Cheesy, crispy, and filling, hash brown casserole is a classic breakfast dish (or potluck side) that only takes a few minutes and a few ingredients to throw together. I was first introduced to it on a Sunday morning a few years ago, at Cracker Barrel, a restaurant which arguably has some of the best hash brown casserole in the country. Instead of getting my usual standard breakfast plate with a side of grits, I opted to try their casserole after seeing some on a friend’s plate.
When I hear the word casserole, I think of a thick, layered baked concoction that has some sort of starchy base (usually a noodle of some kind), vegetables, meat, and some sort of sauce and cheese situation—basically, all of the components of a full meal baked into one casserole dish and served as is, as a stand-alone dinner. But the Cracker Barrel combined just a handful of textural components for a dish that was crunchy on top, firm enough to hold the ingredients together, and creamy from the cheese and sauce they’d put inside.
There are many, many Cracker Barrel hash brown casserole copycat recipes out there, and they usually consist of the same basic ingredients: frozen shredded hash browns or potatoes, a can of cream of something soup (cheese, chicken, and celery are common choices), diced onion, shredded cheese, and maybe some sort of seasoning. When re-creating the dish at home, the one ingredient that gave me pause was the creamed canned soup. These canned soups are often extremely salty and are supposed to be diluted, but in these recipes, they served as the full seasoning for the entire dish.
To get around this, I chose to make my own “cream of” soup. Sautéing the onion (I opted for grated onion to evenly distribute the flavor throughout the dish) in butter and adding flour creates a simple white roux. Smoothing and thinning it all out with milk makes a creamy sauce and base that will not only flavor the hash brown casserole, but will also give the dish a uniform, coherent structure.
Sour cream and cheddar cheese also help create the creamy consistency and touch of tangy flavor this rich dish really needs to shine. Reserving some of the cheese to sprinkle on top before baking ensures a very social media–worthy cheese pull.
One thing I saw missing from many of the many copycat recipes out there was adequate seasoning. I spruce up mine by adding a little black pepper and garlic powder, and I stay light on the use of salt because, truthfully, you don’t need much when you factor in the saltiness of the cheese. The grated onion also lends lots of umami and flavor to each bite.
Frozen preshredded hash browns take out all of the hardest work from this recipe. I suggest letting them thaw slightly and squeezing out a bit of the excess liquid with your hands or a cheesecloth so that you achieve the maximum crispy texture of potato on the top of the casserole. This will also help the potatoes maintain their shape and texture inside of the casserole, preventing them from becoming overcooked or mushy.
This dish doesn’t require much work beyond mixing everything in one large bowl, and it can be easily adapted to serve as a breakfast or dinner option. Add bell peppers, scrambled eggs, bacon, spinach, or any seasonal touches to make your own version of this classic.
