Restaurant-Style Chinese Green Beans

Wonderfully tender-crisp and well seasoned, these Chinese green beans are ready fast and pair with many different meals.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Chinese

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Total Time 25

Servings servings

Calories 115kcal

In a medium bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, and cornstarch. Mix in the garlic and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
Heat the oil over medium heat in a large 12-inch skillet for about 3 minutes. Add the green beans and sauté them, stirring occasionally, until they are tender-crisp and just begin to brown in spots, about 8 minutes (see notes below).
Reduce the heat to low. Give the sauce another whisk, then add it to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until the green beans are coated in the sauce and the sauce has thickened, for about 1 minute.
Transfer the green beans to a serving plate, drizzle them with sesame oil, and serve.

Cooked green beans should be bright green and tender-crisp. You don't want them brown and limp. So even though we want them to be browned in some spots, we don't want to overcook them. Eight minutes over medium heat works for me (plus a minute after adding the sauce). But keep a close eye on them as you cook. Depending on how hot your stovetop runs, they might be ready faster.
Don’t stir the green beans too often. Letting them sit for a minute between tosses helps them blister and caramelize, giving that deep, smoky flavor you’d get from restaurant-style green beans.
I recommend using fresh green beans.
You can add a teaspoon of minced fresh ginger to the sauce.
Instead of red pepper flakes, I sometimes use a tablespoon of hot pepper sauce. The only caveat is that it can create chili fumes when cooked, so if you're sensitive to that, you might want to stick with red pepper flakes (and possibly use less of them).
You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat them in the microwave at 50% power or snack on them cold.