Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole (No Canned Soup)
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The homemade cheese sauce is the reason for the best taste and texture. When you make the sauce yourself, you know exactly what’s in it: sharp cheddar, sour cream, milk, and no preservatives. You can also taste as you go and season it exactly the way your family likes. All of that for about 10 extra minutes of prep, I’ll trade that every time.
Featured Comment
“I have made hadhbrown casserole for years with COC soup. Thisi is the best recipe for this casserole and the best way to prepare as the recipe states.” ~Barbara ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Years of working at the Cracker Barrel and enjoying all the delicious comforting food drove me to create my own recipes and make it at home. Hashbrown Casserole is definitely one of those dishes. When you have a recipe that beats the restaurant’s, you don’t have a need to go out and get it. You are all set to make it right at home!
Scalloped potatoes and hashbrown casserole are the two potato sides that I make for a big family dinner. Don’t let the fact that this casserole is prepared with no canned soup make you think that it’s harder to cook. It is just as easy and only takes about 10 extra minutes of preparation time. (Okay, I also frequent my loaded cheesy potato casserole as well.)
Key Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
Frozen Shredded Hash Brown Potatoes – hash brown potatoes usually come frozen so make sure to thaw the potatoes first. Best way to do that is to thaw them overnight or for up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Thawing helps prevent a watery or soggy casserole: excess moisture from frozen potatoes can thin the sauce and keep the potatoes from cooking evenly.
Cheese – I like to use sharp cheddar cheese because it adds a lot more flavor to the casserole.
Gluten Free*: This casserole is very easily made gluten free. Just substitute all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour. Note that sometimes it takes just a little more gluten free flour to make it the same thickness as regular. (Depending on the brand.) In most cases, 1/2-1 extra tablespoon will do the trick.
How To Make Hashbrown Casserole: Step By Step and Tips
- Important pre-cooking step: Use thawed hashbrowns before making the cheese sauce. You can always set yourself an alarm the day before you plan to cook the casserole to remind you to pull the potatoes from the freezer.
- When making the casserole, start with cheese sauce because nothing needs to be done with thawed potatoes. Sauté onions in butter until soft and transparent (don’t you just love the smell of onions searing in butter?!)
- Successful smooth cheese sauce: coat sauteed onions in flour evenly. Pour the liquids in slowly AS you continuously but slowly stir! The mixture will start to thicken as you are slowly stirring. (Feel free to use a whisk if that is more comfortable for you.)
- Keep the temperature below medium! Never have the heat too high when making any kind of creamy cheese sauce. Medium to start and the lower to medium low after adding liquids.
- Add cheese one handful at a time: slowly stir as you add the cheese one handful at a time. This will help the cheese melt and incorporate into the sauce evenly.
- Take off heat as soon as cheese is melted.
- Be gentle mixing hashbrowns and cheese sauce. Don’t overmix but make sure it’s mixed evenly.
- Transfer the mixture into the casserole dish, top off with more cheese, and bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes.
- If you’re noticing that the top is getting browned too fast, you can loosely place a sheet of aluminum foil on top of the baking dish. This will deflect direct heat from the cheese topping.
How To Make Ahead, Store, and Reheat the Casserole
Make Ahead: You can assemble the casserole without baking it and keep it in the refrigerator overnight. Before refrigerating, cover the dish tightly with a lid or plastic wrap. When you are ready to bake it, unwrap and let the dish sit out for about 30 minutes to warm up. You will need to add about 5 to 7 minutes to the baking time.
Storing: Leftover hashbrown casserole can be stored for 3-5 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container. You can either leave it in the baking dish or move it to a different storage container.
Reheating: You can reheat the entire casserole in the oven or reheat individual servings in the microwave. To reheat in the oven, let the dish warm up for 30 minutes on the counter first. Then, bake at 350°F. To keep the top from getting too brown, you can cover the dish with foil.
How To Freeze Hashbrown Casserole?
PRO TIP: If you plan to freeze this casserole, you can prepare it and bake it in an aluminum baking pan. Note that the bake time will be slightly less, about 5 minutes less.
- Make sure to cool the cooked potato casserole to room temperature before freezing!
