Tender perfectly cooked green beans with crispy bacon, sweet caramelized onion and garlic. the trick is to cook green beans perfectly tender without losing their vibrant green colour.
Prep green beans by trimming the stem end. Cut into halves, rinse, and shake dry.
Use kitchen scissors to cut bacon into small pieces. Add chopped bacon to a cold skillet. Let it cook until evenly crispy (stir in between for even cooking).
Remove crispy bacon from the skillet and drain in a kitchen towel. If using bacon fat for cooking the onions then keep about 2 tablespoons of bacon fat in the skillet and discard the rest. If using Olive oil, then discard all the bacon fat and heat olive oil.
Add sliced onion to the skillet and cook until it has softened and started to brown slightly. Because the Onion will cook further along with green beans, so no need to brown it completely, otherwise the onion will burn towards the end.
Add green beans and fine chopped garlic. Saute on medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring in between to prevent onion/garlic getting stuck at the bottom. The green beans should be well coated with the fat.
Sprinkle salt & pepper and mix well. Add 1/4 cup water(or chicken stock for more flavour) and quickly cover the skillet with a lid. Let the beans steam for about 4-5 minutes on low-medium heat.
Remove the lid and check if the beans are tender enough. if not cook for another 1 minute. ( Green beans taste the best when it's just tender but still slightly crispy).
Add butter and toss everything well to coat the beans with butter. Switch off the flame and add cooked bacon.
Serve hot.
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Notes
If you prefer cooking the onion with remaining bacon fat, then you don't need Olive oil.