Crock Pot Southern Green Beans

A bowl of southern style green beans cooked in a crock pot with ham, bacon, and red bell peppers.

5 from 16 votes

Crock Pot Southern Green Beans

These Crock Pot Southern Green beans have so much flavor - they are a family favorite. They are the perfect easy side dish for any holiday menu.

Prep Time10

Cook Time7

Total Time7 10

Servings:

Calories: 229kcal

Author: Kari

Equipment

6 quart crockpot or slow cooker

Ingredients

4 strips bacon diced
½ cup yellow onion diced
1 red bell pepper diced
4 - 6 cloves garlic minced
2 cups chicken stock chicken broth, or bone broth
8 cups fresh green beans
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon dried minced onion
½ teaspoon dried minced garlic
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes use ¼ tsp if you like a little heat

Optional

1 cup leftover ham diced
1 ham hock

Instructions

Cook the bacon until it is crispy. While the fat is rendering out of the bacon, snap the ends off the green beans.
4 strips bacon, 8 cups fresh green beans
Once the bacon is nice and crispy either remove it from the pan using a slotted spoon leaving the bacon grease behind in the pan (or just keep the bacon in the pan.)
Sauté peppers and onions in the bacon fat until the onions are translucent.
½ cup yellow onion, 1 red bell pepper
Add the garlic, and cook it just until the garlic is fragrant. It doesn’t need to cook much - it will cook for hours with the green beans.
4 - 6 cloves garlic
Next, in the slow cooker, add the snapped green beans and mix them with diced ham.
1 cup leftover ham
Combine the snapped green beans with the crispy bacon pieces, onions, garlic, red bell peppers, and all of the grease from the pan. That’s where all the flavor is hiding.
Add the salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, minced onion, minced garlic, and cayenne, then mix.
1 teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper, ½ teaspoon dried minced onion, ½ teaspoon dried minced garlic, ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper, ⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Cover about 75% of the green beans with broth. Add any optional mixins, red potatoes, smoked turkey necks, or a ham hock, now.
2 cups chicken stock, 1 ham hock
Cover and cook on low for 6 - 7 hours or high for 4 hours.

Notes

Southern Green Bean Variations

There are a few different ways to play around with this recipe. I think you always need the bacon, but you can switch out the ham for sausage, add leftover smoked turkey or chicken, or you could add a ham hock in with the green beans while they cook. A couple of other popular additions are:

Red potatoes - Always a great addition.
If you don’t have chicken broth or stock, you can use vegetable broth or a bouillon cube dissolved in water. If you use a bouillon cube, make sure to taste the broth and adjust the salt accordingly. (One bouillon cube or 1 teaspoon of jarred bouillon dissolved in 1 cup of hot water should be the equivalent of 1 cup of broth. Just taste it as it might be saltier than you think.)
Add Brown Sugar to the beans - a little sweetness can completely change the taste of these beans!

Recipe Tips

Make sure to add the bacon grease to the crockpot - it adds so much flavor!
Stir the green beans a few times as they cook to make sure they get an equal amount of time cooking while submerged in the delicious broth.
If you have time, cook on low heat for a long time instead of high heat for a short amount of time. Both will taste good, but the texture of the beans when cooked for a longer amount of time is so much better - the beans are so soft and just fall apart when you bite into them.
Save some of the bacon to sprinkle on top. We don't really care about this for a weeknight meal, but if you are serving green beans for a holiday dinner, sprinkling some crispy bacon pieces on top is a nice garnish.

Nutrition