Easy Green Bean Casserole with Sour Cream

Sour cream green bean casserole is a delicious variation on the old classic. It’s perfect for Thanksgiving or any other special occasion. This recipe is easy to follow, and the end result is sure to please your guests! With the buttery cracker topping, a sour cream sauce, the use of fresh green beans, and being topped with cheddar, this is the best green bean casserole around!

Growing up, I can’t recall a holiday or important occasion that didn’t have some version of green bean casserole at the dinner table.

The canned beans, cream of mushroom soup, and fried onion topping was a perfect (and kind of bland) indication that the meal was “special”.

The tradition of having such a dish endures, but now that I’m in charge of cooking, I have found ways to take the dish from bland tradition to sought-after star of the side dish show.

With just a few extra ingredients, we make this dish something that you’ll come back to over and over again. I promise, you will love this recipe!

Ingredients

For the casserole

• 2 pounds green beans, fresh or frozen, or four cans drained
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or two cloves, cooked

For the topping

• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup crushed Ritz or other round crackers (about 25 crackers)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Supplies:

You will need a casserole dish and a frying pan for this dish.

Directions

1. Prepare your green beans, whether they are fresh, frozen, or canned. For fresh, rinse, trim the ends, and cut to be around one inch long. Steam them for about four minutes, until they’re nearly cooked. For frozen, thaw in the microwave or under warm water, and allow them to air dry as you prepare the sauce. For canned, drain, rinse, and allow them to air dry.
2. Saute the diced onion in oil in medium heat for three minutes, until it starts to turn clear and soft. Remove the onion from the pan and set it aside for later.
3. In the same pan, start the sauce by melting butter over medium to medium-high heat and adding in the flour.
4. Cook for about four minutes, whisking constantly to cook the flour and the butter. As it cooks, it will thicken into a paste.
5. Add the milk, garlic, salt, pepper, and milk, and cook for four to five minutes. The sauce will be similar to a thick gravy. Keep stirring so it doesn’t get lumpy.
6. Add the sour cream and cook for five more minutes.
7. If the sauce is too thick, add more milk or sour cream.
8. While the sauce is cooking, break the crackers into crumbs, leaving some bits chunkier than others. Combine with the melted butter and set aside for later.
9. Taste the sauce to make sure it’s to your taste, then add the green beans and onion.
10. Add the mixture to a casserole baking dish or 9×13 dish. Cover with shredded cheese. Then cover the green bean mixture with the crackers, and bake in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes, until it’s bubbly.

What is a green bean casserole?

Green bean casserole is a vegetable side dish that starts with green beans, adds a cream mixture of some type, and has crunchy crackers or fried onions on top for texture and added flavor. Over the years, it’s become a mainstay at Thanksgiving dinners, perhaps gaining national popularity in the US due to Campbell’s soup company putting a recipe for the dish on the back of the cream of mushroom soup can.

What makes this green bean casserole better?

A classic green bean casserole gets a bad break. Compared to sweet potatoes covered in sugary marshmallows, the basic recipe can’t compete. But this recipe swaps the somewhat bland, gloopy canned cream of mushroom soup with a delicious, fresh sour cream-based sauce.

It replaces the french fried onions that people love or hate with buttery crackers and shredded cheddar cheese.

Because you can taste the dish along the way, instead of relying on canned soup for all the flavor, you’re more in control of the final taste, and you can make it perfect for your family’s taste buds.

What kind of beans should I use?

If possible, we recommend swapping out the traditional canned green beans your grandma always used for frozen or fresh green beans. If you use fresh green beans, they aren’t much more expensive than canned.

For this recipe, making the switch adds about $1 in cost, but you win because it’s a dish more people want to eat, it’s more healthy, and you don’t waste the leftovers. (And you swap out the more expensive fried onions for lower-cost crackers, and lower-cost sour cream instead of canned soup, so it’s even in the end.)

If you use fresh beans, prepare them as you would for regular cooking. Trim the ends and cut to an even size, about one inch or shorter, to make it easy to dish onto your plate. Steam the beans for about four minutes, or until almost done, since they’ll cook a little more in the oven.

If you use frozen beans, microwave them for about half the suggested cooking time, or at the least run them under warm water to thaw (and then strain them so they don’t add more water to the dish). It really does make green bean casserole so much better with fresh green beans.

There is no real difference between fresh and frozen in taste and texture. When fresh green beans are on sale, I will usually choose them, but otherwise I love using frozen beans.

How do I make a roux?

The sour cream sauce that makes this recipe so wonderful starts with a roux, which is the basis for most cooked sauces, like gravy. If you know how to make a roux, you can make the best gravy in the world, thicken any sauce or soup, and make a sauce for a creamy, rich casserole.

To make a roux, you start with equal parts butter (or another fat) and all purpose flour. Cook the two on medium heat, whisking to combine. Cook the mix, while stirring regularly, for three or four minutes, until it bubbles and begins to brown.

You’ll know the roux is cooked enough when it begins to smell yummy and is well-combined as it moves around the pan. It almost looks like a yeasty dough or paste. You can cook it longer to establish more flavor, but this doesn’t need to achieve a deep, dark brown for great flavor.

What should I do if the mixture is too thick?

Because you are making a homemade sauce rather than a condensed soup version, it can be tricky to get the right consistency. If you find that it is too thick, you can add a little more milk or sour cream to help thin it up.

What else makes this dish special?

The sour cream is obviously the star of the dish, with its creamy texture, zippy flavor, and rich consistency. But we can’t overlook some other key ingredients.

In addition to the green beans and the roux, we include some cooked white or yellow onion, to give it great flavor and a little more textural interest. And on the top, shredded cheddar cheese and crushed buttery crackers give it even more flavor, texture, and color.

To prepare the crackers, simply take about 25 Ritz or other buttery circle crackers, and place them in a quart or gallon bag. Push out all the air and seal closed. Gently crush the crackers with a rolling pin, bottom of a sturdy cup or pan, or a heavy canned good. Don’t take your anger out on the bag, otherwise it might pop or split open, spraying cracker crumbs everywhere!

Combine the crackers with melted butter for added flavor, and relish the richness of this special dish.

Does this freeze?

This dish will freeze/thaw without losing much of the good flavor, but you will lose the good crunchy texture, especially if it’s reheated in the microwave. If you want to reheat it and make sure it’s as good as the first time, add extra buttery crackers on top and reheat in the oven or toaster oven or air fryer.

Can I use cream cheese?

We haven’t tried this recipe using cream cheese, so it’s not something we would recommend.

Do I have to use cheddar cheese?

If you’d like to omit cheddar cheese or us another cheese, you can definitely do that.

Can I prepare this dish ahead of time?

You can prepare the dish earlier, add the crackers and bake immediately before serving, but plan for extra cook time if the mixture is going into the oven cold or cool.

How many servings does this dish make?

This dish makes about ten servings, but on holidays, people might eat a little extra.

How long do the leftovers last for?

It will stay in the fridge for about five days. You can freeze it, but it will lose its texture when reheated, especially in the microwave. If you do freeze it, do so in single serving sizes, and try to reheat in the toaster oven, oven, or air fryer, to maximize crispness and reduce curdling of the dairy.

We hope that you will love this green bean casserole recipe with sour cream as much as we do! It’s such a fun twist on the traditional green bean casserole, but it’s a twist everyone will be thanking you for! Whether this is a recipe for Thanksgiving or just for a weeknight meal, this is a great recipe all year round.

More Recipes You May Enjoy:

• Easy Instant Pot Green Beans – Crisp and Tasty!
• Instant Pot Green Beans Almondine
• How to Steam Green Beans (and Other Veggies Too)