Southern Green Beans with Potatoes and Bacon

Ingredients

• ½ pound bacon cooked (3-4 tablespoons grease reserved)
• 1 small onion diced
• 2 pounds whole green beans ends trimmed
• 1½ cups chicken stock
• 1½ teaspoons granulated garlic or garlic powder divided
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt divided
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper divided
• 2 pounds baby potatoes halved2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

1. Cook the bacon and drain on a paper towel, reserving the bacon grease. Add the bacon grease to a dutch oven or large pot on the stove over medium-high heat. Add the onion to the pot and cook for 2-3 minutes, until softened.
2. Add the green beans, chicken stock, 1 teaspoon granulated garlic, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Stir and cover. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. After 15 minutes, sprinkle the green beans with ½ teaspoon granulated garlic. Arrange the potatoes over the green beans. Dot with butter and sprinkle with the remaining salt and pepper. Cover and continue simmering for 25-30 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender.
4. Stir gently and transfer to a serving dish. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle it over the green beans and potatoes. Enjoy!

Notes

• As originally written, Melissa’s recipe called for the bacon to be cooked in the pot on the stove. However, I’m nothing if not a creature of habit, so I cooked my bacon in the oven. I added a spoonful of bacon grease to the pot and started from there. (I keep bacon grease in a jar in my refrigerator, but you could cook easily cook the bacon first and use that grease.)
• I used a combination of baby red and Dutch yellow potatoes. Any potato will work for this recipe, just make sure the pieces are roughly the same size so that they will finish cooking at the same time.