If you’re from the midwest, especially, you’ve probably seen these potatoes grace your table or a table near you more than once. They’re a potluck, party, and holiday staple but they go by many names. Call ’em funeral potatoes, call ’em party potatoes, call ’em hash brown casserole… it doesn’t change how delicious and comforting they are or how easy they are to make. (And you can’t beat that crunchy topping.)

What Ingredients Do You Need for Church Lady Potatoes?

This is the kind of comfort food that relies on a fair amount of kitchen shortcuts. (Thank heavens.) You’ll need:

• A bag of frozen diced hash browns.
• A can of cream of chicken soup.
• Butter.
• Minced dried onion and garlic powder.
• Sour cream.
• Cheddar cheese.
• Cornflake cereal. (Just trust it.)

Now, if the can of soup gives you pause, don’t knock it until you try it. Condensed soup has its place and this is it, and it does turn out an incredibly creamy casserole.

How Do You Make Church Lady Potatoes?

The first thing you want to do is thaw those potatoes. If you don’t, they’ll release their liquid in the oven, which will leave your casserole too soupy. No one wants that. Let them thaw in the fridge or consult your package on how best to thaw them and then drain off any excess liquid.

Then, basically, you stir.

In a big ol’ bowl or right in the casserole dish, stir together the potatoes, the sour cream, the can of soup, about half of that melted butter, the minced dried onion, the garlic powder, alllll of that cheese, and then season it with salt and pepper.

That’s the casserole, all that’s left to worry about is the topping. And that topping is… cereal. It works, I promise. Take those cornflakes (NOT Frosted Flakes, please) and crush them up gently in a zip-top bag. You don’t want dust so don’t crush too much. Toss those with the remaining melted butter and then sprinkle it all over the casserole.

After 45 minutes in the oven the top will be delightfully crunchy and golden brown and the potatoes beneath it will be surrounded in a bubbly oh-so-creamy, oh-so-cheesy sauce. Call these potatoes what you want, but they’re pretty hard to resist!