Green Bean Casserole Recipe • 5★

Updated December 28, 2025

David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

20:55Credit...The New York Times and Jonathan Bang

In the original 1955 green bean casserole recipe, the home economist Dorcas Reilly called for canned cream of mushroom soup. It is, to be clear, delicious. But almost as easy is a quick homemade sauce zhuzhed up with celery salt and nutmeg, pantry spices that make food taste good. Plus, without the mushrooms, the green beans here can fully shine. This casserole should be spoonable — and who has the extra time on Thanksgiving to hand-trim all those green beans? In November especially, it makes sense to take advantage of frozen cut green beans. In this recipe, half of the beans are simmered in broth to bring out their hyper savory flavors and the rest are baked into the casserole to maintain their color and structure. Don’t hesitate to use the store-bought French-fried onions in a can. They cannot be improved.

Featured in: Cracking the Green Bean Casserole Code

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2 cups chicken broth

2 pounds frozen cut green beans, thawed

1 teaspoon celery salt

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups heavy cream

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 (6-ounce) can store-bought crispy onions, such as French’s

Step 1Heat the oven to 350 degrees. To a medium lidded saucepan, add the chicken broth, 1 pound green beans and ½ teaspoon celery salt. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil over high. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer, still covered and stirring occasionally, until the beans are very tender, about 20 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. To a medium lidded saucepan, add the chicken broth, 1 pound green beans and ½ teaspoon celery salt. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil over high. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer, still covered and stirring occasionally, until the beans are very tender, about 20 minutes.

Step 2About 10 minutes before the beans are done cooking, melt the butter in a large, oven-safe skillet over medium-high. Add the flour and whisk until smooth and beginning to turn golden, 1 to 2 minutes.

About 10 minutes before the beans are done cooking, melt the butter in a large, oven-safe skillet over medium-high. Add the flour and whisk until smooth and beginning to turn golden, 1 to 2 minutes.

Step 3Slowly add the heavy cream to the flour mixture, whisking constantly, followed by 1 cup of the green bean broth. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, whisking occasionally, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the nutmeg and remaining ½ teaspoon celery salt, and season assertively with salt and pepper. (The sauce should taste overly seasoned at this stage.)

Slowly add the heavy cream to the flour mixture, whisking constantly, followed by 1 cup of the green bean broth. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, whisking occasionally, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the nutmeg and remaining ½ teaspoon celery salt, and season assertively with salt and pepper. (The sauce should taste overly seasoned at this stage.)

Step 4Drain the green beans and add to the sauce. Add the remaining thawed frozen green beans, season to taste again with salt and pepper, if needed, and stir to combine.

Drain the green beans and add to the sauce. Add the remaining thawed frozen green beans, season to taste again with salt and pepper, if needed, and stir to combine.

Step 5Transfer the creamy beans to a 2-quart casserole dish or keep in the skillet. Top with the crispy onions. Bake until golden brown on top, about 10 minutes. Let sit to cool and set before serving, at least 5 minutes.

Transfer the creamy beans to a 2-quart casserole dish or keep in the skillet. Top with the crispy onions. Bake until golden brown on top, about 10 minutes. Let sit to cool and set before serving, at least 5 minutes.

How long does it take to cook green bean casserole?The classic recipe using canned soup takes about 30 minutes and one prepared from scratch takes about 35 minutes.

How long does it take to cook green bean casserole?

The classic recipe using canned soup takes about 30 minutes and one prepared from scratch takes about 35 minutes.

Can you make green bean casserole ahead of time? You can assemble the casserole in advance, combining the green beans and cream sauce in a casserole dish and covering it tightly before refrigerating it for up to 3 days. When ready to cook, uncover and top the chilled mixture with the fried onions and bake until warm and bubbling. (The baking time will be longer than it is when preparing the dish straight through.)

Can you make green bean casserole ahead of time?

You can assemble the casserole in advance, combining the green beans and cream sauce in a casserole dish and covering it tightly before refrigerating it for up to 3 days. When ready to cook, uncover and top the chilled mixture with the fried onions and bake until warm and bubbling. (The baking time will be longer than it is when preparing the dish straight through.)

How do you make green bean casserole with fresh green beans?You can certainly use fresh green beans: Simply simmer them in salted water until they’re as tender as desired.

How do you make green bean casserole with fresh green beans?

You can certainly use fresh green beans: Simply simmer them in salted water until they’re as tender as desired.

Can you freeze green bean casserole? Due to the prominence of the cream sauce, which will separate if it’s frozen then reheated, green bean casserole isn’t very freezer-friendly.

Can you freeze green bean casserole?

Due to the prominence of the cream sauce, which will separate if it’s frozen then reheated, green bean casserole isn’t very freezer-friendly.

Thank you so much for this Eric. In Fall of 2015, my mother had been given a diagnosis of Stage IV Ovarian Cancer. As TYhanksgiving approached, she asked for only one thing to be served for her final Thanksgiving dinner, green bean casserole. The memories she had of this dish brought her enormous comfort. To this day, some version always ends up on my table for Thanksgiving. This yhear it will be yours. Thank you.

Marti, appreciate your assessment. The original is perfect, there's no doubt about that. My contribution is highlighting the flavor of the vegetables themselves, which is why you make a rich stock with half of the beans, then fold in the rest, frozen, for a mixture of textures and flavors. Hope you give it a try. Eric

If you get a chance, watch Eric’s YouTube video on testing many green bean casserole recipes, including the original invented by Dorcas Reilly. It will give you a lot of ideas. And he is just a joy to watch.

Step 3 says “Slowly add the heavy cream to the flour mixture, whisking constantly…” I suspect Eric, like apparently 99% of all chefs, doesn’t know the amazing secret magic trick when making a roux: use warm milk. The natural thing to do is use it right out of the fridge. But if you just dump it into your pot and stir, you’ve got maybe 8 seconds to finish mixing before the flour will get lumpy. Heat the milk (room temp is fine) and you have 30+ seconds. No need to go slow. Dump and whisk.

Green Bean Casserole is my favorite Thanksgiving side. The effort level for this recipe wasn't huge but still more than the original that I'm used to. It turned out fantastic and I'll consider making it in the future, but given how much I love mushrooms, I'll need to add those in next time. I mixed some onions into the green beans in addition to the toppings and ended up baking it a bit longer. Total in the recipe I think I only used a 1/2 tsp of salt and that was all I needed. Broth was delish

It's a no for me. The 1 cup green bean chicken broth water just wasn't enough to season the béchamel, and I ended up having to add a ton of salt just to give it flavor. Even then, it was much less flavorful than other green bean casserole recipes I've tried. Also: I don't need green my bean casserole to taste super green beany.

@A. Alexander. To avoid that green beany taste, eliminate the green beans.

Source: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024775-green-bean-casserole