Just 4 ingredients, turn green beans into a slow cooker side people go crazy for | April 26, 2025

If you’ve never had Southern-style braised green beans, you really have to try them. Sweet green beans become tender when slowly simmered with smoky bacon, creating the perfect side dish for a Southern-style picnic with cornbread. What I love about the recipe below is that the slow cooker makes preparing this dish so easy.
Traditionally, this dish is made by simmering fresh green beans with bacon or ham for hours, adding a salty and smoky element to the beans. The bacon adds a lot of flavor to the dish, but if you’re a vegetarian, you can substitute 2 tablespoons smoked paprika for the bacon and vegetable broth for the chicken broth.
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Slow cooker braised green beans
Servings: 10
Prep Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
2 pounds fresh green beans
4 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
1 cup cooked bacon, roughly chopped (about 1 pound before cooking)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small sweet onion, finely diced
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Directions
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