Funeral Potatoes
Funeral Potatoes is a classic dish made with shredded hash browns, cheddar cheese, sour cream, cream of chicken, and topped with butter cornflakes. It’s perfect to serve at Sunday dinners, holidays, potlucks, family gatherings, or funerals (for which it is named) and it the ultimate comfort food!
Potatoes make some of my favorite side dishes! One of my new favorites is my Twice Baked Potatoes recipe. You’ll also love my Creamy Scalloped Potatoes and Hasselback Potatoes.
Why This Recipe Works
- Uses simple ingredients. The ingredients you’ll need aren’t too crazy and it comes together really fast, especially when using pre-shredded, store-bought hash browns.
- Cheesy funeral potatoes. This funeral potatoes recipe is creamy and cheesy!
- Easy funeral food ideas. If you are looking for something easy to serve at funerals (hence the name) or at any kind of large gathering or potluck, funeral potatoes is a great dish! It serves a big group and is easy to scale up to serve a large crowd.
Ingredient Notes
- Shredded Hash Browns: Be sure to use thawed hash browns for this funeral potatoes recipe. I like make hash brown funeral potatoes with the frozen bag since it’s easier. See my Recipe Tips if you want to make funeral potatoes with real potatoes.
- Butter: We use the butter to cook the onion as well as extra butter to toss the cornflakes in (which gives the entire dish a crispy topping). Plus, I think butter is a requirement for any “comfort food” type dish!
- Onion: I love adding the cooked chopped onions to this funeral potatoes recipe because it adds a bit of texture difference in the casserole and some added vegetable element to the dish.
- Cream of Chicken Soup: The chicken soup adds flavor, texture, and creaminess to the corn flake potato casserole.
- Sour Cream: The sour cream adds an additional layer of creaminess and a different flavor to the potato sour cream casserole so there is more flavor depth than just the cream of chicken and the cheese. You can use light sour cream if you want.
- Cheddar Cheese: These cheesy funeral potatoes are so yummy! The added cheese in the funeral potatoes makes things extra flavorful and delicious.
- Cornflakes: You don’t have to make potato casserole with corn flakes. It just adds a nice crunchy topping and is typically used to top funeral potatoes.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Cook the onion. Add 6 tablespoons of butter to a large skillet. Melt over medium heat and add the diced onions. Cook until softened, about 6-8 minutes and transfer to a large bowl.
- Add remaining ingredients (minus stuff for the corn flakes topping). Add the 30 oz bag of shredded hash browns, one 10.5 oz can of cream of chicken soup, 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp black pepper, 2 1/4 cup sour cream, and 2 cups cheddar cheese to the bowl with the cooked onions. Stir to combine.
- Place in the baking dish. Place the potato mixture in a buttered 9×13-inch baking dish.
- Top with cornflakes topping. In a medium bowl, combine 2 cups of corn flakes and 4 tablespoons melted butter. Stir to combine. Sprinkle the buttery corn flakes over the cheesy hash brown casserole mixture.
- Bake. Bake the sour cream potato casserole at 350ºF for 45-50 minutes. The mixture twill be golden brown and bubbly. Serve warm!
Recipe Tips
Ultimately I think you can make funeral potatoes with frozen hash browns. However, I haven’t personally attempted it. The dish would take much longer to warm up and cook, so keep that in mind when baking.
If you want to use your own hash browns, bake your potatoes, let them cool completely (I would let them chill in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight) and then grate them.
This is a great recipe for holidays, Sunday meals, potlucks, and more! It’s such a crowd pleaser and a delicious comfort food side dish.
Don’t like using canned cream of chicken? No problem! Here is a great homemade cream of chicken recipe you can use to replace the canned stuff.
You can also use the diced potatoes instead of grated. This is called country style hash browns. Add some bacon bits to the mixture to add extra flavor. Top with diced green onions to color and flavor.
Make Ahead, Storing, and Freezing
You can make this dish ahead of time. Follow the recipe until you get to the cornflakes step. Don’t prepare the cornflakes until just before you want to bake it. You can store the funeral potatoes ahead of time in the fridge covered for a day and then prep the cornflakes and top and bake the following day.
Store any leftover funeral potato casserole in an airtight container or covered in the fridge for up to 4 days.
You can freeze funeral potatoes as well. Prepare the dish with everything except the cornflake topping. Cover the dish well — with one layer of plastic wrap and another layer of aluminum foil. Store in the freezer for 2-3 months. Remove from the fridge and let thaw completely. Remove the plastic wrap and aluminum foil, prepare the cornflakes and bake according to the instructions.
Recipe FAQs
These funeral potatoes — also known as cheesy potatoes, party potatoes or cheesy potato casserole — got their iconic name from being a classic side dish provided at funeral luncheons. It’s most commonly associated with the culture of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s a popular dish for church potlucks — or funerals as the name comes from — due to how easy it is to make, that it’s a comfort food, and that it is easy to scale up to feed large gatherings.
Due to the sour cream and cream of chicken soup, this is definitely more of a comfort food side dish. You can find ways to lighten it though. For example, I used light sour cream instead of the full fat kind.
Make the funeral potatoes mixture and place it in the pan. Don’t prepare the corn flakes topping. Cover the dish and store it in the fridge covered for up to 24 hours, then remove and make the cornflake topping and bake as directed.
Yes you can! Just use a cheese grater to grate cooled baked potatoes. I would bake them a day ahead of time, then store them in the fridge overnight. You want the potatoes to have time to chill completely so they don’t just fall apart when you are trying to grate them.
Some of my favorite recipes to pair with this cheesy funeral potatoes recipe are my Mississippi Pot Roast, Chicken Dijon, Lemon Honey Glazed Salmon, Italian Grilled Chicken, Peas, Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Grape Salad.
More Potato Recipes
- Buttery Parsley Potatoes
- Potato Pepper Jack Soup
- Cheesy Broccoli Potato Soup
- Air Fryer Potato Wedges
Funeral Potatoes Recipe
Ingredients
- 30 oz bag shredded hashbrowns - thawed
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup onion - diced, can use yellow, white or sweet onion
- 10.5 oz cream of chicken
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 1/4 cups sour cream - can use light or regular
- 2 cups cheddar cheese - shredded, mild or sharp is fine!
- 2 cups cornflakes - slightly crushed
- 4 tablespoon unsalted butter - melted
Instructions
- Butter a 9×13 inch pan. Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a skillet over medium heat melt the 6 T of butter. Once melted add the onion and cook until softened, 6-8 minutes. Transfer the onions to a large bowl.
- Add the hash browns, cream of chicken soup, salt, pepper, sour cream, and cheese to the large bowl. Mix to combine.
- Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish and level so that it’s in an even layer.
- In a medium bowl mix the cornflakes and melted butter. Sprinkle over the hash browns. Bake uncovered for 45-50 minutes until golden and bubbly.
Welcome to this delicious corner of the internet! Here I share the recipes my family loves.