- Cover the whole pan with plastic or another freezer-friendly air-tight wrap and then, wrap it in a some aluminum foil. Double cover will make sure it is completely air-tight.
- Label the pan and freeze it for up to 3 months.
- Make sure to thaw it slowly, in the refrigerator, for up to 24 hours.
Variations and Additions To Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole
- Add a Crunchy Topping: for a texture similar to “Funeral Potatoes,” mix 2 cups of crushed cornflakes or Ritz crackers with 3 tablespoons of melted butter and sprinkle over the top before baking.
- Add Protein: stir in 1 cup of diced ham, chopped or shredded rotisserie chicken, cooked crumbled bacon, or shredded leftover turkey.
- Change the Cheese: while sharp cheddar is classic, feel free to use Monterey Jack, pepper Jack, Colby, or a Mexican cheese blend.
- Make it Spicy: add finely diced jalapeños or a 4-ounce can of green chiles for a spicy kick.
- Herbs: add some extra flavor with chopped chives, scallions, and/or parsley.
Hashbrown Casserole Recipe FAQs
Yes. Prepare the casserole as instructed in the recipe up to the step of spreading it in the baking dish. Spread the cheesy potato mixture in the Crock Pot, cover with the lid, and cook for 2-3 hours on HIGH or for 4-4.5 hours on LOW. Spread the grated cheese on top of the casserole during the last 30 minutes of cook time.
While this recipe is designed for shredded hashbrowns, you can use cubed hash brown potatoes. Make sure to thaw them first as well. I actually have a similar dish called a cheesy potato casserole.
Some More Comforting Side Dishes
If you’ve made my Hashbrown Casserole recipe and found a lot of good information here, PLEASE leave a 🌟 star rating! Let me know how you liked it by leaving the 📝 comment below as well. Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter!
Hashbrown Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 30 oz frozen shredded hash brown potatoes thawed
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 3 large garlic cloves minced
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour*
- 2 cups whole milk (can use reduced fat if needed)
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 cup sour cream
- 8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 1/2 tbsp minced parsley (can use dried parsley if needed)
- salt
- fresh cracked black pepper
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13 casserole baking dish.
- Preheat medium pot over medium heat on stove-top.
- Add oil, heat it through, and add diced onions. Sauté onions until they start to brown.
- Smash and mince garlic and add it to the onions. Stir and sauté until fragrant, just a few seconds.
- Sprinkle flour over the onions and stir well. Stir for a few seconds and start slowly pouring in chicken stock, while stirring. Pour in milk after that while stirring as well.
- Lower the heat to medium-low. Let the mixture heat through and start to thicken. Make sure to stir often.
- Stir in sour cream, salt, and pepper. (You may need to use a whisk to help incorporate the sour cream.) Let the mixture cook for about a minute.
- Stir in cheese one handful at a time. Stir in as it melts and taste to make sure you have enough seasoning. Once cheese is melted, stir in parsley and take the pot off heat.
- Mix hash brown potatoes and cheese sauce in a large bowl and spread the mixture in the prepared casserole dish. Make sure it's all spread evenly throughout.
- Spread some more cheese on top and bake for 30-35 minutes, until casserole browned and bubbles around the edges. If you would like to brown the top a little more, turn on the broiler for a few seconds.
Video
Notes
- Gluten Free*: This casserole is very easily made gluten free, just substitute all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour.
- Storing: Store any leftover hashbrown casserole in the refrigerator covered air-tight for 3-5 days.
Nutrition
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles on December 20, 2018.
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Categories:
Breakfast Recipes, Brunch Recipes, Christmas Dinner Recipes, Easter Recipes, Most Popular Recipes, Potatoes, Side Dishes, Thanksgiving Dinner Recipes,All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
Can I make and freeze a week before I need to bake?
I cooked this for the first time for dinner with friends. Everyone loved it and went back for seconds and thirds. It is an easy recipe I plan on using again and again! Thank you so much!!
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This was delicious and so much better then several cans of soup like most other recipes. Will add some spices to it next time but a keeper. Went well as a side dish with fried seafood.
Thanks, Mary! I am glad you liked it better. 🙂
HELP! I just broke my only 9×13 and everything is ready to go in the oven! what can I use instead?
