GREEN BEANS AND POTATOES
Green beans and potatoes is one of my favorite side dishes. I grew up on this dish. I remember when my mother cooked fresh green beans and potatoes straight from the garden seasoned with a ham hock and we could not get enough. They were just that good! Mama used pork jowl and salt pork or just plain bacon as seasonings in any kind of beans she made for us.
Green Beans and Potatoes Ingredients Needed
Fresh, frozen or canned green beans (If fresh, remove ends and break into pieces and wash the beans)
Red potatoes, cut in pieces (I have made this using any kind of potatoes)
Chicken broth or 1 (14.5 ounce) can (You don’t have to use the chicken broth. I just think it makes them better)
Ham hock (Can use cooked ham, bacon, pork jowl or salt pork about a half cup, chopped)
Water
Black pepper
Salt
Onion (Optional)
Minced garlic (Optional)
You can add a couple teaspoons bacon drippings if you are just using ham. This will add flavor to the beans. Green beans ham and potatoes is a classic combination but you can use other seasoning meat. We make this dish all the time and use what every seasoning meat we have on hand. We recently updated the photos on this dish and we used thick cut bacon and bacon drippings.
Recently I posted these on Facebook and a great debate broke out about why you would ever cook green beans this long. This individual had never had them and couldn’t understand.. but I assure you this is the way we love green beans. Slow cooked and they become very tender, not mushy and they potatoes are perfect. The “pot likker” aka.. the liquid leftover from cooking the beans is so good to dip your cornbread in! Delicious and one of the reasons we love this dish so much.
Tips for these delicious green beans:
- If you using canned green beans you want to drain them. The chicken broth and water is the liquid you want to be the main players in this recipe.
- If cooking on the stove I bring them to a boil, turn to simmer or low and cover. You could cook uncovered but covering keeps the liquid from cooking out of the pot. Either way, just make sure you don’t let them cook dry.
- Slow cooking these beans is what makes this dish! Don’t rush the process and they are even better the next day so you can easily make this dish in advance or eat on it for a few days.
This dish goes great with our Brown Sugar Meatloaf!
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Green Beans and Potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 lbs fresh, frozen or canned green beans (If fresh, remove ends and break into pieces and wash the beans)
- 6 or 7 red potatoes cut in pieces (I have made this using any kind of potatoes)
- 1 to 2 cups chicken broth or 1 14.5 ounce can (You don't have to use the chicken broth. I just think it makes them better)
- 1 ham hock Can use cooked ham, bacon, pork jowl or salt pork about a half cup, chopped
- 2 to 3 cups water
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup finely diced onion Optional
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic Optional
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a large pot, bring to a boil, then turn to medium low and cook about 1 1/2 hours until potatoes are done and water has cooked down. You can also do this in the crockpot and let cook on low 6 to 7 hours or high 4 hours.
Notes
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Hi, how many cans of Green Beans do need for this recipe? Do I use a pound or half of a pound of bacon? How much of the bacon grease should I add to the Green Beans?
Julie, you would need however many cans it takes to make 2lbs.. a quick google search will give you that information.. but there are 16 ounces in a pound. So about 2 cans. You wouldn’t need that much bacon, maybe 3-4 slices. This is a very versatile recipe, you can play with the amounts and it’s still going to turn out. It clearly says in the notes on the recipe ‘You can add a couple teaspoons bacon drippings if you are just using ham. This will add flavor to the beans.”
Want to try these…. cannot get great fresh green beans .
You mention using canned, but would the dish be overly salty ?
Thinking of canned Italian flat beans (unseasoned)…. what’s your thoughts.
No, I dont think it will be overly salty. I always rinse my canned beans, just put them in a strainer and really rinse them first. I will say everyone’s version of “salty” is different.
Those beans will be perfect!
Won’t the canned green beans get mushy waiting for the potatoes to cook in the crock pot?
Southern green beans are mushy.. they are not hard. That is why people cook green beans all day.
I made this tonight for a quick meal, I used butter to brown potatoes, left ham hock out and sliced kielbasa through in with potatoes and added seasoned Italian green beans….the onion and seasonings. I pot meal and family loves it
This is the most straight forward recipe on green beans and potatoes I could find! Every other one I saw had a ton of steps! Most of which, seemed excessive to me. Thank you so much! I’ll check out more recipes. :>)
You’re very welcome! So glad found it!
