Name: Steakhouse Style Buttery Garlic Green Beans
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 12 oz fresh green beans (washed and ends trimmed); 2 tablespoons butter (divided); 2 cloves garlic (pressed or minced); 1.5 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 1/4 teaspoon pepper (freshly cracked)

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

These simple sautéed buttery garlic green beans have only four ingredients and are ready in about 15 minutes! Flavored with plenty of garlic, butter, and Worcestershire sauce, they make the perfect accompaniment for a steak dinner and rival any green beans you’d find in a steakhouse restaurant.

Steakhouse style garlic butter green beans on a wooden plate.

This post may contain affiliate links. That means if you click on the link and make a purchase, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

I’m always on the lookout for easy but flavorful veggie side dishes to go with my dinners. Too often, vegetable side dishes can seem like an afterthought, but even if you give them the attention they deserve, they can still be quick to make! A couple of my favorites are sautéed spinach and mushrooms, sweet onion oven roasted asparagus, and this super simple lemon broccoli salad (which we have probably once a week).

This steakhouse style green bean recipe is quickly becoming a new staple in our house too!

These green beans were inspired by the delicious ribeye with roasted garlic resting butter recipe over at Hey Grill Hey. I made her steak, served it with green beans, and decided to toss the beans with some of the resting butter. The garlic and Worcestershire sauce flavor was so perfect on the green beans I decided to modify the recipe for a quicker, more everyday side dish.

Steakhouse style buttery garlic green beans on a wooden plate.

Rather than roasting a head of garlic (which is absolutely delicious but takes a bit of time) and making a garlic compound butter as a separate ingredient, I simplified the process so you can have these delightful steakhouse style buttery garlic green beans on your table in no more than 15 minutes.

Ingredients

Not including salt and pepper, this recipe only has four ingredients! Best of all, besides the green beans, the ingredients are staples you probably have in your kitchen already, so making this recipe is a no-brainer when you want a simple side dish.

Green beans — While hardly a secret or hack, one of my favorite shortcuts in the kitchen is to use fresh (not frozen) steam-in-bag vegetables. They’re already cleaned and trimmed, I can toss them in the microwave without dirtying another bowl and cutting board, and they cook quickly and consistently. For this recipe I use a 12-oz. bag of pre-trimmed green beans.

You can absolutely use loose green beans too, but you will have to figure in the time it takes to snap or trim the ends of the beans. You can steam them first in the microwave or in your sauté pan. I’ll discuss your options more in the step by step instructions.
Garlic — We want a strong but mellow garlic flavor for this recipe to best approximate the flavor of roasted garlic. The smaller the garlic is cut, the stronger the flavor is, so I recommend using a garlic press for this recipe. We cook two cloves in butter over medium low heat for several minutes to bring out the flavor and mellow it. If you have roasted garlic on hand or are making it for another part of your meal, you can substitute mashed roasted garlic cloves instead.
Butter — One tablespoon is used to cook the garlic while another is tossed in at the end of cooking. I found that melting it all at once can result in a puddle of butter that doesn’t stick to the green beans. Tossing some into the green beans at the end off the heat and letting the residual heat melt the butter gave me a richer, more buttery, and more flavorful result.
Worcestershire sauce — This essential ingredient gives the green beans their signature steakhouse flavor and makes them a perfect companion for beef. Be sure to shake your bottle beforehand to distribute the flavor!
Salt and pepper — Use kosher salt and freshly ground pepper for restaurant-quality results.

How to make garlic and butter green beans

NOTE: This recipe is written for 12 oz., or 3/4 pound, of green beans. The photos and video, however, show 24 oz. of green beans, because in my family we can never have too many veggies with dinner. I realized later that’s probably more than most people want to make with dinner, so I retested with half the amount and wrote the recipe as such.

Step one:
Steam the green beans. Basically, you’ll cook them just until tender-crisp so all that needs to be done is adding the flavor. Err on the side of slightly undercooking them, since you will be finishing them in the sauté pan and can always give them another minute or two. I’ll give a few options depending on what you’re starting with.

For 12 oz. bag of fresh steam-in-bag green beans: The instructions said to pierce the bag and microwave them for 3-5 minutes, and 3 minutes was just right. After microwaving, let them rest for a minute or two and then cut the bags open to release the steam. Set aside.

For loose green beans: Wash the beans and trim the ends. Preheat your sauté pan over medium-low to medium heat. Add 1/4 cup of water and green beans, cover, and cook for 3-5 minutes (mine took closer to 5 with this method), stirring once, until tender-crisp. Remove green beans and set aside.

The water should be pretty much evaporated at this point, but if it’s not, drain the water from the pan.

Step two:
Melt the butter over medium low heat and cook the garlic until it’s super soft and fragrant. Add the Worcestershire sauce and mix to make a rich brown sauce.

Step three:
Add the green beans and stir until well-coated with the sauce. Season with salt and freshly cracked pepper.

Step four:
Remove the green beans from the heat and toss in the remaining butter, letting the residual heat melt the butter. This helps thicken up the sauce so it adheres better to the green beans!

Steakhouse style sautéed garlic butter green beans in a sauté pan.

Do you really need to pre-steam the green beans? Can’t you just sauté them right in the pan?

Yes, you do. No, you can’t. I mean, you can. I won’t stop you.

But it actually takes more time to sauté them from raw than to steam them. The beans will brown and blister, even over medium heat (and you might prefer that) but more importantly, it interferes with the ability of the garlic to get perfectly tender without overcooking or burning.

If you sautéed the green beans first and then added the garlic, it wouldn’t have the deeper flavor that comes with cooking the garlic in butter by itself for a little longer. And if you cook the garlic first and then add the green beans, the garlic is a little burnt by the time the green beans are cooked.

Substitutions

Roasted garlic green beans: Making baked potatoes or a reverse seared steak to go with your meal? If you are cooking something at 400-450 degrees on the grill or in the oven, pop in a head of garlic to roast along with it. Just slice off the top, put it on some aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil, and wrap it up. After half an hour or 45 minutes, the garlic should be super tender and mellow.

You can mash up a few roasted garlic cloves in lieu of the fresh minced garlic. Since it’s already roasted, skip the part where you cook the garlic and just add it to the sauté pan with a little butter and Worcestershire sauce. Follow the rest of the recipe as written!

Using haricots verts: These tender, thin French green beans can also be used. They may take less time to steam, so be aware of that!

What goes well with garlic butter green beans?

Steakhouse style garlic butter green beans pair super well with beef, so I’d recommend serving them with a nice juicy steak or hamburger! They’re perfect with some medium rare flank steak marinated in my easy red wine steak marinade.

You can also serve them with these sweet and spicy crispy baked chicken thighs.

Other simple veggie sides

Be sure to FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM, and TWITTER for more great recipe ideas! Or SIGN UP for my EMAIL NEWSLETTER to get updates and recipes straight to your inbox!

No ratings yet