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Family-favorite funeral potatoes are creamy, cheesy, and crispy on top. It’s perfect for dinners and holidays!
If you like cheesy potatoes, you’ll love Crock Pot Scalloped Potatoes or Baked Mashed Potatoes.
A Holiday Must-Have!
There are certain side dishes that have to be made on Thanksgiving for our family. Some of those include my aunt’s famous Ham, my mom’s famous rolls, and several side dishes, including funeral potatoes (also known as cheesy potato casserole).
We also make Classic Mashed Potatoes as well, but we always have at least two pans of funeral potatoes. It’s a favorite because:
- They are sinfully delicious!! So flavorful and filled with ingredients we all love – it’s the ultimate comfort food!
- So many variations! Add onions, leave them out, or add ham or change up the toppings based on preference.
- Can be made ahead of time. Funeral potatoes are the perfect side dish for large gatherings, parties, and holidays (like Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas).
Why are they called funeral potatoes? At some point, someone noticed that this dish had become a staple at funeral luncheons and the nickname has stuck. They’re an easy dish to feed a crowd which means they are great to have for holiday dinners, potlucks, and family gatherings all year long.
Ingredients
- frozen diced hash browns – Use shredded hash browns instead of cubed potatoes – we have a similar recipe using them for Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole.
- sour cream – we recommend full fat sour cream but reduced fat works as well as plain greek yogurt for a tangier taste.
- cream of chicken soup – You can use other flavors of soup such as cream of mushroom soup, cream of celery soup, or even cream of chicken soup.
- unsalted butter
- sharp cheddar cheese (shredded) – You can also use medium or mild cheddar cheese or can use another favorite like monterey jack cheese.
- seasonings – salt, black pepper (if desired) and onion powder (or 1/4 cup chopped onions)
- corn flakes – We think unfrosted cornflake cereal works the best, but you can also use Panko, bread crumbs, Lays Potato Chips, or even crushed Ritz crackers. Most kinds of crackers will do, but Ritz works best.
- unsalted butter
You can also use fresh potatoes. Just peel about 6-7 medium russet potatoes and cut into small cubes. Add the cubes to a large pot and cover with cold water. Add a dash of salt and bring the water to a boil. Once boiling, cook for 1-2 minutes. Drain potatoes and allow to cool to room temp before adding the cubes to the cream mixture
Just Mix and Bake!
- PREP. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- POTATOES. Place hash browns in a colander and let sit until fully thawed and drained.
- SAUCE. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine sour cream, soup, and ½ cup butter and mix well. Add cheese, salt, and onion powder and mix until well combined.
- COMBINE. Add potatoes to the cheese mixture and stir until combined. Place in a lightly greased 9-x-13-inch baking dish.
- TOPPING. Combine cornflakes and the remaining ¼ cup melted butter in a large resealable plastic bag and crush corn flakes.
- BAKE. Sprinkle buttered cornflakes over potatoes. Bake for 42–46 minutes. Serve warm.
To Make for a Large Crowd
To make this recipe for 50 or more people – just triple the recipe or more. This recipe serves about 16 people. Make sure you have a few 9×13 pans lying around to bake all the potatoes in! Or better yet – buy large disposable pans to bake them in.
Recipe TIPS
- Flavor. Add flavor using extra salt, pepper, garlic salt, or even some paprika, chili powder, or red pepper flakes. Toss on some cooked crumbled bacon or ham (similar to our Ham and Potato Casserole).
- Crock pot. We like this version in the oven, but we do have a Slow Cooker Cheesy Potatoes recipe we love!
- What to serve with Funeral Potatoes? Here are some of our favorite main dishes:
Storing Info
Make ahead of time. Make them as the recipe says, but don’t add the cornflake topping or butter. When you’re ready to bake, thaw in the fridge overnight. Add the butter and cornflake topping and bake as directed!
