Air fryer canned green beans is a delicious and simple side dish perfect for any meal. Add flavor and color to your plate with this frugal recipe.
Recipe: $1.79 | Per Serving: $0.45 | Servings: 4

We really enjoy eating canned green beans. In fact, they may be our preferred version of these green veggies (don't tell that to our Instant Pot Steamed Broccoli).
While we normally cook them on the stovetop in The Best Canned Green Bean Recipe, I couldn't help but try putting them in the air fryer. The results are pretty awesome.
My air fryer gets a lot of action, and we've cooked everything from Frozen Mozzarella Sticks to an Air Fryer Club Sandwich, and even a pumpkin pie! So why not canned veggies? I've made Air Fryer Canned Corn and now green beans too.
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🍯 Why This Recipe Works
- It's easy. This recipe uses basic seasonings to keep things nice and simple. Perfect for Making a Healthy Grocery List On a Budget.
- It's cheap! Canned vegetables are one of the cheapest forms of vegetables unless you pluck them from the garden yourself or get them free. Add in some basic and frugal pantry staples, and you're looking at a very affordable dish.
- No oven is needed. This recipe is perfect whether your oven is temporarily out of commission, looking for recipes to cook while you're out of the house and only keeping a few appliances handy, or you simply don't want to heat up the house.
🥘 Ingredients
Ingredient Notes:
Canned green beans- You will need a can of your favorite green beans. Any cut will work fine but French-cut green beans may cook faster and become crispy. If you have more cans of green beans on hand, try our Sausage Green Bean Potato Casserole.
Seasonings- Keep things simple with some basic pantry staple seasonings like salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
For specific ingredients and measurements, please see the recipe card below.
🥣 Recipe Add-Ins
Bacon. Feel free to add in some (already cooked) strips of bacon or some real pieces of bacon bits. This can really help to elevate the dish.
Melted butter. If desired, add 1-2 tablespoons of melted butter to the bowl when mixing everything together for a richer taste.
🔪 Instructions for Air Fryer Canned Green Beans
Step 1: Add all of the ingredients to a large mixing bowl.
Step 2: Gently toss well to coat evenly.
Step 3: Place everything into the basket of your air fryer.
Step 4: Air fry at 365 degrees F for 8 minutes.
Serve warm. Enjoy!
🍴 Recipe Tips
Sodium Reduction:
- Check Labels: When aiming to lower sodium intake, check labels on canned green beans while shopping. Some brands have significantly higher sodium levels, especially "organic" options.
- Rinse Green Beans: To reduce sodium, drain and rinse the green beans with water. This helps remove excess sodium, mainly found in the liquid.
Handling Green Beans. Be Gentle. Take care when mixing green beans as they are prone to squishing. Regular-cut green beans are more forgiving than French-cut ones, but use whichever you prefer.
🍳 Reheating
Microwave Method: Place one serving of green beans on a microwave-safe plate and microwave for about 30 seconds.
Stovetop Method: Alternatively, reheat the green beans in a skillet on the stove over medium heat. Adding a little pad of butter can help to rehydrate the green beans.
Note: If reheating 1-2 servings, the microwave is convenient. For larger portions, the skillet method may be preferred.
⏲️ Make Ahead Instructions
Want to make dinner a little more quickly? Prepare the green bean and onion mixture in a baggie and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days before cooking them. This means all you'll need to do later is plop them in the air fryer and push a few buttons.
👩🏻🍳 Storage
You can keep leftover cooked green beans in the fridge for up to 4 or 5 days. I recommend eating them when they are freshest, as that is when they'll taste the best.
💭 Recipe FAQs
Green beans are full of great vitamins and nutrients like vitamin K, calcium, potassium, fiber, and folic acid. Canned veggies can be just as healthy and nutritious as fresh or frozen veggies because canning helps to preserve these qualities.
You don't "have to" rinse your green beans, but I recommend doing it whenever a recipe specifically asks for it (like this one does). This helps to improve the flavor and helps the green beans to retain shape when cooked.
By adding flavors! If you simply reheat a can of green beans without adding anything to it, there's a good chance no one will want to eat it as-is. But, if we add salt, pepper, and a few more spices to it, we can really have a delicious dish everyone will enjoy.
❤️ More Delicious Side Dish Recipes
If you tried this Air Fryer Canned Green Beans, please leave a ⭐️ star rating and share your feedback in the 📝 comments section below. I would truly appreciate it!
📖 Recipe
Air Fryer Canned Green Beans
Ingredients
- 2 cans (15oz) green beans, drained and rinsed ($1.28)
- ½ onion, sliced thinly ($0.46)
- ¼ teaspoon salt ($0.01)
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper ($0.02)
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder ($0.02)
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a large mixing bowl.
- Gently toss well to coat evenly.
- Place everything into the basket of your air fryer.
- Air fry at 365 degrees F for 8 minutes.
- Serve warm. Enjoy!
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