Homemade Green Bean Casserole with Fried Onions

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword Green Bean Casserole

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1

Servings people

Calories 334kcal

6 tablespoons butter divided
1/4 cup diced onion
2 cloves garlic minced
1 pound mushrooms cremini (brown) mushrooms, white mushrooms, or a mix of both, cleaned and sliced
1/2 cup white wine I use chardonnay
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Place onion slices in plastic baggie and add flour and salt. Coat onions lightly with flour, then remove and dip in milk. Return onions to baggie and shake to coat with flour again. Working quickly and in small batches, fry onions in hot vegetable oil until golden brown. Drain onions on paper towels.

In a large sauté pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and cook onions over medium low heat until softened. Add garlic and cook about one minute more. Add mushrooms to pan and cook over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, until liquid from mushrooms starts to evaporates and mushrooms are tender. Season mushrooms with 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt and a few turns of freshly ground pepper. Deglaze with wine scraping up any browned bits. Simmer until reduced and absorbed by mushrooms. Remove mushrooms and set aside to return to pan later.
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in pan. Sprinkle in flour and stir for about two minutes over medium heat. Pour in chicken broth and heavy cream and whisk until mixture starts to simmer and thickens into a gravy. Return mushrooms to pan along with any accumulated liquid. Stir in soy sauce and fresh thyme. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper as needed. Soup should be very flavorful with enough salt and pepper to season the green beans.
If you are making ahead, set mushroom soup aside to cool and refrigerate for up to three days. If you are making same day, keep soup warm while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Blanche green beans by bringing a large pot of water to a boil. Add green beans and simmer about 5 minutes, just until beans are tender. Move to ice water bath to stop cooking and set color.

In a 9x13 casserole dish, combine blanched green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and half of fried onions. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20-30 minutes until heated through and edges are bubbly. Top with remaining fried onions and bake for an additional 5 minutes until onions are warm.