So we kind of have this unspoken rule around OBB that we don’t have recipes with Cream of Something soup in them. And I totally adhere to that in my own cooking 99.9% of the time–it’s just not my thing, you know? However, there are times and places and sometimes there are rules that need to be broken. The time is now. The place is here. I give you…Funeral Potatoes.
But why funeral potatoes???
Believe it or not, “Funeral Potatoes” is not actually their technical name–it’s usually something like Cheesy Potato Casserole. But these are often found served with ham on Easter dinner tables as well as luncheons following funerals which, shockingly, is how they got their name.
Since Easter is coming up and ham is often served at Easter, and since this is my favorite side dish for ham, I had to swallow my feelings about Cream of Something soups. If you have a little extra time/motivation on your hands, you can always make Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup (make a half batch of the soup for the potatoes recipe), but honestly, these potatoes are so good and so easy and such great comfort food that I wholeheartedly recommend just popping open the can of soup. C’mon, just one time won’t hurt, right?
how to make them
So anyway…you’ll need a bag of shredded hash brown potatoes from the freezer section (thawed), a can of cream of chicken soup (or cream of mushroom if you’re going vegetarian), shredded sharp cheddar cheese, sour cream, an onion, a few cloves of garlic, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a little butter.
Preheat the oven to 350 and then, in a large skillet, melt a tablespoon or two of butter over medium heat. I’m actually doing the entire thing in a 12″ cast iron skillet which is amazing on so many levels (only dirtying one pan, fun/rustic presentation, stovetop to oven…if you want to learn more about why I love cast iron, check out this post.)Â Chop an onion and mince 2-3 cloves of garlic…
and saute until the onions are translucent and the garlic is fragrant.
While the onions and garlic are sautéing, combine together the sour cream, cream of chicken soup, salt, and pepper.
Remove the pan with the garlic and onions from heat and add the thawed hash browns, the sour cream mixture, and the cheese…
Combine the ingredients well.
If you’re not baking this in the skillet, transfer the mixture to a 9×13″ baking dish.
to crunch or not to crunch
Now, there is a serious, relevant, and ongoing debate about whether or not Funeral Potatoes should have a crunchy topping. I am firmly in the “no topping” camp–I love these because they don’t necessarily have to be served immediately and because they make awesome leftovers. When a crunchy topping is involved, both of those virtues fly out the window because the topping gets soggy. HOWEVER. If you want a crunchy topping, you can add crushed cornflakes, seasoned bread crumbs, or even crushed saltines to the casserole before you bake it.
Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly throughout and the casserole is hot in the center.
You can serve this as a main dish (kind of like mac and cheese, right?) with a salad and fruit or serve it alongside pot roast, ham, or roasted chicken. The funeral is totally optional.
(For the sake of nostalgia, here’s what these looked like back in 2011 when we originally published this recipe…)
Funeral Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 small-medium onion diced
- 2-3 cloves garlic minced
- 1-2 tablespoons butter
- 1 28-30 ounce bag shredded hash brown potatoes thawed
- 1 16- ounce container sour cream
- 1 10- oz. can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
- 8 ounces about 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- OPTIONAL: Crushed cornflakes seasoned bread crumbs, crushed potato chips, or crushed Ritz or saltine crackers
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. In a large skillet (or 12" cast iron skillet), melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion is translucent and the garlic is fragrant. Remove from heat. Add the thawed hash browns, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, cheese, salt, and pepper and combine well. Add additional salt and pepper if necessary.
- If not baking in the skillet, spread the mixture into a 9x13" (or similar) dish and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the casserole is hot in the center and the cheese is bubbly throughout. Serve as a main dish with a salad and fruit or alongside roasted ham, turkey, chicken, or beef. Makes 6-8 main dish or 10-12 side dish servings.
Questions & Reviews
Curse you OBB! I actually had to take the pan off the table so we’d stop eating them!
Looks delicious, going to try making it with fat free sour cream, low fat cheese, and low fat condensed soup (watching my figure). Hoping the swaps work, because I think my family will love it!
I always use low fat soup, and sometimes use low fat sour cream. They turn out great! You can’t even tell!! I am not a personal fat of low fat cheese- I think it melts terribly, but you could try it. Anything to cut down on fat and calories, huh! Good luck!
OMG! My family calls this dish funeral potatoes too! I didn’t know this was an official name. 🙂
I just need to know what is wrong with “Cream of” soups???
There’s nothing wrong with them! 🙂 They definitely have their place. But sometimes they can be overused as sauce/gravy when there are better/fresher alternatives out there.
This is also a family favorite that we have loved forever! I promise, they are so much better with fresh grated potatoes. Sure it requires a little extra time (boiling, peeling, then grating them in my cuisinart. It is so worth the extra time! They taste amazing!
LOVE your cookbook!
I was once writing down my menu for a meal and I abbreviated funeral potatoes as “fun. potatoes”. One of my kids looked at the menu and asked “What are fun potatoes?” I’ve called them Fun Potatoes ever since!
Just saw Jennifer M’s post and I’m laughing because our family calls these Yummy Potatoes too! My mom’s tweaked the recipe – I don’t think she can NOT tweak a recipe – and we NEVER leave out the buttery cornflake topping. Can’t wait for Easter now!
In my cookbook they call these “Sinful Potatoes” because they truly are that good!
