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| Mmm. Bacon Green Beans. |
My sister-in-law Heidi can COOK. Every time I eat at her house I come away with a new recipe or five. This one has quickly become one of my favorites that is currently a weekly side dish at my house. I'm not sure if my family loves these as much as I do, but I don't care. Even as leftovers these green beans are heavenly. Must be the bacon.
The high heat on these beans makes them a little charred on the outside, and the salty bacon along with the fabulous savory flavor of the shallots make this a fabulous sensory experience. Even if you're not a fan of green beans in general, you might like these. And they're easy. So easy.
I use the meat counter slab bacon for these green beans. My brother pointed out to me that bacon is really cheaper that way, and it's a thicker cut, so it feels meatier AND it doesn't burn with the high heat in this application.
Heidi's Bacon Green Beans
Ingredients:
- 4-5 cups of washed and trimmed fresh green beans (I also like to cut them in half)
- 4-5 strips of thick cut bacon, cut into 1/4 inch strips (crosswise, not lengthwise)
- about 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
- Place a large cast iron skillet on the stove and turn the burner to medium high. Add bacon before the pan gets hot.
- Stir bacon until is just starts to render some fat.
- Add the green beans and continue to stir over medium high heat until green beans have some dark, almost burned spots.
- If bacon seems to be crisping up too soon, you can remove some of it, or turn the heat down a little.
- Sprinkle with salt and shallots, cooking another minute or so after the beans seem done.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and serve.
We love bacon and I don't like the frying the bacon, I set my oven to 375 F I use my rimmed cookie sheet and one of my cooling racks for baking...if you place your rack in the center of your rimmed baking sheet you can get a pound of bacon on that rack, it won't hurt to overlap them a tiny bit because the bacon shrinks as it cooks. Depending on how dependable your oven is you should be able to have your bacon nice and crispy in 20 to 25 minutes. I saw my drippings & being a southern girl us them for seasoning foods.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that tip. I like to cook my bacon that way too. For the green beans, though, the flavor develops as the bacon and green beans cook together in the pan.
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