This easy green bean casserole with frozen green beans in a creamy mushroom sauce is finished with crispy fried onions. It’s a quick make-ahead side dish!
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If you’re looking for other recipes with green beans, be sure to try these Arkansas green beans with bacon, a pot of Southern-style green beans, and these green bean casserole bundles, too!
Both my mother-in-law and my own mom have been serving this classic green bean casserole recipe for Thanksgiving and Christmas my entire life! It’s one of those easy prep-ahead sides that comes together with just 6 ingredients in about 10 minutes. Perfect for busy holidays and weeknight dinners alike!
What to Know Before You Get Started
- I’ve tried many different green bean casserole recipes over the years, but a holiday table just wouldn’t be complete without Campbell’s classic version from 1955 — complete with green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and French’s fried onions. This old-fashioned dish is the ultimate comfort food for so many Americans of my generation!
- We prefer frozen French-cut green beans here, which is a slight departure from Campbell’s original recipe. The French-cut green beans are thinly-sliced, giving them a softer texture in the casserole. If you prefer, you can substitute with fresh green beans, frozen cut green beans, or canned green beans. Those instructions are included below.
- You can assemble the casserole up to 2 days in advance, so go ahead and get some of your holiday prep out of the way early. It eliminates that last-minute stress, especially when you’re hosting a big holiday gathering.
How to Make this Classic Green Bean Casserole Recipe
Truly, one of the easiest green bean casseroles that you’ll ever make! It’s no wonder that this side dish has been a popular choice on American tables for 70 years. It’s simple, convenient, and delicious!
- Cook the frozen green beans until they’re just crisp-tender (there’s no need to thaw them first). This only takes about 5 minutes in the microwave. Drain off excess liquid so that you don’t water down the sauce.
- Stir in the cream of mushroom soup, milk, soy sauce, and pepper. Add half of the french-fried onions. I don’t typically season with extra salt, since the soy sauce and soup both have salt in them. You can taste and adjust the seasonings if you like.
- Bake the green bean mixture in a casserole dish for 25 minutes.
- Sprinkle extra crispy onions on top, and bake for about 5 more minutes. You’re looking for a hot, bubbly filling and lightly browned onions on top. If the topping starts to get too dark before the green beans are hot enough, just tent the dish loosely with aluminum foil and continue baking.
Serving Suggestions
This easy green bean casserole goes well with almost any meat-based entree, including a smoked turkey breast, pineapple glazed ham, grilled beef tenderloin, crock pot meatballs, oven baked pork steaks, pasta with the best spaghetti sauce recipe, chicken tater tot casserole, or slow cooker buffalo chicken.
Don’t forget the other popular holiday side dishes like cranberry jello salad, sausage stuffing, crockpot chicken and stuffing, Jiffy cornbread with creamed corn, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole with pecans, roasted Brussels sprouts, vegetable casserole, an easy broccoli casserole, Aunt Bee’s easy potato casserole, and creamy baked mac and cheese, too!
Preparation and Storage Tips
- Make Ahead Instructions: This dish can be assembled up to 2 days in advance. Just prepare as directed, but leave off the remaining crispy onion topping for the end. Cover with foil and refrigerate until ready to bake. Allow the dish to sit on the counter at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before baking. Bake according to the recipe instructions, adding a few extra minutes to the cooking time if the casserole is really cold when it goes into the oven.
- How to Store: Leftover green bean casserole will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, although the onions on top tend to get soggy as it sits. You can freeze the casserole tightly wrapped for up to 3 months, but again — the onions on top may become soggy as it thaws.
- How to Reheat: Microwave individual servings for 30-60 seconds. If you’re reheating a larger dish, cover with foil and warm in a 325°F oven just until heated through, about 15-20 minutes.
Did you make this recipe?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a comment with a 5-star review at the bottom of the post. Thank you!
Green Bean Casserole with Frozen Green Beans
Ingredients
- 16 ounce package frozen French-cut green beans (or see Variations section below for substitutes)
- 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon less-sodium soy sauce
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 ⅓ cups crispy fried onions, divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 1 ½ -quart baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. Place frozen green beans in a large microwave-safe bowl. Add a splash of water, cover, and microwave just until crisp-tender (about 5 minutes). Drain and return green beans to the bowl.
- Add condensed soup, milk, soy sauce, pepper, and ⅔ cup of the fried onions to the bowl with the green beans; stir to combine.
- Transfer the green bean mixture to the prepared baking dish.
- Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Stir, sprinkle remaining ⅔ cup of fried onions on top, and bake until the filling it hot and bubbly and the topping is lightly browned, about 5 more minutes.
