Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans are a traditional side dish in the South. Green beans simmer in bacon infused broth until tender and flavorful. Low carb and keto! Using an Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker cuts your cook time to only a few minutes.
Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans
Oh yes, you knew it was only a matter of time, before I posted my famous Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans recipe.
Southerners really love their long cooking, soft green beans and bacon.
From living in Charleston, South Carolina for a few years, I gained appreciation for this Southern staple.
Cast of Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans
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Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans.
- Thick sliced bacon.
- Onions
- Butter and Fresh Garlic
- Sea Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Sambal Oelek Ground Chili Paste or a favorite hot sauce
- String Beans
One Inch Chopped Bacon Pieces
What is Southern Style Green Beans?
It is a very popular and staple side dish found in the South.
Bacon is pan fried and the string beans are coated in bacon grease. Bacon is cut into one inch pieces. The fat from the bacon will render. Coupled with the liquid from the onions, a nice and rich “broth” is born!
Liquid is added to the pot and the beans simmer or a couple of hours until very soft and tender.
Diced Onions, Minced Garlic
Tender sting beans are the star of the show.
Diced onions and minced garlic add to the flavor of the cooking broth.
With a sharp knife, dice the onions and mince the garlic.
Trim Green Beans, Remove Strings
Fresh Sting Beans work best for the best flavor and texture. Green beans should snap when broken in half.
There should not be any brown spots on them.
How to Prepare Green Beans
- Cut off the ends.
- Pull the sting from the seam of the beans. Hence the name “string” beans.
- Chop the beans in half and place in a bowl of water.
For the holiday season, another green bean recipe to try is my Pressure Cooker Green Bean Casserole.
Enjoy my Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans with Pressure Cooker Braised Short Ribs!
Sauté Bacon and Onions in Butter
How to make Southern Style Green Beans.
- Start with a very hot pot.
- Add butter and bacon and cook to render fat.
- Add diced onions, seasonings and make a cooking broth.
- The onions will release water, which helps to deglaze the cooking pot.
- Cook green beans until tender.
The butter adds a rich flavor and helps keep the bacon from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Hot sauce (try my homemade recipe) or red pepper flakes are commonly used in Southern Green Beans. However, I prefer using Sambal Oelek Ground Chili Paste, as the flavor doesn’t interfere with the other flavors and gives the beans a very nice taste, without being spicy hot.
Scrape Bottom of Pot as Onions Cook
As the onions and bacon are cooking, use a good wooden spatula to scrape the bottom of the pot.
The stuck on bits at the bottom of the pot is called “fond.” It is full of flavor.
It won’t all come up at this step, so don’t worry.
Fresh Garlic and Seasonings
The small amount of water will help to remove the rest of the fond from the bottom of the pot.
Use a good, firm spatula and make sure the bottom of the pot is free from any stuck on brown bits.
Some people like to add a ham hock. Others use chicken broth. If you don’t have my Homemade Bone Broth available, grab some Better than Bouillon Chicken Base.
Bacon and Onion Grease Broth
When making Southern Style Green Beans on the stove top, several cups of water is added.
The string beans simmer for a couple of hours, until the liquid has evaporated and the beans are infused with the bacon onion broth.
As my Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Bean recipe cooks in a Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker, not much water is needed since it is cooking ins a sealed chamber. The green beans themselves will release enough water to easily bring the pot to pressure.
Can Potatoes Be Added?
- Yes, small or new potatoes work well. The cooking time does not change.
Coat Green Beans in Bacon Grease Broth
Tips and Tricks for Instant Pot Southern Green Beans
- Use thick sliced bacon, so that it doesn’t disintegrate during cooking.
- Regular, not flavored bacon, gives the most authentic flavor.
- Chop up the bacon before cooking,as it will cook faster.
- Pull the string out of the green/string beans before cutting. You don’t want stringy chewy strings messing with your Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans!
- Scrape up fond with a good spatula while bacon is cooking.
Coat String Beans with Bacon Broth
The onions will continue to break down and add to the water content.
Here is the best part! No cooking for a few hours.
The beans only need a short cook time and it is all hands off.
Go check out my other recipes, while the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker is doing the hard work.
Pressure Cooker Southern Style String Beans
When I lived in Charleston, literally, every restaurant served Southern Green Beans.
All my friends would cook them several times a week. I can’t wait for you to try my recipe.
More Southern Recipes to Enjoy:
- Pressure Cooker Boiled Peanuts
- Pressure Cooker Southern Style Cheesy Grits
- Southern Style Old Fashion Buttermilk Biscuits
- Air Fryer Southern Fried Catfish {Louisiana Cajun Style}
- Southern Style Turkey Sausage Gravy
- Holiday Party Ham Buns Southern Baked Ham Cheese Sandwiches
Kitchen Equipment and Essentials
- Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
- J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
- Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
- Simply Gourmet (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
- Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
- Cilio Olivewood Spatula
- Porcelain & Bamboo Salt Box with Spoon
- Gravity Electric Salt and Pepper Grinder
- My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
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If you share a picture of something you make from our blog, tag it with #thisoldgalcooks so we can see it. We might feature it on Instagram! It makes my day when I see you’ve made one of our recipes!
Here is the handy printable recipe.
Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans
Print Pin Save RateIngredients
- 2 Tablespoons Butter
- 7 ounces Thick Bacon (6 slices) rough chopped
- 1/2 cup Yellow/Brown Onion
- 1/3 cup Fresh Water or chicken broth
- 3 cloves Fresh Garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon Sambal Oelek Ground Chili Paste or Red Pepper Flakes
- 2 pounds String Beans trimmed/string removed
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Instructions
- Select Sauté or Browning on pressure cooker and allow to fully heat.
- Add butter and chopped bacon. Cook until bacon has begun to render grease and become slightly brown.
- Add onions and continue to saute until onions have become soft. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pot to remove the fond (stuck on brown bits).
- Add garlic, salt, pepper, hot sauce. Pour in water and deglaze the pot, so that nothing is stuck on the bottom.
- Add string beans and coat with the bacon broth.
- Lock on lid and close pressure valve. Cook at high pressure for 5 minutes. When Beep sounds, wait 15 minutes and then release the pressure. Keep pot on keep warm and allow liquid to evaporate.
Notes
Nutrition
Pin it Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans
Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans
