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Blistered Green Beans With Garlic

4.8

(82)

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Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Kate Buckens

Inspired by salty-crunchy Sichuan dry-fried string beans (gan bian si ji dou), these green beans are shriveled and browned into delicious submission before receiving a flavor bomb of garlic, red pepper flakes, and chopped capers at the very end. Resist the urge to stir the beans around in the pan, and let them take on color like you would ground meat. Patience is essential here.

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What you’ll need

Ingredients

4 servings

⅓

cup extra-virgin olive oil

1

lb. green beans, trimmed, patted dry of any surface moisture or condensation

Kosher salt

6

garlic cloves, sliced

1

Tbsp. capers, drained, chopped

1

tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oil in a large skillet over high until shimmering. Add green beans (the dryer they are, the less they will spatter when they hit the oil) and cook, covering skillet as needed if beans are spattering, until browned underneath, about 3 minutes. Turn beans with tongs and redistribute so they brown evenly (don’t toss them since hot oil can easily slosh out of skillet if you try to show off). Continue to cook, turning occasionally, until browned all over and tender, about 5 minutes longer. Season with salt. Add garlic, capers, and red pepper flakes. Cook, tossing occasionally, just until garlic turns golden, about 1 minute.

    Step 2

    Transfer beans to a platter. Spoon caper-garlic mixture over and pour some oil over too; season with salt.

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Reviews (82)

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  • I followed the recipe to the letter. The cooking temperature "high" is too hot, so they burn. There's not enough emphasis on the need for salt, and MAN it is WAY WAY too spicy! Cut the Red Pepper flakes WAY back. The recipe as given not only burns your taste buds out, but throwing pepper flakes into hot oil gives off the equivalent of eye-searing pepper spray!

    • Odkin

    • United States

    • 3/13/2024

  • Every time I tried this recipe, the green beans are always very fibrous. This time I tried blanching them before getting them blistered up in a pan and it was delicious! I would highly recommend if you like your green beans, nice and tender, and also blistered. The capers were absolutely delicious as well.

    • Mel B

    • 9/5/2023

  • Tasty, but next time I’ll reduce the red pepper flakes by half. (Possibly mine are a little more potent than average.)

    • Anonymous

    • 8/2/2023

  • Can you make these in advance and then warm them up (in the oven or microwave), or would that spoil them--like trying to warm up french fries?

    • Lori

    • Skokie, IL

    • 1/6/2023

  • I just made it for my parents sine a nice friend got me a big bag of fresh green beans and I'm using them! Loved it!

    • Anonymous

    • AZ

    • 1/26/2022

  • Love this recipe; absolutely delicious. The only suggestion I have is to dramatically cut the olive oil. The first time I made it, it was much too oily. The second time, I used two tablespoons, which was perfect.

    • SueBlue

    • Oakland, CA

    • 11/18/2021

  • Excellent! Another Chris Morocco win!!! I've made this a few times. A couple of things I've changed: 1. 1 lb of beans in my 13" cast iron skillet is a little too crowded. 3/4 lbs works about right. 2. By the time you get the beans all turned over to cook on the second side, it only takes about 3 minutes to finish, since you also need a couple minutes after you add the garlic and capers. In other words, it's easy to let them get overdone.

    • Snorkel

    • Portland, Oregon

    • 10/30/2021

  • This recipe understandably smoked up my kitchen but the results were delicious! A simple, delicious side.

    • Lindsey

    • Richmond, VA

    • 9/17/2021

  • The end result was delicious but what an absolute mess to make this! I dried the green beans with a tea towel and even let them sit on the counter for an hour before frying, but the oil still sputtered and splattered everywhere (OUCH). I think I might try tossing the beans in oil and roasting in a hot oven to see if I can get similar results.

    • Clare K

    • Los Angeles, CA

    • 9/14/2021

  • Love this recipe! This is the only way I make green beans now. :)

    • Idun

    • Philly, PA

    • 7/25/2021

  • This was delicious. The topping would be good on other veggies too; I'm thinking roasted broccoli or cauliflower -- yum!

    • Lora

    • Seattle

    • 7/19/2021

  • These blistered green beans are one of our family’s favorites! Thank you Chris for this amazing simple flavor bomb recipe!

    • Cobi Lemke

    • California

    • 6/18/2021

  • Added kalamata and castelvetrano olives as well—YUM

    • jane

    • Berkshires, MA

    • 1/25/2021

  • i really enjoyed the recipe! i added cayenne pepper, balsamic vinegar and a little bit of lemon juice at the end.

    • patrick

    • manhattan ny

    • 1/12/2021

  • Simple tasty restaurant style blistered beans.

    • DLegats

    • Columbus, Ohio

    • 11/30/2020

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