My low and slow method for cooking Old Fashioned Southern Style Green Beans with its beautiful, smoky ham hock broth for flavoring will take you straight to the country, no matter where you live!
I shouldn’t write this post. I know I shouldn’t. Before I write even one word, I know I’m going to be blasted. The green bean patrol is going to be all over me.
I know that I’m supposed to like my fresh green beans just blanched. All bright green and crispy and crunchy. But I just don’t. I don’t. They taste like grass to me.
I like my green beans the way I grew up eating them — country style. That means tender green beans with ham, richly flavored with smoky pork hocks. So there.
Besides, old-fashioned southern cooking gets enough bad press without me adding to it. I shouldn’t write this post. Sigh.
But I’m doing it anyway! Besides, you may have never had MY southern style green beans with ham hocks. Who knows, I may convert you over to the country side. 😉
Recipe Snapshot
Cuisine: Southern, Vintage
Cooking Method: Stovetop
Total Time: 2 hours, 20 Minutes
Servings: 6
Primary Ingredient(s): Fresh green beans, smoked ham hocks
Skill Level: Easy
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING …
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“This what I’m talking about! Real green beans! Great!”
— Marsha Chambers
“I was hoping to find a recipe online where fresh green beans were cooked the same way my Mom used to cook them. This is it! Thank you!”
— Stacey
What You’ll Like About This Recipe
- There are only three ingredients!
- It requires very minimal prep time.
- It’s packed with classic smoky southern flavors.
Ingredient Notes
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The ingredients list for this recipe is really short! Just three things:
- Fresh green (or string) beans — Look for ones that are firm, not wilted, and without any discoloration.
- Meaty ham hocks — If you prefer, you can substitute an equal amount of smoked turkey wings or legs for the ham hocks.
- Salt
That’s it! Could it be any easier?
The complete ingredient list with detailed measurements is included in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
You’ll also find this recipe in my cookbook!
You can see this recipe on page 138 of my cookbook, My Southern Table! Get your signed copy today.
What Are Southern Style Green Beans?
Southern, or country style green beans are slow cooked, fresh string or green beans simmered in a smoky broth made from a ham hock or bacon.
It’s worth making them just for the aroma alone. The smell of that smoky pork filling your kitchen and tickling your senses as it spreads through the house will have your family clamoring to get to the dinner table.
After the sweet torture of waiting for them to finish cooking, your fresh green beans will have transformed into a melt-in-your-mouth side dish.
You now have the perfect companion to any southern recipe like my Real Simple Fried Chicken, Salisbury Steaks with Chunky Mashed Potatoes, Country Fried Steak, or Pot Roast with Rosemary and Garlic.
How to Make Old Fashioned Southern Style Green Beans
Make the Ham Hock Broth
Pro Tip
👉 PRO TIP: The most important thing about making this recipe is to have really good ham hocks. You want nice, meaty ones. Some of the ones I see in the store these days are all skin and bones. Leave those in the case and look for big, plump ones.
NOTE: What you’re making in this first step is a smoky, pork-flavored broth. That’s what you’ll use to cook your veggies in, and all that lovely flavor will go right into them. Delicious!
STEP 1. Put your lovely, smoky ham hocks in a large, deep pot with just enough water to cover. Bring the pot to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Prepare the Fresh Green Beans
STEP 2. While the ham hocks simmer, prepare the green beans. I remove the “tips and tails” and just cut them into pieces. You can leave them whole if you prefer. If you have string beans, be sure to remove the strings as well.
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Cook the Beans in the Broth
STEP 3. Add the prepped beans to the pot. Bring the contents to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer.
STEP 4. Cover and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the green beans are tender but not mushy. Start checking them after about 50 minutes.
STEP 5. When they’re nice and tender and olive-colored (no, they will not stay bright green), remove the ham hock to a plate and allow it to cool for a few minutes until you can handle it easily.
STEP 6. Remove and shred the meat from the ham hocks, discarding the skin, fat, and bones. Add the shredded meat back to the pot and stir it into the beans.
This is the simplest method that I know for making old fashioned country style green beans. People do add all sorts of other things like onions, tomatoes, hot pepper, and parsley. I do that occasionally, too, but I also appreciate just the simply beautiful smoky flavor of this method. Hope you’ll give it a try!
Recipe Tips
- You can also substitute a smoked turkey wing or leg for the ham hock. It gives an equally nice, smoky flavor to the green beans and is suitable for anyone who doesn’t consume pork.
