Cheesy Potato Casserole (Funeral Potatoes)
Easy Cheesy Potato Casserole, a ubiquitous potluck dish in the Midwest and elsewhere, comes together in minutes and can be made ahead of time. This crowd-pleaser is perfect for breakfast, brunch, or any party! Also known as Funeral Potatoes in some circles.
The thing about potlucks is, people tend to get “assigned” certain dishes that everyone loves. So if you bring something and it’s a hit, you are morally obligated to always bring it to every potluck you attend, forever.
I live in California now where no one has even HEARD of Cheesy Potato Casserole. So it’s my job to share the joy whether I’m assigned it or not.
What is Cheesy Potato Casserole?
First you mix up frozen hash browns with homemade Cream of Chicken soup, sour cream, and shredded cheese. Bake it for an hour, then remove it from the oven.
Meanwhile, melt some butter with crushed corn flakes. Pour over the top of the cheesy baked Potato Casserole. Return to the oven for a bit longer, until the corn flakes are golden brown and fragrant and buttery delicious.
What should I serve with Cheesy Potato casserole?
If you’re making Cheesy Potato Casserole for the holidays, serve it with Baked Ham and roasted green beans.
If you’re making Cheesy Potato Casserole for a party, Sloppy Joes are always a hit!
Can you freeze a hash brown casserole?
You can freeze the casserole before you bake it (thaw in the refrigerator and proceed with the recipe as normal).
The hash brown casserole turns out creamy and cheesy all at the same time, buried in that fabulous crunchy corn flake topping. You are DEFINITELY going to be assigned the obligation of bringing this easy Cheesy Potato Casserole recipe to all future potlucks.
Save this Cheesy Potato Casserole to your “Side Dishes” Pinterest board!
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Cheesy Potato Casserole
Easy Cheesy Potato Casserole, a ubiquitous potluck dish in the Midwest and elsewhere, comes together in minutes and can be made ahead of time. This crowd-pleaser is perfect for breakfast, brunch, or any party! Also known as Funeral Potatoes in some circles.
Ingredients
- 1 (30 ounce) package frozen hash browns , thawed
- 1 recipe homemade cream of chicken soup or 1 can store-bought
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 cups cornflakes crushed
- 1/4 cup butter
Instructions
Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray.
- Pour hash browns into a large bowl. Stir in cream of chicken soup, sour cream, cheddar cheese, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Mix until uniformly combined.
- Pour hash brown mixture into prepared baking dish. Bake uncovered for 1 hour. Remove from oven.
Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium microwave-safe dish. Stir in crushed cornflakes. Pour over the top of the baked casserole and spread into an even layer. Return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes longer.
Recipe Notes
- To make ahead, assemble the casserole through Step 3. Pour into baking dish and cover. Refrigerate overnight or freeze. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator if frozen and follow the baking instructions above.
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This looks scrumptious! I love the crunchy topping and the fact you didn’t use canned soup – bravo! The new site looks great, so bright and colorful… love it.
Thank you so much, Kevin! I am excited for a new design. And obviously for the Cheesy Potato Casserole! I had to make it a few times to “taste test” even though I’ve made it a zillion times in the past. ;)
I could eat this all day, every day, love it Meggan!
Same here Matt, thank you! I hope you and the family are doing well! I am hanging in there with my 3-month-old and my 3-year-old. It’s a fun, challenging time as I’m sure you know!
Just can’t stop looking at this yumminess! Love potato casserole and this one is extra cheesy, I need to definitely make it! Definitely perfect for a potluck!
Thank you, Mira! It’s all about the stretchy cheese, it just draws you in. :) Thank you for stopping over!
This is cheesy, in a good way. There’s something about gooey melted cheese that makes me want to sit down with the entire casserole. Looks so good.
My husband was so grateful that I made a few of these in succession. And at first he was like… “No I’m on a diet I can’t eat this.” But then he accidentally tried one bite and went back for several more pieces and requested that I make it on our next “cheat day.” The casserole speaks for itself. :)
Really enjoyed this, Meggan, because I’ve never heard of anything like this. Isn’t it funny how things in one country (or even state in your case!) are so ubiquitous, and yet unheard of somewhere else! The casserole looks gorgeous, though. Perfect for a potluck!
For a while there while I was living in Greece, I always got asked to take the brownies ;-)
Oh, and by the way, the new blog design = STUNNING! I might just be a tiny bit envious. Enjoy it!!
