The best comfort food that you can ask for? Funeral potatoes aka Cheesy Potatoes!

Pure comfort food is another name for these delicious cheesy potatoes. They are a must at your holiday gathering.

Why are they called Funeral Potatoes?

These delicious cheesy potatoes are known as funeral potatoes because this is a dish that would usually be served after a funeral at the funeral luncheon or they make a great addition to a comfort food meal to a person or family who is grieving. A funeral is not the only occasion that these potatoes can be served, we love these potatoes during the holidays, like Thanksgiving or Christmas. They are also so good with steak and chicken from the grill during the summertime. They are also known as party potatoes or cheesy potatoes.

We laugh that these cheesy potatoes are referred to as “funeral potatoes”, but it’s just what we call them. I serve in the Relief Society of my church, and often times we are asked to bring Funeral Potatoes to the luncheon that will serve anywhere from 60-120 people. We all pitch in and make many dishes.

What do you need to make funeral potatoes?

6 medium russet potatoes, halved
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick of butter)
1 pint sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/3 cup minced green onion *optional…you can also use 1 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
For the topping:
1/3 cup crushed corn flakes
2 tablespoons butter melted

How to make funeral potatoes?

In a large pot boil the potatoes until tender. Let the potatoes cool. Peel and grate the cooked potatoes.
Heat the butter and soup together until the butter melts. Add in the sour cream and minced onion. Stir to combine. Add in the grated cheddar cheese.
Add both the potatoes and soup cheese mixture to the baking dish and mix together lightly to combine. Smooth over the top to make it level in the baking dish.
For the topping: combine the crushed corn flakes and melted butter together. Sprinkle this mixture over the top of the potatoes.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Different ways to top cheesy potatoes:

Crushed corn flakes is most common for these kind of potatoes, but there are different ways to top cheesy potatoes if you do not want to use cornflakes. Any of these would make a great topping for these amazing cheesy potatoes:

French Fried Onions
Crushed Ritz Crackers
Soda Crackers
Crushed Potato Chips

Which ever option you choose don’t be afraid to use what you have available.

Make funeral potatoes for 40+ people:

Often times you need to feed a lot of people after a funeral or at a holiday party and this recipe is easily doubled or tripled. Many hands make light work…We love to use disposable tin pans, they help with clean up and it’s easy to drop them off to those helping with the meal along with the printed recipe card. This way you don’t need to wash their dishes and return them.

MAKE AHEAD AND FREEZE:

If you’d like to make this ahead of time, you can easily freeze it. Just do not add the cornflake topping. Freeze it in a disposable tin pan up to 3 months. When ready to bake, move it to the fridge to thaw overnight and bake it the next day. Add the cornflake butter topping right before baking.

What kind of potatoes to use for Funeral Potatoes?

You can use frozen shredded potatoes or frozen cubed style hash browns for this recipe, but we love starting with real potatoes. It’s really not that much more work to peel, cook and grate the potatoes.

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