A friend had just stopped by when I was pulling this dish out of the oven for lunch earlier this week. It smelled quite amazing. She asked what it was, so I went down the list of ingredients our lunch included, “bacon, ranch dressing, sour cream, cheese…” Then this is when she said,
“Bacon? Ranch? Cheese? With all that in it, you know it’s going to be good!”
Yep, pretty much. What’s not to love?
You might also love knowing how easy this is to make. Cook the bacon, stir in the other ingredients, spread it all in a cooking dish, put it into the oven. Easy. It does help if you have premade frozen hashbrowns and a jar of homemade ranch dressing mix ready to go. Just please put the lid on your ranch dressing before you shake it up. Please. I’m only here to help.
A big thanks to Plain Chicken for the idea for this recipe! I’m excited to think about possibilities of ways to continue tweaking this. Maybe add some cooked chicken to the mix? What else can you think of to add to this dish?
- 1 pound bacon
- 2 cups shredded cheddar or Colby jack cheese
- 3 cups sour cream
- 3 Tablespoons Ranch Dressing Mix
- 1 bag of frozen shredded hashbrowns (about 8 potatoes worth of homemade)
- Cut bacon into bite-sized pieces and cook.
- Drain grease.
- In a large bowl, stir together cooked bacon, shredded cheese, sour cream, and ranch dressing mix.
- Fold in frozen hashbrowns until all ingredients are well combined.
- Bake uncovered in a 350° oven for 45-60 minutes or until casserole is lightly browned and bubbly.
Some recipes you’ll need to go along with this one:
Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix
Homemade Hashbrowns
Lately I’ve been finding really great deals on packaged hashbrowns at the store, so I’ve picked up a few to save me some time. I much prefer homemade, but busyness doesn’t always allow me the luxury. It’s good to be relaxed and flexible about healthy eating, right? Right.
So far I’ve only served this casserole for lunch or dinner. But I also think it would be great for breakfast or brunch!
Want to make Bacon Ranch Hashbrown Casserole ahead and freeze it for later? Here’s how:
Make the casserole as directed. Before baking, cover well and freeze for up to three months. To cook and serve – thaw and bake as directed. Or, cover frozen casserole and place it into a cold oven. Turn the oven on to 225° and bake for 2-3 hours or until casserole has thawed, baked, and is heated through.
Note: This recipe is naturally gluten free. Hold onto this one if you have to avoid gluten – or so that you can bless friends who eat gluten free!
I’ll definitely be making this casserole often! Since it’s freezer-friendly, I’ll likely be making two or three at once so I can have no-brainer meals on hand for busy nights. After all, why dirty up more dishes tomorrow when tomorrow will have enough dirty dishes of its own? Right??
I’d be inclined to add some chopped fresh tomato and/or some spinach plus chicken. I bet it would taste like a casserole version of a bacon ranch chicken sandwich. Yum!
Laura, How big of a bag of frozen hashbrowns? Thanks, Tammy
This is our new favorite recipe of yours!
I wanted to make this yesterday to accompany a ham. Problem was that we were going to be gone the few hours before eating dinner. Sooooo, I popped it in a crockpot. I did not use a whole pound of bacon, as we had some leftover strips from a few nights earlier, and we were already having ham…
Other than that, what I did was mix it all up and dump it in the crockpot, and then cooked it on high for 4 hours. There was a little separation from the sour cream, but I think that could be fixed with a tablespoon of flour or cornstarch mixed in as well. Overall, it was a hit, AND it worked great in the crockpot, so that’s a win-win.