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Green Bean Casserole

The classic green bean casserole was invented in 1955 by Campbell’s Soup Company. That was a banner year as the Brooklyn Dodgers won the world series and Disneyland opened in Los Angeles, California. At the time, the Campbell’s soup company had its own test kitchen and provided recipe pamphlets to their customers. The green bean casserole has proven to be their signature recipe and has been a popular side dish for Thanksgiving ever since. I like the Green Bean Casserole and prefer to make it homemade with less sodium in the mushroom soup and using cremini mushrooms. There is one twist to my recipe, it cooks on low in the crock pot for a couple hours freeing yourself up for other tasks on Thanksgiving

 9 ounces French fried onions (I like the prepared cans from good grocery stores)
 2 tablespoons plus one teaspoon salt divided
 1-pound fresh green beans, rinsed, trimmed and halved
 2 tablespoons butter
 12 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and cut into ½ inch pieces (about 20 medium cremini mushrooms)
 ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
 ½ teaspoon thyme, minced
 2 cloves garlic, minced
 24 ounces of organic cream of mushroom soup (pacific organic condensed cream of mushroom soup is a favorite)
 ½ cup chicken stock
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Turn on crockpot to low. To prepare the green beans, bring a gallon of water to a boil with the 2 tablespoons of salt in a large pot. (The salt has two purposes… it will season the beans as they boil, and the water will boil quicker with the salt.) Add the beans and blanch for 5 minutes. Prepare an ice bath. Take a big bowl and fill with ice and then water. When the beans are done, use a slotted spoon to transfer beans from hot water to ice bath. After 5 minutes, remove beans from ice bath onto a plate and set aside.

In a 12-inch skillet on medium high heat, melt the butter and add the mushrooms, garlic, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Stir occasionally until mushrooms are soft or about 5 minutes. Stir in the mushroom soup and chicken stock. Stir in 1/3 of the of French fried onions. Pour into your crockpot and cook low for 2 hours. Then the crockpot can be left alone with no heat for an hour or two before you are ready to finish this dish. Before serving, transfer to a casserole dish and cover with the remaining French-fried onions. Broil for a minute or two until golden brown and serve. This recipe serves 8.

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