Green Bean Casserole

It's better than you think. This one's from Alton Brown. I found this make-it-from-scratch recipe for green bean casserole on (are you ready for this?) Swagbucks TV. I was earning a few Swagbucks watching their Food videos and saw this one. I called Chuck over to watch it, too, and we decided to try it. The recipe calls for a large cast iron skillet, but I used my Dutch oven.

Green Bean Casserole

by Alton Brown, courtesy of Swagbucks TV

Ingredients

for the topping:

2 small or 1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons panko bread crumbs (regular bread crumbs will work, but not nearly as well)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

non-stick spray

for the casserole:

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound fresh or frozen green beans, trimmed, preferably blanched

1 Tablespoons unsalted butter

12 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup half and half

Preheat oven to 475 F - yes, 475.

Combine the onions, flour, panko, and salt in a large mixing bowl and toss to combine. Coat a sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray and evenly spread the onions on the pan. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake until golden brown, approximately 20 minutes. Toss onions 2-3 times during cooking. Once done, remove from the oven and set aside until ready to use. Turn the oven down to 400 degrees F.

While the onions are cooking, prepare the beans. Mr. Brown suggests blanching them now. I used garden beans that I'd blanched before freezing, so I didn't take the time to do it again. So...on the with beans.

Melt the butter in a 12-inch cast iron skillet (or Dutch oven) set over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms begin to give up some of their liquid, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and nutmeg and continue to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Add the broth and simmer for another one minute. Decrease the heat to medium-low and add the half-and-half. Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, approximately 6-8 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 of the onions and all of the green beans. Top with the remaining onions. Place pan into the oven and bake until bubbly, approximately 15 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.

No, this is not a sponsored post, either by Alton Brown or by Swagbucks. If you'd like to sign up for Swagbucks, a fun way of earning something for nothing, there's a button at the top of my right sidebar. If you sign up through me, I get a few "bucks" for recruiting. Other than that, I just keep having fun searching for random rewards and earning points by watching recipes that I might actually make!

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