Skillet Green Beans are an easy way to make some veggies for your meal. These Bourbon Green Beans with Bacon add some spice, flair, and beauty to any holiday table! It’s the ultimate Thanksgiving side dish that’s SO full of flavor, you’ll be blown away!
Skillet Green Beans with Bacon
Bourbon Green Beans with Bacon are a savory, flavorful side dish perfect for the holidays. This skillet green beans recipe is just so simple!
Every single Thanksgiving table needs a good green bean recipe. Don’t even try to fight me on this, it’s just a MUST! Everyone has their holiday favorites, but it’s also fun to try out new things and new flavors. These Bourbon Green Beans with Bacon are fun, beautiful, EASY, and full of so much flavor. You definitely need to give them a try!
These simple skillet green beans have an element of spicy, salty, and sweet, running the full gamut of flavor! I want only the best for you guys, and this green beans recipe with bacon is just perfect.
Mom came over and helped me formulate this green beans recipe after I had the idea of using bourbon, and they turned out so well! We kept reaching in and “sampling” and before we knew it we had eaten almost the entire skillet of green beans as a mid-day snack. These will be making an appearance at our Thanksgiving this year for sure!
Bourbon Green Beans with Bacon are the perfect savory side dish for the holidays or any time. This skillet green beans recipe is so easy to make too!
Skillet Green Beans Recipe
These Skillet Green Beans with Bacon really truly have all of my favorite flavors.
- Bourbon (duh)
- BACON
- Salt
- Brown Sugar
- Onions
All the best for you! We made them a little spicy with some red pepper flakes, and I loved the flavor combo of the brown sugar and red pepper. They are perfectly spicy and sweet, what’s not to love?
And to make these Bourbon Green Beans even better, it’s all made in one skillet. That means ONE (count it…only one) pan to clean up after cooking. On holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, the LAST thing I want to do is worry about a bunch of dishes. No thank you. I want to enjoy my food, enjoy my friends and family, and then enjoy my post turkey nap. No dishes please!
How to Make Bourbon Green Beans with Bacon
This Bourbon Green Beans recipe with bacon is sooooooo delicious, and super simple to make. That’s the perfect side dish equation, right? Get your veggies with a bit of bacon in one skillet.
How to make green beans in a skillet:
- Cut bacon into small pieces then cook them in the skillet until crisp. Set bacon aside and keep the grease in the skillet.
- Add onions to the skillet and saute, then add the garlic and cook about 30 seconds.
- Add in the green beans, salt & pepper, and red pepper flakes, and cook about 6-8 minutes.
- Pour in 1/4 cup water, cover skillet, and cook 2 minutes.
- Add in bourbon and brown sugar, and cook uncovered 4-5 minutes.
- Sprinkle in the bacon bits at the end before serving.
These skillet green beans with bacon are just so delicious. I love them for the holidays, but I’ll eat them any time of year! The flavors are just incredible.
Serving Suggestions
These make a great side dish for any main! Serve green beans with chicken, beef, pork, or any of your favorites meals.
- Baked Beef Tenderloin with Mushroom Sauce
- Stuffed Pork Loin
- Baked Chicken Thighs
- Air Fryer Turkey Burgers
- Lemon Chicken with White Wine
See the recipe card below for details on how to make Skillet Green Beans with Bacon. Enjoy!
If you like this skillet green beans recipe, try some other favorite veggie side dishes:
- Honey Glazed Carrots with Ginger
- Sauteed Green Beans with Molasses
- Best Twice Baked Potatoes
- Sauteed Asparagus with Pancetta
- Garlic Herb Creamy Scalloped Potatoes
- Grilled Lemon Butter Asparagus
- Crispy Baked Green Beans
Skillet Bourbon Green Beans with Bacon
Ingredients
- 4 strips bacon diced and cooked until crispy
- 1 medium sweet yellow onion diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 pound green beans cleaned and ends trimmed
- ½ teaspoon black pepper freshly ground
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
- ¼ cup water
- 3 tablespoons bourbon
- 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
Instructions
- Cut bacon into ½” pieces, then place in 12-inch skillet and cook until crisp, but not burned. Remove from bacon grease (save grease) and set aside bacon to use as garnish.
- Add onion to bacon grease and sauté until onion is translucent. Add minced garlic, and cook just until garlic blooms (softens and releases it’s oil) approximately 15-30 seconds.
- Add green beans, pepper, salt and red pepper flakes then cook until the beans begin to show brown spots, 6-8 minutes over medium heat.
- Add water, cover and cook 2 minutes. Beans should still be bright green and crisp.
- Add bourbon and brown sugar and cook 4-5 minutes, uncovered, until beans are barely crisp. Stir often.
- Taste the beans and add salt, if needed.
- Sprinkle beans with crisped bacon and serve.
- ENJOY!
Last step! Don’t forget to show me a pic of what you made! Upload an image or tag me @thecookierookie on Instagram!
Nutrition Information
Absolutely delicious! They were an instant hit. This is a keeper.
So glad to hear you loved this recipe, Barb!
Beans are boring but my Dad wanted a bean dish for Christmas dinner. Made this and wow! ALL the kids and adults ate every last delicious bite. Am definitely keeping this recipe in my “VEGGIES CAN ROCK” file!
Love to hear it, Lara!!
Made this tonight. Was looking for a new green bean recipe. This hit the spot. I may add a salty cheese like Feta next time I make it, but it really doesn’t need any tweaks. Thanknyou!
Feta sounds amazing!
What brand of bourbon do you use for this
Anything I have on hand, honestly not too picky!
Oh my goodness, so good. Followed the recipe exactly and they turned out perfect. Will make again.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing, Tracy!
I just Found this recipe last night. We made this and it was incredible! We loved it so much we made another batch tonight !!
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing, Chris Ann
I have made these so much we can not get enough! However, do you think I could do this with Brussels sprouts? Thanks !
I haven’t tried it with that!
I just found this recipe tonight and made these beans – a HUGE hit! They were marvelous and so simple to make. I plan to make them for Thanksgiving this year. I used bacon bits as was too lazy to fry up bacon and it worked just fine. The crushed red pepper cut down the sweetness nicely and was a great melding.
That’s great! Thanks for stopping by.
We had these as a side to our prime rib Christmas dinner and they were sooo good! Def will be making these agajn!
Yay!! I’m so happy you loved them!
Instead of the fresh green beans (I know they are the best to use) can I use frozen and thaw them ahead of time? I have 2 different green bean side dishes for thanksgiving,but I’d like to be able to get the stuff now
You could use frozen and still do the mix ins you just wouldn’t need to cook as long as they would probably already be cooked. Just check the bag. But they’d still be tasty with the extra flavors! Hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving!
I want to If I add whiskey in place of bourbon the taste will be change???