Instant Pot Green Beans and Potatoes

There’s something about making my Instant Pot green beans and potatoes with bacon that just feels like home. In the South, green beans aren't just a vegetable; they’re an event. Growing up, my Nanny’s kitchen always smelled like smoky bacon and simmering broth. Her green beans were a staple at every family dinner, but they took time to get that perfect, tender-not-mushy texture.

I’ve refined her classic recipe for the Instant Pot, getting that “simmered-for-hours” flavor in under 30 minutes. It’s pure Southern comfort food that tastes like a Sunday afternoon, even when it's a hectic Tuesday.

Recipe Snapshot

• Southern Comfort Made Easy: These Instant Pot green beans and potatoes cook up tender and flavorful with smoky seasoning and buttery potatoes in a fraction of the traditional stovetop cooking time.
• Simple Budget-Friendly Side Dish: Using basic pantry ingredients and fresh green beans, this recipe creates an easy comforting side dish that pairs with just about any family dinner.
• Full of Homemade Flavor: The potatoes soak up the savory broth while the green beans become perfectly tender without turning mushy in the pressure cooker.
• Best For: Holiday dinners, Sunday suppers, potlucks, BBQ side dishes, weeknight comfort meals, and classic Southern-style family dinners.

David’s Tip: Cut the potatoes into evenly sized pieces so they finish cooking at the same time as the green beans. Smaller potato chunks can become overly soft in the Instant Pot while larger pieces stay undercooked.

Why This Recipe Wins

Ingredients You'll Need

• 1.5 lbs Fresh Green Beans: Trim the ends, but leave them long for that classic look. Pro-Tip: If you have to use frozen, reduce your pressure time by one minute to keep them from getting too soft.
• 2 lbs Red Potatoes: Quarter them into uniform pieces. Leave the skins on—it adds color and helps them stay together.
• 8 Strips of Bacon: The smokier, the better. I like using thick-cut hickory smoked.
• Chicken Stock: I like using low-sodium chicken stock, which is best so you can have better control of the sodium level.
• The Aromatics: A little garlic, salt, pepper, and dried parsley.

Step-by-Step: The Modern Southern Method

1. Crisp the Bacon: Use the Sauté function. Once the bacon strips are crispy, remove them but leave those beautiful drippings in the pot.
2. The Deglaze: Pour in your chicken stock and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits from the bottom. This is where all the flavor lives!
3. The Pressure Cook: Layer in your potatoes and beans. Season them well. Seal the lid and set it for 6 minutes.
4. The Reveal: Do a quick release. Stir back in your crispy bacon bits right before serving so they stay crunchy against the tender veggies.

Fresh vs Frozen Green Beans

Fresh green beans win on snap and flavor. They keep a crisp-tender bite in the Instant Pot, and the skins stay glossy instead of puckered. Look for beans that are bright green, smooth, and squeak a little when you rub them, those are young and sweet. Fresh beans can handle the full pressure time in your recipe without turning mushy, so they’re my pick when the side dish is the star.

Frozen green beans are your weeknight backup singer, and they do the job. They’re blanched before freezing, so they cook faster and release a bit more water. You don’t need to thaw them first; just break up any clumps and toss them in. Reduce the pressure time by about 1 minute to protect the texture, and expect a slightly softer bite than fresh.

Texture Matters (This Is Important)

Let’s clear this up because it affects expectations. These are not crisp green beans. If you have never had Southern-style green beans, allow me to share a little secret with you. Southern-style green beans are never crunchy.  If you hand a Southerner a crunchy green bean, they will look at you like you have two heads. 

They’re meant to be:

• tender
• flavorful
• slightly soft

That’s traditional Southern style, where vegetables are often slow-cooked with pork for flavor instead of texture contrast. And honestly? That’s what makes this dish so good.

More Instant Pot Recipes

Here are some more fabulous Instant Pot recipes that I feel you'll love making, and add to your recipe rolodex!

• Instant Pot Lime Cheesecake
• Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
• Instant Pot Chicken Taco Soup
• Instant Pot Sous Vide Parmesan Potatoes Hack
• Easy Instant Pot Boiled Peanuts
• Instant Pot Peach Iced Tea
• The Easiest Instant Pot Hummus to Make
• The Easiest Instant Pot BBQ Chicken

David Murphy

Instant Pot Green Beans and Potatoes

Bring the heart of the South to your table in under 30 minutes with these Instant Pot Green Beans and Potatoes. This recipe uses the "bacon fat secret" to get that deep, smoky flavor our grandmothers spent all day simmering, but with the modern speed of pressure cooking. Creamy red potatoes, tender fresh beans, and crispy bacon make this the ultimate comfort food side dish for any night of the week.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 6 minutes mins

Additional Time 8 minutes mins

Total Time 24 minutes mins

Servings: 6

Course: Instant Pot

Cuisine: American

Calories: 274

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x?

• 8 strips bacon cut into small pieces
• ¾ cup chicken stock
• 2 pounds red potatoes quartered
• 1 ½ pounds fresh green beans ends removed
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper

Instructions

 

1. Set Instant Pot to Saute and place bacon inside. Cook bacon until crisp, then remove bacon from Instant Pot leaving grease in the bottom of the pot.
2. Turn off Instant Pot and add chicken stock. Using a spatula, deglaze pot by scraping off stuck-on bacon pieces from bottom of pot.
3. Add potatoes and green beans. Season with parsley, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and coat ingredients with stock and bacon grease.
4. Place lid on Instant Pot and seal vent. Set pot to pressure cook for 6 minutes.
5. When cooking time is up, do a quick release and remove lid. Add bacon and stir to combine.

Nutrition

Calories: 274kcalCarbohydrates: 33gProtein: 9gFat: 12gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0.04gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 852mgPotassium: 1017mgFiber: 6gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 806IUVitamin C: 27mgCalcium: 60mgIron: 2mg

Notes

I have allotted extra time to clean and snip off ends of Green Beans, and then an additional time of 8-10 minutes for your pot to come to pressure.

David's Cooking Tips

• You can swap out ham shanks, or diced ham, or ham hocks if you like, though that will change the flavor slightly.
• Don’t like chunks of meat in your green beans? Use one teaspoon of bacon grease to give the meat flavor without having pieces of meat.
• If you want more of a smoky flavor with this recipe, add a teaspoon of liquid smoke.

Tried this recipe?

Let us know how it was!

Frequently Asked Questions About Instant Pot Green Beans and Potatoes?

Can I use hamhocks instead?

Absolutely, you can!  Ham, Ham hocks, smoked turkey wings or neck bones, all make a great addition to these green beans and potatoes instead of bacon…if you want to use something different. I’ve even used smoked sausage or andouille sausage instead of bacon when I really wanted to change the flavors up a bit.

What if I only have Russet potatoes?

You can use them, but be careful! Russets are very starchy and can turn to mush quickly. If you use them, cut them into larger chunks to help them survive the pressure.

Is this Make-ahead friendly?

This is one of those rare dishes that actually tastes better the next day after the potatoes have sat in that smoky broth. It’s a great one for Angela’s lunch the following afternoon, and she devours it1