Thanks for stopping over, Helen! I always love your comments. And I’m sure your brownies were delicious in Greece and everywhere else. :) It’s funny because, I write this whole post about how people get pigeon-holed into bringing the same thing every time, but that never happens to me personally! In fact, I will rarely commit to or announce what I’m bringing up front. I think people give me creative freedom because I’m a food blogger so they just assume that whatever I bring will at least be edible. But I really like to cook wherever my mood takes me. I am sure you know when you cook for “work” like we do, the down-time of cooking for pleasure is precious. Anyway. Thank you for your comments on my new site design too. Obviously I paid a lovely company and I’m incredibly pleased with what they did, but the only credit I get is for having good taste in the company I chose, ha ha!
This casserole sounds wonderful – especially the cream of chicken soup. I’ve been making my own for a while, something I figured out on my own, but yours is so much easier. I’m curious to know if there is an acceptable substitute for the cornflakes – I just refuse to buy cornflakes, and don’t care much for them. If there is a good substitute, I would definitely want to make this casserole.
Hi Susan! I completely understand your aversion to cornflakes. We don’t eat cold cereal in my house, and it is so rare that I have corn flakes on hand (only if I’m making this casserole or my mock fried ice cream!) I would think that you could easily substitute bread or cracker crumbs of some sort, although I haven’t tried it. And depending on the cracker, it might not be much better than corn flakes anyway! If you leave the corn flakes off entirely, the cheesy hash browns themselves would still be creamy and delicious. Failing that, at least you have a new way to make homemade cream of chicken soup if you desire!
Love this quick and easy dish! Cornflakes make for an incredible crunchy crust, and that cheese, oh the cheese! My goodness that’s shot is making me drool!
Thank you so much, Kathleen! :) I am former cheesehead and sometimes that pops out in my recipes…
Oh goodness! This looks awesome. But how in the world could anything so cheesy, potato-ey and crunchy EVER be wrong?! Plus you used homemade cream of chicken soup!? Forget about it! Sold. Done and done. However, I would prefer to have the obligation of making this and then devouring all of it, hidden in a corner of shame somewhere. :D Cheers and thanks for sharing the scrumptiousness!
Cheyanne, thank you! The trouble with the food-blogger-arrangement is it’s all too easy to sit in a corner (or in front of the TV) in the middle of day alone (while kids nap) watching Netflix eating the whole pan. This is purely conjecture though, I couldn’t possibly be speaking from experience, ha! :)
This is a great variation. I’ve been making this for years but instead of using cornflakes for the breading I use crushed croutons and throw in some green onions and garlic for more zing. Def plan on making this.
Hello Mimi, that sounds REALLY incredible! Green onions and garlic in the middle plus crushed croutons on top… yep. I’m going to try that the next time I make these! Thank you so much for the suggestions!
Hi Meggan! This looks delicious. I need to make something for a vegetarian brunch – would cream of vegetable soup work for this or do you have alternative recommendations? :)
Hi Jenny, sure, any creamy vegetable soup would work! If I was making it, I’d use cream of celery (that’s my fave) but I think any one would work. It’s really about the consistency, not the flavor. I have this feeling when my mom makes it, she doesn’t use the cream of chicken… I think she uses the celery. I will ask her about that. Thank you so much for your question and for stopping by! :)
I have been making this in Sourhern California for years!!! I add green onions to it also!
I love your variations that don’t contain the crappy canned soup! It is amazing to me how some recipes are so regional…
I use crushed potato chips on top instead of the cornflakes and so gud! Your recipe is wonderful!!!!!
I really enjoy your blog, and you’ve inspired me to update my regular, routine dishes. That being said, I made these potatoes for my dear friends on Easter, and I was disappointed. Although most thought they were fine, they did not have much flavor or “oomph”. I followed the directions exactly, making no changes nor substitutions. Perhaps I’ll play with it at some future time, but, for now, I’ll pass. I do look forward to your emails and for your next recipes.
Thanks,
Mrs. E.
Hi Mrs. E, I really appreciate this comment. And you are totally right. A lot of the time, most of the time, I love to take the Midwest classics and reimagine them in a new way and make them taste so much better than the original version. In this case, all I did I was swap out the canned soup for homemade. Otherwise I kept the recipe the standard way. I should not! I should change it up! I should do the thing I love to do which is make the old recipes new again. So, I’ll work on it. I know I let you down but now I know, my readers really do want the thing that tastes the best. It makes my heart sing! Thank you. I really appreciate your honesty, you have no idea. :D Take care.