I agree with you on cooking green beans for hr or 2 on slow once boiled. Least that’s the way we do it and my grandmas did too and were hard to beat with or without potatoes. I have a pot on the stove as I type this. I have tried them only cooking for 5 minutes and whenever I eat out at a nice restaurant they do it that way and yet I have never liked them anywhere close to cooking them down . I add brown sugar sometimes after draining most of the water if I don’t have potatoes in the pot and that makes them even more delicious.
Oh, my! I’m originally from Georgia, and this looks and sounds just like my mother’s! Thank you.
I have always loved this dish. This recipe is excellent. I made a large pot, but I live by myself. Is it possible to freeze?
Yes, I think this will freeze well.
If using the crock-pot, should I reduce the liquid?
I would think it would still be about the same amount.
OH and I failed to add – No Ham? No Bacon? Throw in a piece of bologna and add a little cooking oil – my mother swore by corn oil. It works and adds the right touch of “grease” and flavor. Have used on black eyed peas and greens when desperate. 🙂
All this needs is some yeast / Light bread rolls and some yellow squash stewed with onions; and sliced tomatoes on the side, and I would be sitting at MY Grandma’s table in Little Rock, Arkansas. These are nothing like the squeaky barely cooked green beans I normally serve and that is the point. Cooked forever green beans and potatoes are a dish unto themselves. Those lovely red potatoes need plenty of black pepper. Just so good.
Perfect recipe. You said they’re better the next day but we never have leftovers. Only after I fell in love with the recipe did I realize that you’re a Walkup. . My daddy’s family hails from Kentucky and Oklahoma. Stay blessed.
That is so wild! We are from Kentucky and my father lived in Oklahoma for many years. We are so thrilled you enjoy the recipes.
Hello Ladies,
I am so glad that I subscribed to your newsletters, your recipes are ” a taste of home”. Sometimes when I can’t figure out what I want to eat, I open my mail and you supply the tastiest, complete meals and everything is absolutely delicious. And I love that you seem to address your newsletters like you are talking to a friend, that explains us having dinner together, LOL Well, Have a Happy Holiday Season, stay blessed.
Beatrice
Thank you so much for this very thoughtful comment. This absolutely made our day!! This is exactly what we hope to provide through our website and newsletters. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season!
I like the comment, “Why would anybody cook green beans that long?!”
That’s like asking, “Why would anybody add eggs and sugar to milk and then freeze it?!”
Wonderful recipe!! Brings back so many memories of green beans and potatoes fresh from the garden. I know, Yankees just don’t get it!! We Southern folk like our green beans soft, not crunchy!!! Great recipe. Please keep up the good old Southern recipes!! Thanks, ladies!! Love your website!
You’re so welcome and we are so thrilled you enjoy the recipes!
I also grew up eating Green Beans cooed with potatoes
. My mother used regular ole Irish potatoes as there was not so many varieties back then.
It is still a favorite spring dish
This recipe is so easy and hearty. It will definitely be one we use repeatedly. I, too, love lots of black pepper added after serving. A home run, for sure!
I grew up eating green beans and potatoes. So good!! I cooked them for my family too. You don’t really need anything else because you can eat the meat you cooked them in, which usually has cooked all to pieces, and the green beans and potatoes. So good with or without anything else!! Thank you for sharing this and stirring up good memories.
I haven’t thought about this dish in a long time. My Dad did most of the cooking because he got home from work earlier than my Mom. He made this with bacon & bacon grease. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
My mom always had a can of bacon grease in the fridge.
It was so fun to see this green bean/potato recipe. My grandmother made this regularly with fresh green beans. Always with bacon grease slow cooked. My mom did and my sisters and I still do!
Hi, what can I use instead of a Ham Hock? Can’t wait to try! Thank you.
Hello, if you read the recipe, it tells you all the different types of meat you can use for seasoning. Thanks so much!!!
This is the first produce from our spring garden. Green beans and new potatoes the size of a log roller marble up to a golf ball. I work on my ham broth each time we cook a ham. While slicing the ham for serving, all of the skin, fat, sinew and bone go in my slow cooker. The bone is thoroughly trimmed of meat and the ham bits are placed aside. Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to the 6 qt. slow cooker and fill with water. Cook on low for 10-12 hours and strain contents and discard scraps. Refrigerate broth until fat (ham flavored lard) congeals and skim. The broth will be like jello, very flavorful concentrate of ham flavor. Now divide your set aside ham bits into your individual freezer containers. My 3 cup Glad containers with 1/ 1/2 C. ham bits and cover with broth will season a 5 qt pot of whatever. Okra Gumbo, Okra & Tomatoes, Red Rice, Soup Beans, etc!!!
