Ham Green Beans and Potatoes Recipe (Southern One Pot)

Try making this Ham Green Beans and Potatoes recipe for the best side dish to pair with any meal. Filling, comforting, and the perfect Southern-style green beans everyone will love.

Updated September 1, 2026: I've refreshed this post with new tips, expanded FAQs, and helpful make-ahead instructions based on your questions and feedback. Same delicious recipe, even more helpful! Originally posted on September 29, 2022 and video added on November 22, 2024.

Watch this quick video tutorial!

My grandmother kept a pot of green beans going on the back of the stove most of the summer, and she never once measured anything. She'd snap beans on the porch with whoever showed up, drop in whatever ham was left from Sunday, and let the whole thing go low and slow until the kitchen smelled like home. That pot is the reason I still make this the same way, one pot, no fuss, no babysitting.

I've been developing and testing Southern recipes here since 2013, and this one has been on the blog since 2022 with more than thirty of y'all rating it. I've made it with holiday leftovers, with a smoked ham hock, and with a grocery-store ham steak on a random Tuesday, and I've tested it enough times to know exactly where people go wrong: they rush it. Green beans done this way need time to give up their flavor into the broth.

So grab your biggest pot and let's do this the way it's meant to be done. Let's get started!

Why You'll Love This Ham Green Beans and Potatoes

• One pot, one cleanup - Everything cooks in the same Dutch oven from start to finish, and once it's simmering, you can walk away from it.
• Feeds a crowd or a Tuesday - It stretches to serve six as a side, or four as a full meal with a skillet of cornbread.
• Built for leftover ham - This is the recipe I turn to after Easter and Christmas, when there's a ham bone in the fridge, and nobody wants another sandwich.
• It gets better overnight - The broth deepens in the fridge, which makes it one of the few sides I'd rather make a day ahead.

Ingredients You'll Need

Here's everything you'll need to make this recipe.

1. Ham. This is what seasons the entire pot, so it's worth thinking about. Smoked ham gives you the richest, most old-fashioned flavor. A leftover holiday ham bone with meat still clinging to the bone is the best-case scenario. The marrow and collagen do things to the broth that diced ham can't. If you're starting with a large piece, quarter it or cut it into chunks before it goes in so the flavor distributes evenly instead of staying locked in the center. Diced ham from the grocery store works fine and its what I use on weeknights. Country ham and cottage ham both work, but they run much saltier, so hold back on the seasoned salt until you taste at the end. Same technique as my Collard Greens with Ham Hocks, if you've made that one.
2. Fresh green beans. Fresh is what this recipe is built for. Look for beans that are firm and bright with no wilting or brown spots. They should snap cleanly when you bend one. Wash them, trim the stem ends, and cut or snap them in half. Frozen green beans will work in a pinch but skip canned as your main bean, they're already fully cooked and will fall apart over an hour of simmering. If canned is what you've got, see the FAQ below.
3. Potatoes. Red potatoes are my pick. They're waxy, which means they hold their shape through a long simmer and soak up the seasoning without turning to mush. Yukon gold works just as well. Russets will break down more, so if that's what's in the pantry, cut them into larger chunks than you think you need.
4. Onion and garlic. White onion is mild and slightly sweet, which is what you want against all that salty ham. Yellow onion is fine. The garlic goes in after the onion has softened and only cooks about a minute, any longer and it turns bitter.
5. Chicken broth. Low-sodium, always. The ham is bringing plenty of salt on its own, and you can't take it back out. Chicken stock, vegetable stock, or vegetable broth all substitute cleanly.
6. Seasoned salt and crushed red pepper. Seasoned salt does the work of four separate seasonings in one shake. The crushed red pepper isn't there to make it spicy, at this amount it just adds a little warmth on the back end. You can leave it out entirely.
7. Olive oil. Just enough to get the ham going and keep it from sticking. Vegetable or canola oil substitutes fine, and if you keep bacon grease in a jar by the stove like my grandmother did, use that.

👉🏾 See the recipe card below for exact quantities and full instructions.

How to Make Ham Green Beans and Potatoes

Here's a quick overview of the process. Full step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.

Step 1: Render the Ham

Get your pot hot before the ham goes in, and let it sit undisturbed for the first minute or two so it picks up some color. Those browned bits on the bottom of the pot are the foundation of the whole dish. You'll lift them back into the broth in a minute. If your ham is very lean, add a touch more oil.

Step 2: Build the Aromatics

The onion goes in next and needs longer than most people give it. About four to five minutes, until it's genuinely translucent and starting to sweeten, not just warmed through. Garlic goes in last and needs one minute, tops. This is also where the seasoned salt and red pepper go, so they toast in the fat rather than getting dumped into liquid.

Step 3: Deglaze and Load the Pot

When the broth hits the hot pot it'll steam hard and lift everything stuck to the bottom, scrape once with a wooden spoon to make sure none of it stays behind. Then the beans and potatoes go in. Hold back about a cup of broth. You'll want it later if needed.

Step 4: Simmer Low and Leave It Alone

Lid on, heat down to a bare simmer, and set a timer for an hour. This is the step people cut short. Southern-style green beans are not meant to be crisp-tender. They're supposed to be soft, olive-colored, and completely surrendered to the broth. If yours still snap after an hour, they need more time, not more heat.

