While steak is the star of the show at Texas Roadhouse, the side dishes bring meals at the restaurant chain full-circle. Popular side options include roasted sweet potatoes topped with butter and gooey marshmallows, seasoned rice with just the right amount of kick, creamy mac and cheese, and (surprise!) green beans.
Cooks at Texas Roadhouse manage to breathe new life into the humble vegetable. The chain understandably keeps its exact green bean recipe close to the vest, but we believe it’s the combination of bacon, onion broth, and brown sugar that gives this side dish its signature flavor. The chain’s Southern-inspired recipe combines sweet and savory elements to help your green beans complement steak, shrimp, and chicken — and to make it a little bit easier to eat your veggies.
Ready to whip up some Texas Roadhouse-style green beans in your own kitchen? It starts with great bacon. Try these tips for cooking bacon easily in the oven so you don’t make a mess on your stovetop, or sit back and let your sous vide circulator do the work if you’d prefer.
Delicious science: How salt and sugar work together
If you can’t seem to focus on the rest of your plate when you’ve got a bowl of Texas Roadhouse green beans in front of you, you’re not alone. Sweet and salty combinations — a staple of Southern cooking — actually create a little food science magic that makes whatever you’re eating even more delicious.
Here’s how it works. Your tongue’s taste buds are sophisticated messengers, detecting a variety of tastes, including salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and umami. The saltiness of the bacon in your favorite green beans creates a mind-blowing side dish in two ways: First, the salt helps to stop your taste buds from detecting any bitterness. Second, it actually makes the brown sugar added to the green beans taste even sweeter, creating an enhanced flavor experience.
Next time you’re interested in jazzing up some vegetables at home, try adding the sweet-and-salty combination of brown sugar and bacon to Brussels sprouts (follow this guide to choose the best Brussels sprouts at the grocery store), sweet potatoes, or roasted butternut squash.
