Southern Style Green Beans

Southern Style Green Beans

There is one main ingredient in southern style green beans – bacon! Southerners love our bacon.

If you grew up in the south, you sat on a porch and snapped beans with your mother or grandmother or maybe even your great-grandmother. Nothing says southern better than freshly cooked snap beans.

History of Snap/String Beans

Snap or string beans originated in Peru. They were brought north by migrating Indian tribes. The Native Americans planted them with corn. The pole beans used the corn stalks as trellises.

The Spanish explorers took the beans from the Americas to Europe. France was the first country to offer the beans as a side dish in a restaurant.

Snap/string beans got their name from the sound they make when you snap them into pieces. The string holds the two sides of the pod together. This string is tough, so removing it during the snapping process is a must.

Snapping Green Beans

To snap green beans, remove both ends of the bean and discard them. (Hint: Dogs love the ends, and so do other animals. I feed them to my dogs, chickens, rabbits, and bird.) Then snap the bean in half or thirds. As you snap the bean, the string becomes visible. Pull the string and discard.

Cooking Southern Style Green Beans

Some other ways to cook green beans are frying, sauteing, and combining them with other ingredients in casseroles.

The traditional southern way of cooking green beans is boiling them with salt pork, ham hock, or bacon. We don’t just simmer them for 30 minutes. We want those bad boys to be limp, depleted of nutrients, but full of bacon flavor. We may keep the beans on the stove all day to get that perfect salty taste.

This recipe uses bacon as an ingredient, but it is not where it gets the most bacon bang. That bang comes from the Goya flavor packets.

Ingredients

• Fresh green beans (or canned)
• Slices of bacon (precooked or uncooked, either is fine)
• Goya ham-flavored concentrate packets (I like to use two for more bacon flavor.)
• Chicken broth
• Salt
• Pot

Instructions

If the bacon is uncooked, microwave it for about 2 minutes until mostly cooked. Cut it into large pieces. Place snapped (or canned) green beans in a large pot and cover with chicken broth. Add the bacon and Goya packets. Bring broth to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for an hour or more, depending on how cooked you like your beans.

Southern-style green beans are our go-to for a delicious side dish.