Southern Style Green Beans and Potatoes
Indiana has a bit of an identity crisis on its hands. I'll be the first to tell you, we certainly aren't Southern. We might be considered Yankees. We are decidedly Midwest, but really, what does that mean in terms of food? To me, it means that we get to pick-and-choose our food identity. What we are left with is the best of all worlds! I can fit in just as well at a hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint just as I can at the Finnish pancake house in my husband's hometown in Northwestern Ontario. It's nice to get to pick and choose!
Like, for example, this Southern Style Green Beans and Potatoes is the perfect thing to go along with a summer barbecue-we might not be in "the South," but we sure do enjoy the heck out of a dish like this. This was a standard growing up in my house, but I normally only ate the potatoes because my deep love for green beans only showed up a few years ago.
The key to the awesome flavor of this dish is using a smoked ham hock or a leftover ham bone. You slow simmer the green beans and potatoes with the ham hock and some chicken broth, and they end up having so much rich, intense flavor. It's my favorite way to eat green beans! And, like a lot of these slow-cooked dishes, the flavor of this gets better and better as it rests in the fridge. I usually make a big ole batch of this when green beans are coming off in the garden, and reheat as a side dish all week long.
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You'll want to use new potatoes for this dish. Russet potatoes cut into chunks work in a pinch here, but you get really amazing pillowy bites of potato if you use small Yukon gold or small red new potatoes.
If your leftover ham bone or ham hock has a lot of meat on it, you'll want to remove the ham bone after cooking, chop the extra meat and add it back into the pot. If your ham bone is looking a little skimpy, you might want to pick up a pack of diced ham to add back into the mixture-the little morsels of ham add a ton of great flavor and texture that Southerners and Northerners alike can enjoy!
📖 Recipe
Southern Style Green Beans and Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 ½ pounds green beans trimmed and snapped in half
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 ham hock or leftover ham bone
- Water
- 1 pound new potatoes quartered
- 1 cup additional chopped ham optional
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic until just softened, about five minutes.
- Add in the green beans, broth, and ham hock. Add water until it just covers the beans. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 35-45 minutes, or until the cooking liquid turns a deep green/brown and beans are well-done.
- 20 minutes into simmering, add potatoes and additional ham, if using.
- Remove ham hock or ham bone, chop ham off the bone, and return to the pot—discarding the bone. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve by straining cooking liquid using a slotted spoon.
Video
Notes
- Ham tends to be very salty, so you might not need to add any salt at all to this dish. Make sure to taste before seasoning!
This recipe was great. Instead of the ham hock I used bacon grease. I then added just a touch of vinager. Add black pepper. No salt.
Do you think this could be done with Mexican squash instead of green beans? I’d add the red potatoes and then put the squash in a few minutes before it is finished.
Hi Claire! We've never made this recipe with that substitution, so we're not sure how it would work out. If you give it a try, please let us know how it turns out for you!
DELICIOUS this is! Thank you.
Thanks, Sharon!
I am from the south. Iam old hehe. My mother would take the green beans outta the garden and we would snap off the ends. We would cut up the Idaho potatoes and use bacon fat in with the beans Served with her iron skillet cornbread!
I loved this green bean recipe! I didn't add meat to it. Cooked some steaks separately. But it was delish! My father-in-law liked it too. Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks, Sharon! We're so glad you like it—and we really appreciate you taking the time to come back and tell us about it!
how do potatos cook in 20 minutes on simmer?
Hi, Dennis! We give a range from 15 minutes to 25 minutes for cooking the potatoes, and it really depends on what kind of potatoes you use and how small you cut them. The new potatoes we use are tender and small, and we quarter them so they cook up faster. Small Yukon gold potatoes are great in this, as well. Russet potatoes can work in a pinch, but you'll have to cut them into smaller chunks. Just quartering those big spuds won't get you cooked taters in 20 minutes at a simmer! Hope this helps!
Hi Dennis! Total cooking time of this delicious green beans and potatoes dish is 45 minutes. I add the potatoes at 25 minutes of cooking, then increase heat for remaining 20 minutes for the potatoes.
Been making this since I could stand on a chair in front of the stove. My people are Kentuckians and Virginians. My kids and grandkids love this, and I always make it with hot water cornbread. We grew up adding a tablespoon each of cider vinegar and brown sugar just before the potatoes get done. Thanks for sharing, people need to eat like this more.
Hi Cassie! I've been following your blog for quite some time now, I am pleased to see you now have a website! Yay domains! 🙂 I can't wait to keep on keeping in touch with you!
The muffins look delightful! 🙂
-Madison
Oh, that green beans and potato dish looks really yummy! I steamed my green beans today, but I think they would have preferred to be buddies with the red potatoes we have. 🙂
Steamed is definitely my go-to choice, but these are delicious, too. 🙂
Doug is a big fan of everything steamed when it comes to veggies. Though I think if we could barbecue, it would be everything grilled. 🙂 We have some red potatoes that are on their way to growing arms and legs, so we needed to do something with them fast, and this would have been the perfect recipe!
Looks yummt. I know right now you are doing your challenge right now but I have a wonderful brine for chicken if you are interested. It is especially yummy when you want to roast the chicken whole on the grill.
Oooh! I am totally interested. I've always wanted to try grilling a whole chicken, but, for some reason, it is intimidating to me.
Just found your blog on the healthy living blogs site...
LOVE your blog and all this food looks amazing ! 🙂
Kelly