Green Bean & Chile Casserole is a variation on the classic dish topped with fried onions, but with Hatch Chile Cheese sauce and Fried Green Chiles instead of onions. Yum!
This recipe was inspired by my discovery of Fresh Gourmet Crispy Hatch Chiles- just like Crispy Fried Onions but with green chiles. I think everyone has had green bean casserole topped with fried onions, so this was a no-brainer. This is so simple, it’s impossible to mess up. I found these at Costco just by chance. I wasn’t expecting chiles to fry up this nicely, but they are just as good as the French Fried Onions that we are all so used to.
I had some choice in creating this. If you check out the many green bean casserole recipes (topped with fried onions), you’ll see many are made with a can of cream of mushroom soup. This was definitely a possibility, and I’ll be trying that out shortly. But some dedicated chefs choose to make their own cream sauce or creamy cheese sauce. I happened to have a tub of Trader Joe’s Unexpected Cheddar Cheese Spread with Hatch Chile. When I opened this up and tried it, I started eating it straight out of the tub – not recommended for any weight-watchers out there. It’s ideal for spreading on Ritz Crackers, with a tangy cheesy flavor and distinctive Hatch chile flavor. I thought about blending it right in with the cooked green beans. Would that work? Sure, but the cheese spread would likely overpower the beans. Plus the spread is fairly solid at room temperature.
Crispy Hatch Chiles ( from Costco)
Trader Joe’s Unexpected Cheddar Cheese Spread with Hatch Chile
Instead I chose to make a classic cream sauce (milk, butter, flour) and blend it with the TJ’s Cheddar Cheese Spread w/ Hatch Chile. I also tried blending the cheese spread with milk, but the result was runnier than I wanted – I really wanted that thickened consistency that flour provides. I also wanted the sauce to just accent the beans, so I made less than a cup of the sauce. I also found that garlic powder is a nice touch, but not necessary.
Another thing – the Fresh Gourmet Crispy Hatch Chiles are in strips; just take a look at the photo on the bag. Does that mean you need to chop them up? Nope, not at all. You’ll find the top 2/3 of the bag are the strips and the bottom has a bunch of chile crumbles (like in the recipe photo). The crumbles make a perfect topping as is. In our family, the strips got eaten in a matter of days and we were left with probably 2 cups of fried chile crumbles. Note: Besides Costco, they can also be found at some Sam’s Clubs, Walmarts, some Krogers, and on Amazon.
I had planned to take more photos, but my son ate the entire batch in one sitting. It’s supposed to serve four but if your family acts like he did, you’ll have to double the recipe. I only left it out for about 15 minutes and it was gone.
So this is a keeper. I’ll be making this (and variations) for years to come. Hope you enjoy it!
- 1½ lbs fresh green beans
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup milk, more as needed
- ¼ cup Trader Joe's Unexpected Cheddar Cheese Spread w/ Hatch Chile
- ⅛ tsp salt
- (optional: ⅛ tsp garlic powder)
- ~2 cups Crispy Hatch Chiles, coarely crumbled (at bottom of bag)
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
- Wash and trim green beans. Place in steamer or in pot with ½ inch water; cover and steam until just tender, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
- In the meantime, make the white sauce: melt butter, stir in flour. Then cook for a minute or two and then gradually stir in the milk while cooking. Cook about 5 minutes or until thickened.
- Add in the Cheese Spread, stirring well until fully blended.
- Stir in salt and, if desired, garlic powder.
- Spread beans in 1½ quart rectangular baking dish, pour sauce over, stirring to coat beans if desired. Top evenly with the crumbled Crispy Hatch Chiles.
- Bake for 10 minutes and serve hot.
- Enjoy!
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