- Also, don’t be afraid of overcooking these green beans. It’s nearly impossible :-)
How to Serve
Serve your family a delicious, traditional dinner of these southern-style green beans with fried chicken, creamed field corn, hot water cornbread, sweet pepper relish, and traditional southern deviled eggs.
How to Store and Reheat
These green beans reheat really well since you don’t have to worry about keeping a crisp texture. You can store them in the refrigerator in an airtight container or resealable bag for 3 to 5 days. Reheat them on medium-low heat on the stovetop or even in a slow cooker (low heat for about an hour).
Questions About Southern Green Beans
Yes, you can use canned or frozen as a substitute. If you just can’t source fresh green beans, I’d suggest frozen over canned. The canned ones won’t pick up as much of that yummy smoky pork flavor because they’ve already been mostly cooked.
Yes! You can snap (or cut) them the day before you need them. Just make sure to keep them refrigerated until you’re ready to cook.
Yes, you can. If you just can’t find good ham hocks, you can substitute about a pound of bacon. Here’s how:
Brown all but two slices of bacon in the same pot you plan to use for cooking your green beans. When the bacon is crisp, remove it and set it aside. To the fat in the pan, add the green beans, salt, and the remaining two slices of uncooked bacon with enough water to cover. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. To serve, drain the beans and serve topped with the crumbled cooked bacon.
More Old Fashioned Southern Recipes
If you enjoyed this recipe, you’ll also want to try these!
Old Fashioned Southern Caramel Layer Cake
Slow Cooked Southern Butter Beans
Southern Fried Okra
Southern Streak o’ Lean
Have a question or thought to share?
If you have a question about the recipe or if you’ve made it and want to share how it turned out, I would truly enjoy hearing from you. Just scroll down to leave a comment or add your star rating.
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Recipe
Old Fashioned Southern Style Green Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound smoked ham hocks (or equal weight of bacon, smoked turkey wings, or smoked turkey legs)
- 3 pounds fresh green beans washed, trimmed and cut in 2” pieces
- 2 teaspoons salt
Instructions
- Place the ham hocks (or other choice of seasoning meat) in a large pot with just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 30 minutes to 1 hour.1 pound smoked ham hocks
- While the ham hock simmers, prepare the green beans by removing the “tips and tails.” Snap the beans into approximately 2" pieces or leave whole if desired.3 pounds fresh green beans
- Add the beans and salt to the pot. Bring the contents to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer.2 teaspoons salt
- Cover and cook for 1 hour or until the beans are tender.
- Remove the ham hocks to a plate and allow to cool for a few minutes.
- Remove and shred the meat from the ham hock, discarding the skin and bones. Add the shredded meat back to the pot and stir it into the beans.
Notes
- An equal amount of bacon, smoked turkey wings, or smoked turkey legs may be substituted for the ham hocks.
- Green beans may be cleaned, trimmed, and cut up to 24 hours in advance. Store in the refrigerator until ready to cook.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Reheat over medium-low heat on the stovetop or slow cooker.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is calculated by software based on the ingredients in each recipe. It is an estimate only and is provided for informational purposes. You should consult your healthcare provider or a registered dietitian if precise nutrition calculations are needed for health reasons.
I never heard of boiling the meat in water first until I read it last week in “Making Do: How to Cook Like a Mountain MeMa” by Lois Sutphin. I don’t guess it matters as long as beans are joined with meat and rendered fat and cooked a good long time.
Green beans in the North Carolina mountains were usually pole beans. These can have fierce strings, which is why you’d remove the “tips and tails” as you put it. Break off an end and pull down the bean; then break off the other end and pull down the other side. Discard ends, then break bean into pieces, pulling down each time to remove more string. Cutting the beans doesn’t remove the strings.
Mom would cook green beans all afternoon, adding a couple of cut-up potatoes about halfway through. But they weren’t really done until put into the refrigerator overnight! Pull them out the next day and re-heat – some of the fat had absorbed into the potatoes…heavenly comfort food!
And she did not salt the heck out of the green beans. Probably a teaspoon to a large potful was enough. She rarely used hamhock – that was pretty expensive. A good piece of streak o’lean was enough.
The most difficult trick is to not put too much water in the beans. Green beans will render their own water, so you really just need enough to barely cover to start off.
Toward the end of her life, Mom would easily fall asleep on the couch. The last pot of green beans that she cooked burned before she woke up.
