OP, you can definitely cook green beans to be crisp and delicious, but try the longbeans, they're amazing and very hardy (so stay crisp very well even if you over cook a bit). Most Asian grocery stores have them, they look like green beans except ridiculous long (seriously, they usually have to fold them up and put a tie around them, you can't leave that shit loose).

I think you want Chinese long beans. I don't know the ones from Panda, but I do eat those green beans and they are tighter and crispier. (google says it's actually a strange asparagus, but the ones I get are a lot like green beans).

 [https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/8cvta0/recipe\_sichuan\_dry\_fried\_green\_beans\_%E5%B9%B2%E7%85%B8%E5%9B%9B%E5%AD%A3%E8%B1%86/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/8cvta0/recipe_sichuan_dry_fried_green_beans_%E5%B9%B2%E7%85%B8%E5%9B%9B%E5%AD%A3%E8%B1%86/) 

I've made these several times and they're great!

Chinese home cook here. hot ass wok is your answer to any and all good Chinese veggies.

More specifically: open top, high btu burner. Your ordinary sealed top burners will never get a wok hot enough to achieve proper stir fry.

A Wokmon also helps simulate a wok range.

I believe the technique typically used is called “dry braising” or “dry frying.” 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/chinese-dry-fried-green-beans-50054525/amp

They're probably not green beans. Those crisp, crunchy beans are actually long beans! I'm not sure where you live, but I've seen Ralph's in CA that carry them and any Asian market will probably have them as well.

Good fresh green beans are usually crisp already before you cook them. The typical Chinese preparation for green beans is to deep fry or stir fry.

What's the secret to the amazingly crisp green beans I get at (American) Chinese restaurants? Most recently, my lunch from Panda Express had such delicious green beans. Is it a certain kind of green bean or the cooking process?

Green beans from Chinese restaurants