This is an elegant-yet-easy side dish that even works to prep ahead of time. Fresh green beans are wrapped in bacon, roasted in the oven, and drizzled with a mouth watering buttery glaze. These Bacon-Wrapped Green Bean Bundles make a perfect appetizer or side dish!Â
Ingredient Notes
- Green Beans – Use fresh (not frozen or canned) green beans here. You will need 1 pound of beans after the ends have been snapped off, so go for a little over 1 pound when you’re buying them at the store. I am using french style green beans here.Â
- Bacon – Get regular sliced bacon, not thin cut.
- Rice Vinegar –Â You can find rice vinegar by the other vinegar and condiments in your grocery store, or near the Asian foods section. “Seasoned” or “unseasoned” is fine.
How to Make Bacon-Wrapped Green Bean Bundles
1Â Â Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.Â
2. Wash and snap the ends off your green beans.Â
3. When the water is boiling, briefly boil (blanch) the beans for 2 minutes . Quickly drain and rinse in cold water until the beans have cooled. You can also plunge in a bowl of ice water.
4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. On a parchment or foil-lined cookie sheet, divide the green beans evenly into 8-10 piles and wrap each one with a slice of bacon. Place on baking sheet with ends of bacon on the bottom.
*This step can be done up to a day ahead of time.
5. When the oven is ready, place the pan in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the bacon is crisp and sizzling.
6. While the bundles are in the oven, melt the butter over medium-high heat in a small saucepan. When the butter is bubbly, add in the onions and garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes or until the onions are softened and fragrant. Reduce heat to low and add in vinegar, sugar, and salt. Remove from heat and set aside.
7. When ready to serve, place bean bundles on a serving platter and drizzle with sauce. Serve immediately.
FAQs
Can I make these ahead of time? Feel free to blanch your beans up to a day ahead of time. You can even wrap your green bean bundles with bacon a day ahead of time and store, covered, in the refrigerator until ready to bake. The sauce is best prepared right before serving.Â
Related Recipes
Looking for more side dishes or appetizers? Check out these Our Best Bites favorites:
- Caramelized Green Beans
- Sweet and Sour Meatballs {Easy!}
- Cranberry Orange Goat Cheese Bites
- Honey Cranberry Orange Baked Brie
- Mini Pastry Wrapped Brie Bites
- Pastry Wrapped Asparagus With Prosciutto
- Bacon Wrapped Green Bean Bundles
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Bacon-Wrapped Green Bean Bundles
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 Bundles
Description
Makes a delicious side or appetizer! Sweet and sour garlic butter sauce is drizzled over crispy bacon-wrapped green bean bundles.
Ingredients
1 pound green beans with the ends snapped off (buy or pick about 1 1/2 pounds so you’ll have 1 pound after the beans’ ends have been snapped)
8 slices regular or thin cut sliced bacon
3 tablespoon real butter (no substitutions!)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon finely minced red onion
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
Instructions
Wash and snap the ends off. Discard any sickly looking, overly skinny, limp, or yucky-looking beans.
When the water is boiling, briefly boil (blanch) the beans for 2-3 minutes or until you start hearing a popping noise and the beans have turned bright green. Quickly drain and rinse in cold water until the beans have cooled.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
On a cookie sheet, divide the green beans evenly into 8 piles. Carefully bundle each pile of beans with one slice of bacon and return to the baking sheet. This step can be done up to a day ahead of time.
When the oven is ready, place the pan in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the bacon is crisp and sizzling. While the bundles are in the oven, melt the butter over medium-high heat in a small saucepan. When the butter is bubbly, add in the onions and garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes or until the onions are softened and fragrant. Reduce heat to low and add in vinegar, sugar, and salt. Remove from heat and set aside.
When ready to serve, place bean bundles on a serving platter and drizzle with sauce. Serve immediately.
Notes
Prep ahead:
Green beans can be blanched ahead of time. You can wrap the bundles in bacon ahead of time as well, and store, covered, in the fridge until baking time.
I’ve made these for several potlucks. Those fortunate enough to snag a bundle before they’re gone have always raved about them.
Can you substitute the rice vinegar?? Looks YUMMY!
Will you please clarify what steps can be done in advance? I want to make these for Thanksgiving and prefer to cook as much as I can the day before. Thanks!