Your posts are great, reading the reviews are very entertaining. Thank You
I made these using my ninja foodie and the pressure cooker setting. Just tossed everything in the inner pot along with a slice of leftover honey baked ham. Set the pressure cook on high for 9 minutes then let it sit for 5 minutes. Then vented until steam was released. Excellent flavor and texture!!
Is that Henn Pottery blue stoneware? I’ve only seen one other person that has it.
No it sure isn’t.
Growing up in the 60’s this was the same set of dishes we had. My mom had the whole set, dinner plates, cups and saucers, etc. Every meal that’s what we used and so nice to see it on this account ❤️
Love!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you! I was searching to see if I wanted to use cubed ham or bacon slices.
I prefer fresh green beans straight from one of the family farms. My next choice would be Bush’s Green and Shelly beans. Impossible to find around here now.
I use soup base and make my own broth as weak or as strong as I want it. I like having jars of ham, chicken, and beef base around all the time. They take up a small space and last a very long time.
I look forward to reading more of your pages.
Many years ago, a black church friend turned me on to using smoked pork neck bones. They are absolutely the best thing to use for fresh green beans and especially collards or other greens.
Boil them for a while in the water you’re going to use, then after you see and smell it ready, put your beans or greens in to cook.
I use 3 or 4 neck bones at a time and keep a package in the freezer. Most grocery stores carry them. Try it! The smoky pork flavor is great!
Thanks for the great tip!!
Question for the Southern Lady. What is the best way to Cook frozen green beans
I cook them just like in our recipe. I do not thaw first. Here is the link to the recipe. https://thesouthernladycooks.com/2013/12/16/green-beans-potatoes/
When I cook fresh
Or canned green beans I always use one medium onion bacon, ham hock and a little bacon grease. Several potatoes quartered and if canned only dump half the water out. Sometimes I will add a can of diced tomatoes. It is delishous. Don’t forget
To add water to fresh ones.
I just made a big pot of it last week. Used a country ham (small smoked pork) about 2 lbs. At the end of cooking time, I stirred in a cornstarch slurry, and it gave the broth a nice consistency. Preference, that’s all.
they say the only dumb question is the unasked one, so, with that in mind . . . lid on or off to cook the beans on the stove? 🙂
I bring them to a boil, turn to simmer or low and cover. You could cook uncovered but covering keeps the liquid from cooking out of the pot. Either way, just make sure you don’t let them cook dry. Don’t ever hesitate to ask, Lynda. Have a great week ahead and I hope you enjoy this recipe.
In Chattanooga TN it’s called Better Than Bullion, or BTB, and is great stuff.
My family is from the upstate New York North Country.My mom and my grandmom made this boiled dinner in the fall when it started to get cold. Warmed our bellies and our souls!
Thank you so much for this recipe. My dear departed mother in law used to make these on holidays. I haven’t had them in years and it was like having her at our table again. I even served them in one of her bowls. I think the fam thought I was a little crazy because all I could talk about at dinner were these wonderful beans like Grandma used to make. Truth be told my girls hated them back in the day as young kids, but loved them today. I am a northern city girl raised on boxes and cans. I love to cook and look forward to all of your posts!
Thank you Ellen for the wonderful comment. I am so glad you found this recipe and it brought back such fond memories. Thank you so much for sharing. Have a wonderful week.
Good Lord how I miss my people…
My mom used fresh green beans red potatoes a lb of bacon and cream style corn..let it cook in a roaster on low all day at camp…yummy..now we all do it..
MY MOMMY USED TO MAKE THE GREEN BEAN AND POTATO DISH AND JUST BEFORE WE SAT DOWN SHE WOULD PUT CORN ON THE COB ON TOP ONE BEANS AND PUT LID ON AND LET IT KINDA STEAM….A GOOD MEAL ALL IN ONE POT.. I LOVED IT
Seeing these made my mouth water and long for summer. I am a Florida transplant for Kentucky where I grew my own beans. Now I have to wait for summer or use Allen’s canned beans. The ham hock from my Christmas Kentucky Country ham will do nicely. Now if I could only get some decent tomatoes.