I don’t know about other people, but I have the unfortunate tendency when I make a recipe that turns out great to decide that it should become our traditional ______ (Easter, Christmas, whatever) breakfast/dessert/appetizer. I value tradition and just got married so am trying to start some of my own. This recipe has sadly fallen into that trap. I made it the first time 4 1/2 years ago, shortly after my husband and I met (only change is I don’t use onions but do use parmesan on top) and decided it should be Christmas morning breakfast because it’s SO good and SO easy. I have dutifully made it for Christmas morning every year since, and we love it, but that means I don’t make it the rest of the year because I want it to be “special.” Sigh! In any case, I am also not a big fan of canned soups but use it for this recipe because it’s wonderful :o)
YES! I had these before!!! It was AWESOME!!! I saw it, and I thought “that looks disgustingly amazing, filled with butter, sour cream, cheese, and carbs. I MUST try it!” And I did, and then and there, My life was changed forever. I remember coming home and telling my mom (who LOVES cream of chicken soup, which I hate, but these are worth it!) how I must make this. But I didn’t have a recipe. But now, I do! This blog is everything I love in a blog! I love you guys!
We like to call these “CELEBRATION POTATOES”. For the longest time we called them funeral potatoes as well, but then we realized even a funeral is a good family get together and ‘”funeral potatoes” sounds so dreadful. But, same yummry recipe we all love! 🙂
My mom makes the BEST funeral potatoes I have ever had. Since I have been spoiled for so long… everytime I try someone elses it just never compares… Her secret is red potatoes. They stay moist. The other biggest complaint I have of other funeral potatoes I have tried is being undercooked. I am sure your version is super yummy since I have never made one of your recipes that I didn’t like. THANKS for all the great recipes… 🙂
I make these all the time! LOVE THEM! I always requested from my Mom after I had a baby! 🙂 We use boiled potatoes cubed and cream of celery soup! These are going on next weeks menu!
For a main dish, I put diced ham in them and sprinkle French Fried Onions on top. It is awesome.
Sounds good and I think I’ve had cheesy potatoes before when I was younger
We call them Mormon Potatoes or Funeral Potatoes – and everyone calls them YUMMO! I also agree that they must be served as a side dish with Spiral Ham. I make mine slightly different – throw the frozen shredded hash browns in a 9×13. Then heat just the sauce (butter, onions, garlic, cheese, sour cream, & cream of mushroom). Once heated, pour over frozen hashbrowns & mix together. I also agree that the topping is not great for leftovers, so we usually only put the topping (cornflakes) on 1/2.
Theres nothing like good old funeral potatoes…. they seem to come out quite often when our family gets together.
Love them
This is a favourite at our house with ham and homemade baked beans (although we don’t associate it with dead people – we call it Cottage Potatoes). Like you, I think there’s a time and place for canned soup in recipes. This is one of them. 🙂 I also love that it’s so easy, feeds a crowd and can be made ahead of time.
I’m so glad that the funeral is optional! I’m planning on making these for Easter!
These looks so good. This is my favorite side with ham! It is getting me all excited for Easter dinner.
I have seen many versions of this dish in the last year or so…weird…but I have never ever ever seen it referred to as Funeral Potatoes! LOL! Good food, bad name.
I make “funeral potatoes” pretty often, although I’ve never called them that. Funny name! We make these at Christmastime in place of masked potatoes. And this is my favorite dish to take to a potluck event. So quick and easy and it always gets eaten.
Jennifer
Masked potatoes…now that is another funny name. LOL! You will have to share the recipe with us.
When I’ve got only crumbs of any Dorito-type taco chips, etc. I bag them up and eventually use a rolling pin to make them into a crumb topping. This is wonderful on top of any version of the potatoes. Gives it a bit of zing!
This name just cracks me up. At our house, we have “funeral soup” — something that I seem to make almost everytime someone dies and I need to bring something to the family. Love your blog and recipes!!
I am 5th generation Mormon, and I WILL NOT make funeral potatoes!! But I love your web site. Use the healthier recipes all the time.
My other exceptions to the creamy soup thing are tater-tot casserole and broccoli cheese casserole. I guess it’s a cheesy casserole thing?
Oh dear. I was going to make Au Gratin Potatoes for Easter dinner, but these look so much yummier and easier. Decisions! Decisions! And about the crunchy topping – my aunt uses potato chips on hers. I don’t know if they get soggy or not because there’s never any leftovers.
These are an Easter must for us too. I know I got the recipe from my sister but she uses shredded hash browns and I always use the cubed ones. My husband never liked them because he hated the cornflake, butter topping. I started leaving it off and topping it with freshly grated parmiagiano reggiano and he loves them now. I also use cream of celery instead of chicken because the little fatty pieces of chicken gross me out. I also use the potatoes still frozen.
Mmmm mmmmm good! I love these potoates!
Oh. My. Goodness! We have jokingly called these potatoes “funeral potatoes” at our house! This exact same recipe was made for funeral dinners at our church. They are Soooooo good! I never even knew the real name for them, we’ve always called them funeral potatoes!
When they serve these at school, they call them party potatoes. It is very funny that you used the soup today. Just yesterday my husband asked me what was different about your recipes, and I told him they don’t use soups as the base of everything. Love everything I have made from your website!