Make-Ahead Bacon Wrapped Green Beans
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 pounds French green beans (haricot verts)
- 12 slices smoky bacon, not thick cut
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1-1/2 teaspoons garlic salt
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely minced (plus more for garnish if desired)
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400 ˚F.
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Place several thicknesses of paper toweling on a work surface near the oven.
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Line a sheet pan with foil for easy cleanup.
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Arrange bacon strips on foil so they aren’t overlapping. Bake for 10 minutes or until strips are beginning to turn golden, but are still soft. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer bacon to paper towels to drain.
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While bacon is baking, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add beans, cover and cook for 1 minute. Place a strainer in the sink and drain beans. Immediate rinse beans with cold water for 1 full minute. Drain well and then transfer beans to a clean kitchen towel. Pat with the towel to remove as much water as possible.
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Place beans in a medium-size bowl. Combine olive oil and garlic salt. Drizzle oil over the beans and toss to coat.
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Arrange beans in 12 bundles of 10-12 beans. Place one bacon strip on a work surface. Place a bundle of beans on one end of the bacon strip. Roll bacon around the bundle and secure with a toothpick. Repeat with remaining bacon and bundles of beans. Arrange beans on a sheet pan lined with clean foil.
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Combine brown sugar and rosemary in a small bowl and stir well. Sprinkle one teaspoon of the brown sugar mixture over each bean/bacon bundle.
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Bake bundles for 15-20 minutes or until bacon is golden brown and beans are tender. Remove from oven and serve warm. Remove toothpicks and garnish with more finely chopped fresh rosemary, if desired.
Notes:
Source: Cafe Sucrefarine.
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Look for French green beans (or haricots verts). These are the long, skinny beans you see at the market, usually pre-packaged in clear bags. You could use regular green beans in a pinch but you will have to add 5 minutes or so onto the baking time.
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Don’t use thick-cut bacon for this recipe. I love the thicker types of bacon but they will take too long to bake and the underside will stay a bit raw.
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I like to use a smokey bacon for these Bacon-Wrapped Green Beans. My favorite is applewood-smoked but other smoked varieties will also work well.
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When you buy bacon for this recipe, look for a package that is fairly uniform in width for the whole length of the strips. Some bacon strips are thin on one end and wider on the other. This won’t work as well for this recipe as you want the bundles to have a consistent appearance for a pretty presentation.
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You can prep these Bacon Wrapped Green Beans as far as 24 hours in advance. Follow steps 1-5 below then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate till ready to bake. Remove from refrigerator and proceed with steps 6 and 7.
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For a nice presentation (and because I’m a food blogger) I like to arrange my bundles with the tips of the beans all facing in the same direction. This isn’t necessary, it just looks pretty!
