This easy Instant Pot green bean casserole with bacon recipe tastes amazing! Loaded with bacon and crispy fried onions you’ll want to make a double batch! Works great in your Crockpot Express or Ninja Foodi machines too.
If you’re like me and love this nifty device too you should try this bacon filled green bean casserole recipe! A great one of our side dish Instant Pot recipes. (affiliate links present)
Ninja Foodi Green Bean Casserole
This dish is a must during Thanksgiving and Christmas time. I have always made it in the oven but last year I didn’t have a lot of room in there because of all the other dishes so I thought I’d try it in my Ninja Foodi pressure cooker!
I think there are two tricks to why this tastes so good. The bacon, and using frozen green beans instead of canned. If you do have this machine with a dual purpose you can air fry the top onions in the same pot as the first steps, which is a major win.
If you are new to pressure cooking we have a lot of easy one pot meal recipes for you here. To begin with let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should know how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
Instant Pot Green Bean Casserole with Frozen Green Beans
Yes you can make this vegetarian but um why?? You can crisp strips, use already bagged real bacon bits or make as a leftover ham recipe. My husband loves this so much I make it several times a year, not just for the holidays.
I just used my easy green bean casserole recipe and adapted it for my Instant Pot. Of course since this isn’t put into the oven it will not get that crispy fried green bean taste on the top. So if this is a must I would opt for the link above that is cooked in the oven.
I will tell you that making your own onions fried has been a game changer for us. So much better and you can even serve more on the side since everyone will go crazy over them.
Ingredients
- Frozen green beans are the best option so they don’t get too soft
- Mushrooms, Portabello are best
- Onions diced are nice
- Butter or vegan dairy free alternative
- Flour to thicken the sauce
- Chicken broth or stock
- Salt and pepper
- Garlic is optional
- Half and half is better than milk to make creamy
- Fried onions in the can
Dairy free option
If you need a dairy free option you can use almond milk and use coconut milk with a bit of cornstarch whisked in instead of half and half. I found a great plant based vegan butter product at the store that tastes amazingly the same.
If you aren’t a big bacon fan…I don’t think we can be friends. LOL. No, you can just omit that if you choose (why, I don’t know).
Is it better to make green bean casserole with frozen, fresh or canned green beans?
If you want your vegetables to keep their shape as much as possible and not get too soft then you should opt for fresh or frozen. Fresh will actually stay most firm followed by frozen and canned would get the softest of all. That is the only real difference. If you are a texture person (me) I prefer frozen.
What can you use instead of cream of mushroom soup to make green bean casserole?
I have made this with canned condensed soup before but this one skips all of that and includes recipe for Instant Pot homemade cream of mushroom instead. With heavy cream, seasonings and fresh mushrooms you can make something so much better. Pressure cookers sometime have “a thing” with thick soups so I’d recommend following the recipe below. You may never buy canned again after this. 😉
Pressure Cooker Green Bean Casserole
If you want to brown the top just throw into a baking dish and under your broiler for a few minutes. Transfer to a pretty serving dish and serve, or use a trivet on your table because it will be hot. If this is for the holiday season you could combine these two favorites to make green bean mashed potato casserole too.
How to crisp the top with the Ninja Foodi
- Follow directions as directed below with a quick release at the end
- When done sprinkle fried onions on the top
- could add some parmesan cheese too
- Close air crisp lid and set to 400 degrees for 3 minutes to lightly brown top
- Add additional minutes
Can you use the slow cooker function to make this?
This is a great Thanksgiving sides that can be made in the Crockpot as well. I have always said that the slow cook function on pressure cookers didn’t work well. I still stand by this. I would use your “old fashioned” Crock and gollow our slow cooker green bean casserole recipe for those instructions.
Other holiday side dishes you’ll love
- Jiffy corn casserole recipe
- Pressure cooker mashed potatoes
- Love this pressure cooker sweet potatoes recipe
Instant Pot Green Bean Casserole Recipe
Equipment
- 1 pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 4 pcs bacon, optional
- 1 lb frozen green beans
- 1.5 c French’s fried onions, or homemade fried onions
- 8 oz mushrooms, portabello
- 1/2 c onion, diced
- 1 tbsp garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp butter, salted
- 2 tbsp flour, all purpose
- 1/2 c half and half, or heavy cream
- 1 1/4 c chicken broth
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Instructions
- If adding fresh bacon: Spray the inside of your Instant Pot with non stick spray. Dice bacon, set to saute, and cook until bacon is lightly browned. Drain grease (can leave in for flavor but it will be greasier at the end when done). Or just use 1/2 c. bacon bits and skip this step. Deglaze pot and turn pot off.
- If not adding bacon: Set pressure cooker to saute and add butter, melt. Add diced onion and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and cook for about 2 minutes.
- Add mushrooms and saute until they have released some of their juices and liquid has evaporated. Add flour and stir so everything is combined.
- Pour in the broth and half & half and stir until well combined. Allow to simmer until sauce has thickened to gravy-like consistency.
- Lastly add the frozen green beans, stir. Then place lid on pressure cooker and seal vent.
- Cook on pressure function, high for 5 minutes. Then do a quick release.
- To thicken again set the pot to saute once again. Allow to bubble and let some of the liquid to evaporate and thicken up. If you'd like it thicker add 1 tbsp cornstarch in a bowl with some of your hot liquid. Whisk together until smooth and add into pot. Stir and it will thicken more.
- Remember it will thicken as it sits and cools too so don't overdo the cornstarch/flour.
- Serve topped with fried onions!
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
For the 2 hrs slow-cooking directions, is the setting to be on low or on high? Thanks!
How does it come out if you use fresh green beans? To lower the instant pot cooking time? (Or lower the slow cooker cook time?) Thanks!
I’ve been using my Instant Pot a lot more lately, and this is one way I definitely need to use it. Love green bean casserole for the holidays. So great that this frees up space in the oven too!
Yay, love that it helps this way too.
I love the IP and the green bean casserole is a great idea in the IP!
I looove that this can be made in the Instant Pot! And with frozen veggies… haha. Thank you!
I bought an Instant Pot last month, but I am not using it to its full potential. This looks os perfect, I need to try this for Thanksgiving!!
Such a great side dish and easy to make for Thanksgiving!
It’s our go to too
I’ve made it twice now and didn’t get a burn notice either time. I used bacon pieces from the “make your own pizza” section at WinCo (grocery store). I skipped the regular onions. I then added the frozen green beans and put the mushroom soup and milk mixture on top without stirring it in.
Glad you loved it.
Yeah!!
Kept getting the burn signal 🙁
What setting and time would you use for canned green beans?
I would not recommend canned. If you really want to use them I wouldn’t use pressure function at end at all. Just drain and empty with soup and saute until beans are desired consistency.