These cast iron green beans are a delicious and flavorful side dish perfect for any meal. Serve them up with dinner and watch how quickly they become an instant family favorite!
Cooking green beans in a cast iron skillet is the best way to get even cooking and wonderfully blistered green beans. It helps to bring out the wonderful flavor of the beans while adding a nice amount of color to your plates as well.
If you love green bean recipes, then don't forget to try Air Fryer Frozen Green Beans, Italian Green Beans with Tomatoes, Air Fryer Canned Green Beans, and Instant Pot Green Beans.
Why This Recipe Works
- Simple ingredients. One of the best things about this recipe is that it uses very simple household ingredients, many of which you may already have on hand!
- They're flavorful. These pan seared green beans are packed with flavor in every soft and crisp bite. This green bean skillet recipe is a perfect blend of fresh green beans and garlic with a little tangy lemon for added freshness.
- They'll be great served with anything. Serve them up with a holiday feast, a simple Sunday roast, or at your next BBQ, and they're sure to be enjoyed at any occasion.
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🥘 Ingredients
Butter- You'll want the butter to help grease the pan and start the caramelization of the green beans.
Fresh green beans- This recipe uses freshly washed and trimmed green beans.
Soy sauce- Adding in soy sauce will help to give us a lot of great flavor depth.
Red pepper flakes- This is optional, but it adds a little color and a slight kick of heat.
Garlic cloves- You can use freshly minced garlic or the stuff in the jar.
Lemon juice- You'll want some lemon juice because it helps brighten the green beans' colors and adds a nice refreshing flavor profile.
Seasonings- Use salt, pepper, and paprika for more flavor enhancement.
For specific quantities, see the recipe card below.
🍽 Equipment Needed
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🔪 Instructions
Check out how to make cast iron green beans with these simple step-by-step instructions:
Heat your skillet over medium-high heat.
Melt the butter in the skillet.
Add in the fresh green beans and then cook until looking blistered and golden along the sides. This will take several minutes (about 10).
Add in the soy sauce, red pepper flakes, garlic, and paprika. Toss well to combine.
Now add in the lemon juice and stir to combine.
Serve warm.
🧾 How to Prep Green Beans
Prepare your green beans by first rinsing them in a colander under cool running water to remove any dirt.
Place the green beans on a towel to dry as you prepare a cutting board and knife.
Place the green beans horizontally onto the cutting board and arrange them so that the ends are all even with each other. I like to place my knife at the base of them and scoot them slightly to the left (I'm right-handed) and make sure that they're all even that way.
Next, use a large knife to trim off the ends. Trimming off about ¼ of an inch is fine. The goal is to remove those hard ends. You may need to trim some green beans more than others.
Alternatively, you can pick up each green bean and use your fingers to snap off the ends but this will take much longer.
If needed, cut or snap green beans in half so that they are all relatively the same length.
🍴 Recipe Tips
What size pan?
You can cook this in another similar sized pan. You do not have to cook it in a cast iron pan.
Campfire and Grill Approved!
Another great thing about cooking green beans in a skillet is that you can make these cast iron skillet green beans using a grill or campfire but you'll want direct heat at about 375 degrees F.
Cooking too quickly?
If you find that the green beans are blistering and turning golden but are still raw inside or still too crunchy for your liking, turn the heat down and place a piece of foil over the top to help steam the green beans a bit as they cook.
🥗 Side Dishes
This recipe goes great when served alongside simple main dishes like Crispy Sour Cream and Onion Chicken or Garlic and Brown Sugar Crusted Pork Roast.
💭 FAQs
While you can wash the green beans and let them dry on a paper towel-lined colander in the fridge for a few hours I do not recommend cutting off the ends until ready to cook. This is because once those ends are cut you are exposing the insides to air that can dry out the veggies. We don't want the green beans to dry and shrivel up.
While this recipe can be doubled I would only recommend that if you are using a 14 or 16-inch skillet as a 12-inch skillet would be too small to hold in all of the green beans and not make a mess. The cooking time might extend a few minutes as well get all of the beans blistered and the liquid to cook out of the pan.
I recommend either cooking them on a skillet until warmed through or placing them into the oven at 350 degrees F for a few minutes. Either of these methods will help to regain some of the crispness of the green beans while heating them through. If you like your green beans softer then you may microwave a serving at a time for about 1-2 minutes.
More great green bean side dish recipes to check out soon
- How to Roast Frozen Green Beans
- Heaven Berry Fluff Salad
- Oven Roasted Green Beans with Garlic and Parmesan
- Homemade Dinner Rolls
📖 Recipe
Cast Iron Green Beans
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Butter ($0.18)
- 16 ounces Fresh green beans, prepped ($1.68)
- 1 teaspoon Soy sauce ($0.10)
- ¼ teaspoon Red pepper flakes ($0.02)
- 2 cloves Garlic, minced ($0.10)
- ¼ teaspoon Paprika ($0.02)
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon juice ($0.10)
- Salt and pepper *to taste ($0.10)
Instructions
- Heat your skillet over medium-high heat.
- Melt the butter in the skillet.
- Add in the fresh green beans and then cook until looking blistered and golden along the sides. This will take several minutes (about 10).
- Add in the soy sauce, red pepper flakes, garlic, and paprika. Toss well to combine.
- Now add in the lemon juice and stir to combine.
- Serve warm.
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