Hashbrown casserole is a dish you get assigned. You bring it to one potluck or one holiday breakfast, the pan comes home empty, and every year forward you are the person charged with bringing the hashbrown casserole.
This recipe is a copy of the casserole Cracker Barrel serves. Most versions you’ll find come out runny and taste mostly like sour cream. My version fixes that issue.
The Sour Cream Mistake Most Copycat Recipes Make
Most copycat recipes call for a full 16-ounce tub of sour cream for one bag of potatoes. My recipe uses half that.
The reason is that all that sour cream drowns out the potatoes and cheese, and the extra liquid keeps the middle from setting up. With half, the sour cream is there but it’s not the first thing you taste, and the casserole bakes up firm enough to hold a scoop.
I also use sharp cheddar instead of the colby a lot of recipes call for. With less sour cream, you can actually taste the cheese.
Read Before You Start
Thaw the hashbrowns all the way. Frozen or half-thawed potatoes leak water as they bake. The bottom stays wet, the middle never sets, and it takes twice as long to cook.
Ingredient Notes
- Use full fat sour cream. Light sour cream is thinner and the casserole comes out softer. Don’t add extra if the mixture looks thick in the bowl. It thins out in the oven.
- If you shred fresh potatoes instead of buying frozen hashbrowns, rinse them in cold water, squeeze them in a towel until no more water comes out, and plan on extra time in the oven.
- If you don’t have, or don’t like, cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom or cream of celery both work. It tastes a little different but bakes the same.
- Chop the onion small. Pieces bigger than a quarter inch stay crunchy and sharp. Chopped small, they soften into the sauce, so you get onion flavor without biting into onion.
- Potato dishes are often the best side for almost any meal. Two of my favorites are twice baked potatoes and crack potatoes.
Don’t Miss This Step
Dry the thawed hashbrowns. Spread them on a clean kitchen towel, lay a second towel on top, and press down hard. If the towel comes away soaked, do it again.
Skip this and that water ends up in the bottom of the dish.
How To Know The Casserole’s Done
Look at the edges, not the middle. You want steady bubbling all the way around, not one or two lazy bubbles.
Then pull a spoon an inch through the center. The gap should stay open. If it fills back in, give it up to 10 more minutes uncovered. It firms up as it rests, so a little soft out of the oven is fine.
PRO TIP:
Ovens vary and may need to be recalibrated periodically to ensure they are accurate. Make sure to check the casserole at the lower end of the recommended baking time.
Making It The Night Before
If you want to make this hashbrown casserole the night before, the only thing that changes is the timing. Straight from the fridge, it needs longer under the foil, so keep it covered until the edges bubble, then uncover and finish as usual.
Going by the clock on a cold casserole is how you get a browned top and a lukewarm middle.
Freezing And Leftovers
Freeze it unbaked, wrapped tight in plastic and then foil, or fully baked once it’s cooled. Either way, move it to the fridge the night before, then bake or reheat covered so the top doesn’t dry out before the middle warms through.
Let leftovers cool completely before you seal the container. Warm leftovers trap steam, and the cheese on top turns gummy.
There’s someone at your table who orders this every time they walk into a Cracker Barrel. Make it for them. If they go back for seconds, you got it right.
Recipe Testing Notes
This version went through a fresh test on June 10, 2026. Pam, one of my recipe testers, made it with three changes from the older recipe: the garlic powder came out, a quarter cup of melted butter went in, and the onion was chopped smaller.
The butter earned its spot. Pam has had the casserole at Cracker Barrel plenty of times, and her honest take is that the restaurant’s version can run a little dry. With the melted butter, hers came out moister and smoother than what they serve.
The smaller onion worked too, onion flavor in every bite with no crunchy pieces. And at two teaspoons of salt, she called the seasoning right where it should be.
Her tip on the bake: if the top isn’t golden at 45 minutes, keep going. She took hers to 55 minutes and skipped the broiler so the cheese wouldn’t get too brown.
And her note on the moment that matters: “When I first plated it, I was afraid it was going to be too runny, but after it sat for a few minutes, it firmed up nicely.”
What To Serve With It
On a holiday morning, this goes out next to sheet pan eggs and a pan of baked French toast. And since it needs the oven for close to an hour, a crockpot breakfast casserole won’t fight it for space.
For a regular Tuesday dinner, it does the same job next to fried pork chops or my Cracker Barrel meatloaf.
This post was originally published in April 2022. It was updated in July 2026.
Cracker Barrel Hashbrown Casserole
Ingredients
- 10.5 ounces cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup sour cream
- ½ cup yellow onion, chopped small (about ½ of a medium onion)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (¼ cup)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded and divided in half
- 30 ounces hashbrowns, shredded and thawed/room-temperature
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 2½-quart casserole dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In an extra-large mixing bowl, add the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, melted butter, chopped yellow onion, salt, black pepper and 1 cup of the shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Stir to combine and evenly incorporate all the ingredients together.
- Add hashbrowns and mix just until combined.
- Transfer the hashbrown mixture to the prepared casserole dish. Top the mixture with the remaining 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese and cover it with aluminum foil.
- Bake the Cracker Barrel hashbrown casserole for 30 minutes covered with the foil. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 15-25 minutes, uncovered, or until the casserole is bubbling and the cheese is melted and lightly golden.
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the counter before serving.
Notes
- If you have purchased frozen hashbrowns, then you need to plan ahead for this recipe and allow your hashbrowns to thaw according to your package directions. If you are able to find the hashbrowns in the refrigerated section of your grocery store, then you are all set and can make this recipe when ready.
- You can make this easy recipe up to 24 hours ahead of time, and store it in the fridge covered with aluminum foil. Allow it to come to room temperature before baking. This is an important step to avoid cracking your casserole dish. If you put a very cold dish into a very hot oven you are risking a dangerous situation in the kitchen.
- I like to use an 8-ounce block of cheddar cheese and shred it myself to get 2 cups. I find that the pre-shredded cheeses do not melt as nicely in recipes due to the additives added to them to prevent clumping while in the bags.
- This loaded hashbrown casserole should be served while warm for best results.
Nutrition
Comments
Joe says
Delicious – great for breakfast, brunch, or a side.