Fresh Green Bean Casserole with Homemade Mushroom Soup
Serve a crowd with this mostly-from-scratch green bean casserole — with fresh green beans, homemade cream of mushroom soup, and crispy fried onions! Sherry and thyme fill this holiday side dish with extra flavor. Make ahead to make Thanksgiving day a little easier!
9x13 baking pan or 2 1/2 qt (2.3 L) casserole dish
Immersion blender
Ingredients
3lbsfresh green beanstrimmed and washed
6tbspbutterdivided
24ozmushroomsdiced
1/3cupflour
1cupsherry
1cupchicken broth
2cupshalf and half
1 1/2cupscrispy fried onionslike French's (a 2.8 oz container should be perfect)
1tspdried thyme
1tsppepper
saltto taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut green beans into 1 1/2 inch pieces.
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add green beans, bring back to a boil, and blanch for 5-7 minutes or until tender-crisp. Drain and transfer to an ice water bath so the cooking stops and they stay bright green.
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a cast iron skillet or sauté pan over medium high heat. Add half the mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes without stirring, then sauté an additional 2-3 minutes. Remove mushrooms from pan, and repeat with remaining butter and mushrooms.
Add all the mushrooms back to the pan. Add flour, stir to coat and cook for about a minute.
Splash in the sherry and stir well, scraping the bottom of the pan to get up any bits that have stuck. Add chicken broth and half-and-half, whisking until smooth between each ingredient so it doesn't get clumpy. Add thyme, pepper, and salt to taste. Simmer for a couple minutes until mixture has thickened.
Tilt the pan and scrape the soup to pool on one side and pulse an immersion blender in the soup until it's semi-smooth but has some larger pieces of mushrooms in the mix. If you don't have an immersion blender you can transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor and pulse until you reach the desired consistency, and then transfer it back to the pan.
Mix in the green beans until evenly coated. Leave in the skillet, if oven-safe, or transfer to a 9x13 baking pan or 2 1/2 quart casserole dish if desired. Top with fried onions and bake for 35-40 minutes or until bubbly around the edges.
To prepare in advance
If you're making this in advance, do everything except adding the fried onions. Transfer to a 9x13 baking pan or 2 1/2 quart casserole dish and refrigerate until ready to cook (it is not recommended to refrigerate food in a cast iron skillet as it may increase the chances of your pan rusting).
Before cooking, let the casserole sit at room temperature while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Top with fried onions and bake for 35-40 minutes or until edges are bubbly and casserole is heated throughout. You may need that extra 5 minutes or so if it still has some chill from the fridge.