Cheesy Potato Casserole without the canned cream of anything soup. This recipe relies on simple ingredients in your pantry to make a quick and easy cheese sauce. It sounds fancy, but don’t worry. It’s easy!

Photography Credit: Nick Evans | Art Banner Credit: Andy Christensen

One of my favorite things about becoming a better home cook is revisiting classic recipes that I can put a new, homemade spin on.

This Cheesy Potato Casserole is an update on a very classic casserole. The old school version is a creamy dish of pure comfort food. I kept the flavors but ditched the canned soup for a homemade sauce! The result is a baking dish full of deliciousness that can be the main focus of a dinner plate served with a side salad or grilled protein.

VIDEO! How to Make Cheesy Potato Casserole

I was pretty concerned that my kids wouldn’t touch this casserole — my five-year-old hates cheese. It’s a real struggle and probably his biggest character flaw to date. But, he legit doesn’t like cheese and has been holding strong on this belief for over a year now. Be sure to check out the Report Card below to see if I was right!

Updating classic recipes is so fun and it turns out there is a reason certain recipes are so popular. It’s because they are REALLY good.

THE CLASSIC POTATO CASSEROLE

Potato Casseroles like this go by many names – cheesy potatoes, hash brown casserole, Mormon Potatoes, and even Funeral Potatoes.

One thing unites all versions of classic potato casserole — they typically rely heavily on canned soups as a sauce base. While there is nothing wrong with canned soups, I wanted to make the sauce a bit cheesier and creamier by making a homemade mornay sauce (béchamel but with cheese).

Don’t worry. It sounds fancy, but it’s super easy!

HOW TO MAKE CHEESE SAUCE

This cheese sauce starts, like so many delicious things, with butter and onion and garlic:

Cook the onions in the butter for a few minutes until they are translucent but not browned. Then add the minced garlic and cook for a few seconds. Whisk in the flour and cook it for a minute or two, and slowly whisk in the stock. The sauce will thicken as it simmers into a light gravy consistency. Once the sauce thickens, it’s time to add the grated cheese and season with salt and pepper. Remove the sauce from the heat at this point and it’s ready to use in the casserole recipe.

WHAT’S BETTER: FRESH OR FROZEN HASH BROWNS?

While I like making my own sauce for this casserole, I prefer using frozen hash browns over fresh. They are a consistent product and easy to use. Plus, frozen hash browns are par-cooked so there is little risk that you will end up with uncooked potato in the center of your casserole.

While you could use fresh potatoes for this casserole, I don’t think it adds much. You have to make sure to grate and dry the potatoes well and bake the casserole until the potatoes are cooked through. This might take much longer than the 50 minute cook time in the recipe, so you will have to test the potatoes occasionally until they are cooked.

SUGGESTIONS AND SUBSTITUTIONS

I think this casserole is really good as-is, so I would keep add-ins to a minimum. A little pinch of chili powder or something similar would be okay, but I would avoid adding proteins or vegetables to the casserole. It would mess with the consistency of the potatoes.

Make-Ahead and Storing Instructions

This casserole reheats absolutely beautifully, which is why it’s such a popular bring-along dish.

To make this cheesy potato casserole ahead of time: Assemble the casserole, cover it, and store in the fridge for up to two days, then bake as instructed.

Assemble the casserole, cover it, and store in the fridge for up to two days, then bake as instructed. You can also, bake the entire casserole. Let it cool, cover it and keep it in the fridge for up to four days. When ready to reheat it, just follow the baking instructions as if you’d just mixed it together. It might need an extra 10 minutes in the oven to take off the chill.

Let it cool, cover it and keep it in the fridge for up to four days. When ready to reheat it, just follow the baking instructions as if you’d just mixed it together. It might need an extra 10 minutes in the oven to take off the chill. You can also freeze this casserole! I recommend freezing it after baking it so the casserole is cooked and you just have to reheat it from a frozen state. It will keep in the freezer for three to six months, and you should reheat it in a 350˚F oven until it’s warmed through.

The DAD ADD

Fried Serrano Rings. I thought this recipe needed a little spice to cut through the richness of the dish. This is not a kid-friendly Dad Add, but these tiny little fried serrano rings are a great topper to recipes like this.

REPORT CARD

My son got a look of utter terror across his face. “Wait… Does this have CHEESE in it?!!” I did get him to try a bite of the casserole, but, alas, “It tastes like cheese.”

But assuming your child has not developed a strange anti-cheese mantra, this recipe is generally very kid-friendly, and most kids will gobble it down.

MORE CASSEROLE RECIPES TO ENJOY!