STORE. Place the leftover cheesy potatoes with cornflakes in an airtight container and leave it in the fridge for up to 3 days.
To reheat, just place on a plate and reheat in the microwave until heated through.
FREEZE. Make these potatoes to the point where you pour the potatoes into the dish (use a disposable pan if freezing). Do not add the cornflakes, instead cover with plastic wrap and aluminum foil and place in the freezer for up to 3 months.
For more potato recipes:
COLLECTIONS: Thanksgiving Sides
Funeral Potatoes Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 32-ounce package frozen diced hash browns, (or shredded potatoes)
- 2 cups sour cream
- 1 10.5-ounce can cream of chicken soup
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder optional
- 2-3 cups corn flakes crushed
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Place hash browns in a colander and let sit until fully thawed and drained.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine sour cream, soup, and ½ cup butter and mix well.
- Add cheese, salt, and onion powder and mix until well combined.
- Add potatoes to cheese mixture and stir until combined. Place in a lightly greased 9-x-13-inch baking dish.
- Combine cornflakes and the remaining ¼ cup melted butter in a large resealable plastic bag and shake until cereal is coated.
- Sprinkle buttered cornflakes over potatoes.
- Bake for 42–46 minutes. Serve warm.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Could I bake these in a 250 degree oven since I will have meat cooking at a lower temp
So easy and good! I have made it several times over the last couple years, and always get rave reviews, the best they’ve had, recipe requests ( all credit to Lil’ Luna), what did I do different than others…I have no idea!
Highly recommend as written. 5 stars from Iowa!
Do these have to be completely thawed before cooking ? I’ve never had to thaw before baking.
I like to thaw before baking so that there isn’t extra water/no mushy potatoes after baking. I recommend doing it, but if you want to try without thawing, you’ll have to let us know how they turn out. 🙂
I have always let them sit our for about 15min so basically still frozen, they just take a lot longer to cook. Atleast an hour. I’m going to try this recipe, I have always combined everything in one bowl together so interested in trying it this way. I put a half cup of melted butter mixed in the another half drizzled over the cornflakes on top. It is amazing.
I made these for a funeral and everyone loved them. I had never heard of funeral potatoes before I was assigned to make them. I knew I could always trust a lil’Luna recipe to be a hit!!
Aw, thank you!! So glad they were a hit!
Golden mushroom soup is a good substitute for the cream of chicken. It gives it a great golden color. Also Mayo can substitute for melted butter in recipe. Of course no melting the Mayo just throw it in.
This looks great – I’m going to make it for our family Christmas party. Question – has anyone modified this to be vegetarian? I think I have a few veg. family members – maybe cream of mushroom? If it’s not a good sub, I’ll just make ’em as is 🙂 Thanks for any help!
I have always used cream of chicken, but cream of mushroom could probably work too, as far as consistency goes. It’ll just have a slightly different flavor, but I imagine would still be yummy.
I used cream of onion soup to make it vegetarian friendly and it tasted good. The recipe was way too greasy for me though.
I never use the butter and they turn out great. Not greasy at all.
Hi Raelene,
Do you leave out the butter all together or just leave it out of the potato mixture part? I’m wondering if you add it to the corn flake part.
Thanks!
I prefer it with cream of mushroom. 🙂 The entire dish is really forgiving. Childhood memories in a casserole form.
thank you I have been searching for this recipe
Love how easy and fast this recipe is! So so delicious!
These are so yummy and easy to make!! I can eat the whole pan myself!!😋
A Utah staple dish at every holiday! Love how quick and easy the recipe is! Always a hit 😁
These were fantastic and turned out amazing, just like everything else we had for our Thanksgiving dinner!! Thanks for the great recipe! I prepped it the day before Thanksgiving and just left the potatoes in a round flat strainer to thaw, then once softened i put the strainer of potatoes on top of the cheesy mixture in a closed mixing box and left right in the fridge until the next day. I would highly recommend this recipe to others!