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Cheesy Hamburger Potato Casserole

Why haven’t we been making sauce like this all along?

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Sometimes what you really need for dinner is something that’s unassuming and not at all fancy but is comforting and filling and tasty as can be. Basically, what you need is meat and potatoes, and this Cheesy Hamburger Potato Casserole is just the way to get it. I love this dish because it’s so easy to make and it’s just SO simple. It’s just a handful of economical ingredients that are tossed together and baked into deliciousness, so it’s humble, but you don’t need frills and fuss when it’s as scrumptious as this.

Beef. Potatoes. Cheese. You could say just those three words and I’d be confident that the dish would be good. There are a few other components, but rest assured that those are the main stars. The only prep you’ll need to do is browning some ground beef with onions and slicing your potatoes before you layer it all in a baking dish with some cheddar. Russets work great but you can use pretty much any potato you have on hand – as long as the tubers get tender, you’re good to go.

And then there’s a quick sauce that takes, ohhhh, about thirty seconds to mix up. And you know what I truly love about that sauce and this dish? It doesn’t use cream of mushroom soup as so many casseroles do, it uses canned cheddar soup and it lends such a luscious creamy cheesy flavor to the sauce that I’m gobsmacked we haven’t all been using it for casseroles more often. But you live and learn.

This is a dish where the oven does most of the work for you, which just means you’ll have plenty of time to do things outside of your kitchen. Like finally folding that laundry. Or pulling those weeds on the front path. Or just putting your feet up for a little while. (Hopefully it’s that last one!)

Yield(s): Serves 6

15m prep time

1h 15m cook time

4.2
Rated by 85 reviewers
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Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
  • 1 yellow onion, finely diced
  • 4 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thin
  • 2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
  • 1 (10.75 oz) can condensed Cheddar soup
  • 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Set aside.
  2. Add ground beef and onion to a large skillet over medium-high heat, season with salt and pepper, and cook until no longer pink. Drain fat and set aside.
  3. Arrange a single layer of potatoes in bottom of baking dish. Season with salt and pepper. Top with 1/4 of the beef mixture and 1/4 of the cheddar cheese. Repeat layers three more times.
  4. In a small bowl, whisk together cheddar soup, evaporated milk, milk, and garlic powder until smooth. Pour over ingredients in baking dish.
  5. Cover dish tightly with foil and bake 60 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is golden brown and bubbly, 15 minutes more. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from South Your Mouth.