Thanks for posting this recipe. I made it for the first time today for our Thanksgiving Meal, and it turned out awesome. And so much easier that I had thought it would be. It was a hit, and will be added to our vegetable rotation on a regular basis now!
These are incredibly good! For years, green beans have been my “go-to” vegetable since everyone in the family likes them(I’ve never found anyone who DIDN’T like green beans!) Over the years, I’ve tried to change up ways to serve them……Love putting bacon IN the beans, but never thought about wrapping on the outside. Ingenious! And the garlicy butter is the perfect topping. This recipe will definitely be used again, for sure. THANKS!
I can’t wait to try this recipe. I am a green bean junkie 🙂 Looks awesome, thanks for sharing 🙂
Oh my word!!! We made this with dinner tonight along side your Lemon-Herb Zucchini Fettuccine (yes…not a typical pairing…) and it was amazing!!! I’m cooking my way through your fabulous cookbook and love love love it!
🙂 Julie- what a good idea to cook through their cookbook. I’ll have to try that too!
If you are in a hurry, I use canned whole green beans. Wrap them in bacon, put some butter in the dish and sprinkle brown sugar over them… bake them until the bacon is done…
I made this with asparagus tonight (along side Cheddar Broccoli soup with potatoes and corn bread…it was an OBB night.) Anyway they were really yummy, so if anyone does it, I just wouldn’t cook the asparagus at all before baking with the bacon.
Wonder if you could cook the bacon a little in the microwave before wrapping it around the green bean bundles… then it might cook up a little crispier, and the beans wouldn’t dry out?
I am making these for Thanksgiving dinner this year… hoping to “wow” my father-in-law who is the worlds pickiest eater. =)
These look so good. I guess my Thanksgiving menu just changed. Thanks for the idea.
Think I may try this out with asparagus! This looks so good!
Just made these for friends last night, and can I just say they seriously stole the show! They were delicious and everyone wanted the recipe. I love that they are so easy, elegant, tasty, unique, and can be done ahead of time!
I found these in your cookbook (when’s the next one coming out?!) and tried them first with asparagus spears and lean turkey bacon, which is what I had on hand. Turned out so yummy! Thanks for all the inspiration. I look forward to reading your blog and browsing your website often.
My husband rarely goes back for seconds on anything I make :), but he definitely did on these! I just discovered your site this week, and this is the second recipe I’ve made from it. The first also brought him back for seconds!
Making these to go along with Easter dinner, I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for ages and I’m finally getting around to making it! Thanks again!
Made these for the second time tonight and they were super tasty.The sauce is sooo good!! I LOVE you ladies. I don't comment often but I am so grateful all the time you put into this website. You make cooking so much fun! Everytime I make one of your recipes I get tons of compliments and almost always a request for the recipe.I always direct people to your website I love sharing my secret weapon :)There are few things more satisfying that than someone raving about the food you've created for them. Thanks for all the tips and tricks that help me make these delicious recipes to successfully! Every recipe I've tried has been wonderful, and I've tried quite a few of them. You rock!!
Just an FYI if anyone reads through these comments for tips like I always do. 🙂
Both times I've made these they took longer than 15min more like 20+. Although it seems like the leaner the bacon the quicker they cook. Mine ended a bit on the over cooked side (I ended up duped by the packaging on some lower qulaity bacon). Next time I'll be more careful to spend a few more bucks on the bacon and not blanch the beans as long.
I made this for Christmas dinner – it was a *huge* hit, almost eclipsed the presents! For some strange cosmic twist, the green beans act as a bacon accelerator and send the bacon-y flavor into the strastosphere. A.maz.ing. From my whole family, thank you, bacon goddesses.
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I'm serving it for Thanksgiving.
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I just found this. I Love bacon. I love green beans. I may do this also with some of the skinnier pieces of asparagus I have around here. mmmmmm. BACON!
Just made these tonight for my mother-in-laws family birthday dinner. We had salmon, watermelon-herb-feta salad (VERY deLIsH!!) and these beans. The beans were fantastic. The flavor of the drizzle is wonderful. We cooked them for what seemed like nearly a half hour and finally pulled them out because although the bacon still didn't seem cooked, the beans were starting to dry out. We just peeled the bacon off and enjoyed the wonderful flavor of the beans. They looked beautiful to serve too.