Hi Catherine – yes, by boiling the meat in water, you’re really just making a broth that you then use to cook the beans. I’ve cooked pole beans many times, too, and those string are really annoying, aren’t they? Pole beans weren’t very popular where I grew up in south Georgia. We just had the usual green beans, sometimes called string beans.
This sounds both delicious and super easy However, I’m a little confused. The recipe calls for salt, but the instructions don’t say when to add it. I want to make this – do I add salt or don’t I?
Sorry I was unclear about that, Cheryl. You can actually add the salt at any time, but I add it along with the beans.
Thanks for the prompt reply. I’m going to try this as soon as I can get to the store and buy a ham hock.
Mama canned all her green beans; they came out of the jar olive colored, with all the juice they canned in, right into the pot. Then you cook down all the liquid, adding your bacon grease along the way. Simple! Thanks for your recipe to make fresh ones taste like Mama’s!
I am from up North and I like my green beans “cooked “also. I use bacon, usually several strips cut up. I like fresh beans but will also use canned. This is the way my mom cooked them too. We learn so much from our mothers.
This dish always reminds me of my grandmother. I have something like this coming up soon. Beans and ham hocks – total summer food :)
Go you for standing up for your way of eating green beans!! They look great, btw!
I agree about stiff green beans! My short-cut method (even using canned green beans) gets requests from my children and friends: Empty beans into saucepan, add a teaspoon of oil (corn or canola ), one beef bouillon cube and a sprinkling of dried onion flakes. Simmer for at least 15 – 20 minutes; longer does not hurt. My husband even prefers the cheaper house brand of green because they are less salty. At one time, before processed oils fell out of favor, this method was recommended by the Heart Association. I doubt it is now.) But will try your method this summer when the farmers’ markets offer green beans!
Okay, these look DIVINE.
Oh Lana… you’ve captured my heart with these green beans! LOVE them!
Never would I blast you for cooking green beans the way MOST of us in the South cook them. I do like green beans blanched. I will even eat them raw and often do while preparing them. BUT like you, I grew up eating them cooked your way and still love the flavor the pork gives them. Dale will NOT eat green beans cooked any other way. So, that tells you how I cook them most of the time. I wish I could get a good meaty ham hock like the one in your photo. They are hard to find here. When I do find a good one like yours, I am going to try simmering that good piece of pork for 30 minutes to an hour first, which I have never done. I do think Mama did it that way but I have never taken the extra time. The reasoning makes PERFECT sense. You have me hungry for some Old Fashioned Southern Green Beans.
I love green beans! Had them today with a pork bar-be-que sandwich at our favorite BBQ Restaurant. They have really well cooked and seasoned green beans. My favorite cooked green beans were prepared by my husband’s grandmother. Not sure if she used ham hock or fat back, but she always added potatoes and carrots. Up to that time, 50 years ago, I had only had them with corn and plain. Today, I love to steam them (to soft) about 20 min. And then sauté in olive oil with red bell peppers. They are really delicious! I always enjoy visiting your blog.
I agree with you. I can’t stand fresh green beans just slightly cooked. Taste like eating grass. I want my beans nice and tender. I add bacon chunks when I cook them. I put them on and simmer real low for about 1-2 hrs.
I like beans both ways depending on what they’re for. Cooking them with ham…has to be low and slow.
This is when that ham bone from Honey Baked Ham is my friend. I think so much better than ham hocks; the good ones have enough meat to clean from them for a couple of sandwiches and then of course more falls off during the cooking and is just perfect with beans like this. I’ll wait til fall though; I’m not an air conditioned house by choice and that means no long cooking on the stove in the summer..wait, maybe I could put this on the grill. I should try that huh?
Yes, on the grill! Why not! Our grill has a side burner that I often use for frying food so that I don’t smell it in the house for days. Why not use it for simmering beans, too.
Ihave always cooked my green beans like this , I also add onions . I just love them.
His this is the way my mother always made green beans – there’s no other way to make them.
my grandmother (who lived to be 96), and my mother ( who lived to be 86) cooked their beans this way and sometimes would cut fresh corn off , the cob and add to the beans for the last 10 minutes or so…rather than using ham hocks, would fry “fat back”, also known as salt pork, and pour a tablespoon or so of the grease into the cooked beans along with a tbs of sugar….but this was before the chemicals we now use came along…does anyone else remember this method….
I’ve made them with fat back but have never seen them with corn added. Sounds good!