresh picked green beans instead of frozen? Thank you so much for sharing!
This recipe is my new favorite way to eat green beans! Wow soooo very good! Thank you for sharing all these great recipes, I love your site!
Just make these for dinner. Absolutely awesome! Many thanks.
Hello, great recipe! I was thinking about using this with some whole wheat penne! Got any suggestions for me? (:
Thanks!
Hi Mia, that sounds delicious! You may have a new hit recipe!! 🙂
These look like the green beans at my favorite Chinese restaurant. Delicious, thanks for sharing!
it sounds delicious.. can I use can green beans instead ? thanks
Green Beans will work great too!
I would like to triple this recipe, if you have any suggestions on how to do this successfully, I would love any suggestions.
Kathy
You could cook each batch separately then combine at end and heat together or use one huge pan!
Any suggestions for adapting the recipe to fresh green beans?
You can adapt this recipe for fresh green beans. Just follow the directions where it says steam the beans over medium heat until cooked through. Sounds so yummy!!
Thought This is using Green beans?
So good! My 17 yo could not get enough and asked them for many more meals. So easy and delicious and went well with the bacon brown sugar chicken,
I recently made this recipe. My family really enjoyed it; who wouldn’t love bacon, butter and brown sugar! Trying to get ahead of my cooking I made the bacon, butter, brown sugar mixture ahead of time. I reheated it, per the recipe instructions, when I cooked the green beans. However the bacon and brown sugar clumped together; it never separated into smaller bits. Can anyone provide what might have gone wrong?