Step 5: Taste Before You Season

Do not salt this dish until the very end. Between the ham and the seasoned salt, it may already be exactly where it needs to be. Taste it, then adjust with black pepper, a little more salt if it needs it, or a few dashes of hot sauce.

LaKita's Expert Tips

Here are my best tips for making this recipe turn out perfectly every time.

• Cut your potatoes to match, not to look pretty. Uneven chunks mean some are falling apart while others are still firm. Quartered red potatoes about an inch and a half across is the size I aim for.
• Let it rest fifteen minutes off the heat before serving. The beans and potatoes keep pulling broth in as it sits, and the difference between serving immediately and waiting a quarter hour is noticeable.
• If it tastes flat, it's usually acid, not salt. A splash of apple cider vinegar right at the end wakes the whole pot up. A reader from Kentucky mentioned her family adds a tablespoon each of vinegar and brown sugar before the potatoes finish, which I've come to think is very smart.
• Don't drown it. The liquid should come up around the vegetables, not cover them completely. Too much broth and you've diluted the ham flavor you spent an hour building.
• Save the pot liquor. That broth left in the bottom is the best part. Serve it in shallow bowls with a spoon, and put cornbread on the table to sop it up.
• A ham bone needs a head start. If you're using a bone rather than diced ham, simmer it in the broth for about 45 minutes before the beans and potatoes go in, then pull the bone, strip the meat, and return the meat to the pot.
• Doubling works and the timing doesn't change much. In a big enough pot, a double batch still runs about an hour. What changes is how long it takes to come up to a simmer.

Variations & Substitutions

This recipe is flexible, here are some easy ways to make it your own.

• Make it a soup. This is already most of the way to a ham, green bean, and potato soup. Add two to three extra cups of broth in the last twenty minutes, break a few of the potatoes against the side of the pot to thicken it, and serve it in bowls. If you like it in this direction, my Crockpot Beef Stew is built on the same low-and-slow idea.
• Slow cooker method. Brown the ham, onion, and garlic on the stovetop first. Don't skip this, it's where the flavor comes from, then move everything to the crockpot. LOW for 6 to 7 hours, or HIGH for 3 to 4, until the potatoes are fork tender.
• Instant Pot method. Use Sauté to brown the ham and aromatics, add everything else, seal, and cook on Manual/High for 5 minutes with a 10 to 15 minute natural release.
• Skip the potatoes. Plenty of folks make this as just ham and green beans, and it's excellent that way. Leave the potatoes out entirely and cut the broth back by about a cup.
• Swap the pork. Smoked turkey necks, ham hocks, salt pork, bacon, or smoked sausage all work in place of the ham. Each one changes the character of the broth, and each one changes the saltiness, so taste as you go.
• Add something green and bitter. A handful of chopped cabbage or a few collard leaves in the last twenty minutes rounds it out into a full one-pot meal.

Make-Ahead & Storage

Make-Ahead

This is one of the rare sides that genuinely improves overnight, so I'll often make it a full day before a holiday meal. Cook it completely, cool it, and refrigerate it in the pot or in an airtight container. Reheat gently on the stovetop the next day with a splash of broth. You can also do all the prep ahead. Trim and cut the beans, quarter the potatoes and hold them in cold water, dice the ham and onion, and keep everything refrigerated for up to two days before cooking.

Storage & Reheating

Storage. Cool completely, then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Reheating. Stovetop is best. Add the leftovers to a saucepan with a splash of chicken broth or water to loosen them up, cover, and warm over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until heated through. In the microwave, use a covered microwave-safe bowl and heat in one-minute intervals, stirring between, until steaming.

Freezing. Freeze completely cooled leftovers in a freezer-safe container or bag for up to 30 days. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and reheat on the stove over medium heat. Be aware the potatoes soften noticeably after freezing. If you know you'll be freezing a batch, consider leaving the potatoes out and adding fresh ones when you reheat.

What to Serve with Ham Green Beans and Potatoes

Here are some of my favorite ways to serve this dish.

• Cornbread, without question. This is the pairing readers write to me about most, and it's not just tradition. You need something to get the pot liquor out of the bowl. Try it with Southern Cornbread.
• A Sunday dinner centerpiece. When this is playing the side-dish role, it goes on the table next to Soul Food Oven Ribs or a roast chicken.
• A weeknight main. Serve it in shallow bowls as the whole meal, with Hamburger Steaks and Gravy if you want something heartier alongside.
• Alongside more greens. For a full soul food plate, put it next to Collard Greens with Ham Hocks and a pan of candied yams.
• On its own, in a bowl, standing at the counter. No notes. This is how I eat the leftovers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did You Make This Recipe?

There's something about this pot of beans that connects people to their grandmothers' kitchens, and I hear about it every time someone makes it. If you give this ham, green beans, and potatoes recipe a try, I'd love to know what you think! Leave a comment below, share a photo on Instagram and tag @SimplyLaKita, or save it on Pinterest for later. And if you have a family variation, a splash of vinegar, a different cut of pork, something your grandmother did, tell me in the comments. I read every one.