Notes
- Make-Ahead Instructions: This dish can be assembled up to 2 days in advance. Just prepare as directed, but leave off the remaining fried onions that go on top at the end. Cover with foil and refrigerate until ready to bake. Allow the dish to sit on the counter at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before baking. Bake according to the recipe instructions, adding a few extra minutes to the cooking time if the casserole is really cold when it goes into the oven.
- Original recipe from Campbell’s Foods
Nutrition
Easy Green Bean Casserole Recipe Variations
- Swap out the frozen French-cut green beans and use 4 cups of frozen cut green beans, 4 cups of cut fresh green beans, or 2 (14.5 ounce) cans canned green beans (drained). If using frozen or fresh green beans, cook in the microwave until crisp-tender (about 5 minutes for frozen or 8 minutes for fresh). When using canned green beans, you don’t need to cook them first. If you’re using fresh or frozen green beans, you’ll need to cook them until crisp-tender before adding them to the casserole.
- Instead of the cream of mushroom soup, use a different flavor of condensed soup. Cream of chicken or cream of celery would both be good in this recipe. You can also use the Heart Healthy variety of these soups when you want a lower-sodium, lower-fat option.
- Add cooked, chopped bacon to the green bean mixture, or sprinkle cooked bacon on top of the dish during the final few minutes to get it nice and crispy.
- Sauté sliced fresh mushrooms and stir them into the green bean casserole before baking.
- Add 1 cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese or a little bit of grated Parmesan cheese to the casserole before baking. You can also add extra seasoning, such as garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, or all-purpose seasoning.
- To serve a larger crowd, double all of the ingredients and bake the casserole in a 3-quart dish. This larger casserole will serve about 12 people. If you need to serve 20 people, I recommend preparing two large casseroles (3 quarts each), which will require 4 times as many ingredients.
More Easy Holiday Sides
This recipe was originally published in October, 2020. It was updated in November, 2024.
I noticed you said we can substitute Cram of Celery soup For the Cream of Mushroom. Since I don’t like mushrooms I have always used the Celery soup in all recipes that call for a Cream soup. However, for at least the last 9 months, I can not find it in any of the grocery stores. Plenty of Cream of Mushroom and Cream of Chicken soups but no Cream of Celery. Have you noticed this? Have you found it in any of the stores? Do you know why it has been taken off the shelves?
Hi, Debbie! Yes — I did notice that Food Lion in Madison hasn’t had any of that flavor in stock for the past few weeks. So weird, and I have no idea why. I don’t shop many other places so I’m not sure if that’s the case in other stores as well. I did manage to find some of the cream of celery soup at Martin’s in Culpeper last week, so you might try there. 🙂
They have it at my Walmart. You should be able to have it shipped to you from them. Just go to Walmart.com and search for Cr am of Celery. Good luck!
I make this as a regular meal by adding scrambled hamburger in the mixture and we also have garlic bread with it, it would also be good with shredded chicken by switching cream of mushroom with cream of chicken soup
Great tips, Jolene! I would definitely love to enjoy this as a main dish with the hamburger meat and garlic bread. Mmmm…
I like the inventive use of ingredients!
Thanks, Rochelle!
Good morning Blair. I have grown weary of the green bean casserole.
I now make your Arkansas green beans when I’m having people for dinner. They are so delicious.
But My “go to” green bean recipe when I’m fixing a quick meal was given to me by a friend here at the beach.
For a regular size can of cut green beans…….
Put a Tablespoon or so of olive oil in a skillet or frying pan.
Drain the beans.
Turn heat to medium high.
Dump the beans into the skillet.
Cook until the beans get dark.
I stir them very often. A little char is ok but you don’t want a lot of char.
That’s it. You can season with salt and pepper after cooking but I like them with out seasoning. They are really that good!!
An addendum to my green bean recipe….
You may want to add more than one Tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet.
That is kind of trial and error. I just pour the oil into the pan.
You do not want them greasy so use your judgement on the amount of olive oil.
Sounds good, Debbie! It doesn’t get much easier than that. 🙂 Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
I have two cans of regular green beans. Will this recipe work for them or do you recommend another? If I use the green beans, should I maybe cut them in half horizontally to make the pieces smaller/ Should I put them inthe microwave to make them a little tender? Thanks.
Yes, the regular canned green beans in any size/shape will work fine. Whatever you prefer! There’s no need to cut them in half (unless you would rather have smaller pieces in the dish), and there’s no need to microwave them since the canned beans are already tender. Hope you enjoy!
thanks
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Delicious and easy! Thank you!
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Katie! Thank you for trying it out and taking the time to leave a review.
Was very popular. I doubled the recipe and not a crumb left over. One thing I think helped was keeping it in the oven warming only, until dinner started.