Cheesy potato casserole is a gooey, creamy, potato side dish that the whole family will love. This classic side dish is a holiday staple at our house and has the best flavors of baked potato. It’s impossible not to love the combination of diced hash brown potatoes slathered with cheesy, white cream sauce, bacon, and green onions. No canned soup needed, the sauce so easy and takes a few minutes to prepare.
Another wonderful cheesy potato side to try is the classic Hashbrown Casserole.
CHEESY POTATO CASSEROLE
I might be biased towards potatoes, but this is the best side dish to ever hit the table. My family doesn’t even care whatever meat I serve as a main course, they just want the potatoes. I could be making beef tenderloin and they will get the potatoes first.
These cheesy potatoes in particular are my husband’s favorite because it tastes like a loaded baked potato. I don’t mind this version myself. Who could resist anything with bacon?! There is bacon throughout the whole dish, mixed into the potatoes and sprinkled on top. A generous addition of green onion is a must for the best baked potato flavors.
Loaded potato casserole will definitely beat out the classic version. Classic cheesy potato dish is also referred to as “Funeral Potatoes.” When one of my readers first told me about funeral potatoes in reference to my hashbrown casserole recipe, I had to reread it a few time. Before that, I’ve never heard this reference but it is a very popular name, especially in the Midwest region.
So this dish can be thought of as a loaded potato version of funeral potatoes. It is the same basic premise of diced hash browns mixed with cheesy cream sauce and baked until bubbly. There are couple of things that I do differently from the tradition through. First of all, I make my own cream sauce instead of using canned cream of chicken soup. It’s so easy and tastes much better.
I also add a little cream cheese for extra creaminess in the sauce. And of course, I add a pound of bacon and a generous amount of green onions for a pop of delicious flavor.
HOW TO MAKE CHEESY POTATO CASSEROLE
Before you start to cook the potato casserole, make sure that hash browns are defrosted and don’t take bacon out of the refrigerator until ready to cook. It’s a lot easier to cut cold bacon. It’s also better to prepare and measure out the ingredients first so everything is close by while cooking.
Cheesy Sauce:
Preheat a large sauce pot over medium heat and saute half pound of diced bacon until most of the fat is rendered and it starts to crisp. Add diced onion and saute until softened. Press garlic and stir it into the bacon and onion mixture. Sprinkle flour all over bacon and onions and stir until completely incorporated throughout.
Slowly pour in chicken stock while stirring and mix until flour is incorporated. Pour in milk and let it cook until sauce starts to thicken. Season with salt and pepper and add cream cheese. Stir until cream cheese is incorporated and add shredded cheese. When the cheese is melted, take the sauce off heat and stir in diced green onion.
In a separate cooking pan, saute remaining diced bacon for the topping. Don’t make it too crispy because it will continue to cook on top of the casserole.
Cheesy Potato Casserole:
Pour diced hash browns into a large mixing bowl and add the cheesy sauce. Mix it all together and pour into a greased 9×13 baking dish. Spread some more cheese over the top and bake at 350° for about 40 minutes.
Sprinkle some more diced green onion on top and enjoy this cheesy, delicious food for your heart and soul.
Make It Ahead Of Time:
You can very easily prepare it a day ahead and bake it when ready. 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. (Discard plastic wrap before baking.)
Pull the casserole dish out of the refrigerator while the oven is preheating. Bake at 350° and add extra 5 minutes to the bake time since the casserole will start out cold.
HOW TO REHEAT CHEESY POTATO CASSEROLE
If, by some odd reason, you have these potatoes leftover, store it in the refrigerator. Store it in the original casserole dish or transfer into a food storage container. Either way, make sure to cover it air-tight.
You can use a microwave to reheat individual potions of potatoes or reheat the whole pan in the oven. To reheat larger amount, you can do it in the oven. Preheat the oven to 350° and reheat just until hot throughout.
IS CHEESY POTATO CASSEROLE GLUTEN FREE?
No, this potato casserole is not gluten free but you can very easily make it gluten free. Simply use gluten free all purpose flour to make the cheese sauce. Many gluten free flours don’t thicken as well as regular flour so add an extra tablespoon of gluten free flour.
All remaining ingredients should be gluten free but double check the nutritional information on the packaging.
MORE POTATO RECIPES TO TRY
Ham and Cheese Mashed Potato Cakes
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Loaded Cheesy Potato Casserole
Cheesy potato casserole is a gooey, creamy, potato side dish made with diced hash brown potatoes slathered with cheesy, cream sauce, bacon, and green onions.
Ingredients
- 32 oz diced hash browns thawed
- 1/2 lb raw bacon diced
- 1 yellow onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 cups whole milk can use 2%
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup diced green onion
- 8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- salt
- cracked black pepper
Topping:
- 1/2 lb raw bacon diced
- 6 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 2-3 tbsp diced green onion
Instructions
Cheesy Sauce:
Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9x13 casserole dish.
Preheat a large sauce pot over medium heat and saute 1/2 lb of diced bacon until most of the fat is rendered and it starts to crisp.
Add diced onion and saute until softened. Press garlic and stir it into the bacon and onion mixture.
Sprinkle flour all over bacon and onions and stir until completely incorporated throughout.
Slowly pour in chicken stock while stirring and mix until flour is incorporated.
Pour in milk and let it cook until sauce starts to thicken. Season with salt and pepper and add cream cheese and sour cream.
Stir until cream cheese is incorporated and add shredded cheese. Keep stirring slowly until cheese is melted and take off heat.
Stir in diced green onions.
Potato Casserole:
In a separate cooking pan, saute remaining diced bacon for the topping. (Don’t make it too crispy because it will continue to cook on top of the casserole.)
Pour diced hash browns into a large mixing bowl and add the cheesy sauce. Mix it together until evenly incorporated throughout.
Pour potato mixture into a greased 9×13 baking dish.
Spread more cheese over the top and cooked bacon pieces over cheese. Bake for about 40 minutes.
Recipe Notes
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 a slight variation.
Sandra says
The directions mention cream cheese but no amount is specified in the ingredients list?
How much cream cheese do you recommend?
lyuba says
I’m so sorry! I just noticed it and fixed it. It’s 4 oz of cream cheese and 1/2 cup of sour cream. So sorry about that!