My mother always made this vegetable dish. Well, my grandmother too. They always used salt pork, (streak-o-lean). They would cut off a small block then cut through the meaty part to the skin, then leave the block intact with the slices fanned out. She added the potatoes last. She used fresh green beans from the garden or home canned beans. This was on our table every Sunday.
I married a gentleman from Georgia and the first time I visited my in-laws my mother-in-law made this dish. That was in 1959 and it has been my very favorite southern dish ever since. So simple to put together, makes a meal all in one and has such flavor. My mother-in-law used salt pork but I am from the Northwest and I have chosen to use ham or bacon or combination of both. Onion is a must. For convenience I usually use top brand canned green beans and allow all to simmer until all flavors developed together. As an option to change up at different times: a sprinkle of dill or small sprig of thyme. The original recipe: Oh so great!
I live in Texas, but grew up in Salem, Ohio. My mom made this all the time. She would boil a picnic ham and it was gone down to the bone, she would use it to make this dish. I’ve been making it for family and friends in Texas for forty years. Everybody loves it, but most had never heard of it. I also use smoked sausage sometimes. Yum.
Been eating green beans and potatoes and macaroni with tomatoes all my life here in PA. I wonder where they and when they started.
This is the only way to cook green beans. Just had some for supper last night!
This was in reply to the two ladies from Virginia who couldn’t find ham hocks
I get smoked ham hocks at Walmart!I use them when I make bean soup.
I Love this recipe. Wonderful. A friend told me about this one but never told me how to do it. She mixed it but now I have it. Thanks a lot
If you use canned green beans ,do you drain them ? Also about how many cans of green beans do you use?. Thanks
I would use about 4 regular sized cans and yes, I would drain them.
I love this however I add about a lb of kielbasa cut up in bite size pieces. So good.
This has been a huge hit with family and friends.I made it three times in the first 10 days I had it !!
I have been doing them this way for years, I usually make a meal of it.
I have always made my greens beans like this…with bacon..everything the same I just have never tried with chicken broth…
This is unreal. So simple. Put too much fluid in crockpot for scaled down recipe..took off lid..let cook longer. How did I never know about this dish..m guess because I’m a Yankee.
Um um. Thank you for sharing this. This dish is one of the best. My great aunts and ggm would serve this often and if it weren’t for self discipline i would have licked to bowl and turned it up to slurp the liquor remaining. Fresh green beans is a must and just about any potato will do. Never had it with the cabbage. Great site and good recipes. Definitely a ‘go to site’ for creative cooking.
This is a favorite of mine. My mother was from Kentucky, and she made this often, only she added fresh carrots to it and about 15 minutes before she took it off the stove she would add fresh corn cut off the cob. Served with cornbread, it was a full meal : )
You can also cook this in pressure cooker,on high for 15 min. Use only 2 cups of liquid.
Yes.
Yes I cooked home grown or home canned or just can green beans in pressure cooker with potatoes 10 min. on high pressure & then turn off & let them sit for 15 -30 to absorb the flavor while I finished cooking & getting the rest of the meal ready like cornbread.
I have also used smoked sausage in them
Yum, this is how my mother & I make green beans (without onions or garlic). I grew up in northeastern Ohio & received unseasoned, canned green beans in the school cafeteria. But my Kentucky Mama knew how to make them right. So I learned to eat both but I love the Southern ones & only make them now. The only problem I have been having for the last few years is finding ham hocks around here (central Virginia). I’ve been using bacon/grease. I’ve also used beef broth when chicken broth is unavailable & it makes the beans taste as good as the chicken. My favorite beans are the white half runners. In my book they are the best. But again, I have not found them in this area. Merry Christmas!
I too live in VA. Piedmont region. Try asking your butcher, you will probably do best at an independent local market that butchers their own meat. If not, try this: simmer ham bone in enough water that you will use to cook your beans. Then remove bone and discard. I would eliminate the broth from the recipe as you have essentially made your own. I always freeze my ham bone for a later use like this. Great taste and I love the little ham pieces that fall off in the pot to be in my beans! You can use the bone in this way for this recipe or pinto beans, or the water base for vegetable beef soup. Yummy. HTH.
You can also try “ham base”… not sure exactly what it is called but you should be able to find it with chicken/beef stock and bullion. It’s a paste. Just add a tablespoon or so to your beans. Beef stock is good as well (learned that in a weight-loss class). Gives the beans loads of flavor!