Hi Catherine,
I am so sorry I don’t get notifications of new comments immediately, so I have to log in to see them. The next time you need a response right away send me a message on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/willcookforsmiles and I will respond much faster and be able to help. I hope you were able to figure out how to make this still if not let me know and I will help you out.
Has anyone prepped this the night before and baked the next morning? If so, is an hour sufficient?
Absolutely. You can prepare the casserole completely up to the baking step and refrigerate overnight. Make sure to cover the prepared casserole dish with plastic wrap before putting it in the fridge. Take the dish out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking and let it sit on the counter to warm up. Discard the plastic wrap and bake at 350° but add extra 5 minutes or so since the casserole will start out cold. I hope you enjoy it! 🙂
My family loved this recipe! I added green pepper and hamburger to make it a full meal. It was like shepherds pie! I also used sour cream and onion dip instead of sour cream because that’s all I had it tasted great!
I have leftover ham from Easter, can I add that and if I can should I change any of the other ingredients?
Sorry, Amy, I am just now seeing your comment. Yes, you can add ham and no you wouldn’t chance anything else.
Can I use julien hash browns for this recipe
Do you mean shredded? If so yes this recipe is best with shredded if you mean diced then it won’t be as incorporated and but it will still taste good. Hope that helps.
Hi i was wondering if the recipe can be baked in a roaster and for how long?
Hi Lynsey,
I have never used a roaster for this recipe so I am not sure how long to cook it in one.
I haven’t tried this yet. I am thinking of trying a second batch using cauliflower instead of shredded potatoes. My husband will get the hashbrowns casserole and I’ll get a cauliflower casserole. Wish me good luck!
Sounds good! Let me know how it turns out! 🙂
Do you think it would be ok to substitute cream cheese instead of sour cream?
How much salt do you use? I tend to either under salt or over salt so I’d like to have it just right this time. Thanks!
Hi Linda,
It’s very difficult to give the amount of salt because everyone’s taste different with salt I would add about 1/2 a tsp and taste if it’s not enough for you add a little more and keep tasting until it’s just right.
Can you make this ahead and freeze to cook later?
Absolutely. You can prepare the casserole completely up to the baking step and refrigerate overnight. Make sure to cover the prepared casserole dish with plastic wrap before putting it in the fridge. Take the dish out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking and let it sit on the counter to warm up. Discard the plastic wrap and bake at 350° but add extra 5 minutes or so since the casserole will start out cold. I hope you enjoy it! 🙂
I precooked them for 10 min then shredded. Worked great
So glad you liked it, Vivian!
Excellent recipe! Thanks!! I did use my own shredded potatoes I precooked them for 10 min then shredded. Worked great! I love that you don’t have to use condensed soup in this recipe
Hi Becky,
I am so glad you liked it! 🙂
Any chance you have tried it with reduced fat milk and cheese? Or sauteed the onions in chicken broth with 1/2 the oil? Just wondering if anyone has tried lightening it up at all?
Hi Michelle,
Hashbrown casserole is an indulgent side dish because of the potatoes so the small substitutions will not reduce the fact that they are potatoes and carbs. 😉 That said you could use reduced-fat milk or even fat-free but as far as cheese reduced-fat cheese often does not come out well or comes out with a grainy texture. If you have a nonstick pan you can reduce the oil without needed to add chicken broth. I hope you still try it even with having to use full-fat cheese, it is a delicious indulgent every once in awhile. 🙂
Hi, I think you could substitute greek yogurt for the sour cream and save a ton of fat. Lyubas recipes are always delicious.
Thank you, Christine! I am so glad you like my recipes 🙂
Can you freeze this?
My family really enjoyed this last night as a special side dish to Chicken Cordon Bleu! Easy to prepare, and we’re sure leftovers will reheat well. Just delicious!! Thank you for sharing, this recipe is being moved to my “Favorites” board!
So glad your family enjoyed it, Laura! Thanks for stopping by!
What’s the best way to thaw the potatoes? Let them sit in the fridge?
Hi Heather,
Yes I would let them sit in the fridge overnight to thaw. I hope you like them!