A crowd favorite for potlucks and parties, gluten-free hashbrown casserole is cheesy and delicious! This easy hashbrown casserole recipe is made without canned soup!
Why you'll love this recipe
There's a reason this dish is such a classic! Hashbrown casserole has always been one of my favorites and I'm guessing one of yours too! Actually, it's hard to find someone who doesn't like cheesy hashbrown potato casserole!
Hashbrown casserole has been around for decades. It was mostly made famous by Cracker Barrel and has since been taken to many potlucks and BBQ's over the decades. I've even seen this dish go by the name of funeral potatoes! And now, even those who are gluten-free can enjoy their favorite potatoes!
The original dish can easily be modified by just swapping out the cream of chicken soup with a gluten-free version, or so I thought. One year, I made that mistake for our family's Easter dinner. I subbed the canned soup for a gluten-free canned soup I had found at the grocery store. Little did I know, the soup had an odd flavor that completely overpowered the dish and totally ruined it! I was embarrassed, to say the least!
Since that terrible experience with that gluten-free canned soup, I've decided to just ditch the canned soup altogether and make a simple gluten-free condensed soup from scratch. It only adds about five minutes to the recipe prep time but it makes a world of difference and will save a little money too! But of course, you can swap out the from scratch soup and still use your favorite canned soup in this recipe!
If you love this recipe, you may also love this gluten-free corn casserole or gluten-free sweet potato casserole which are also great sides to feed a crowd! Also, check out this list of gluten-free potluck recipes to get some ideas for your next potluck and gluten-free Christmas cookie recipes for your holiday baking!
Ingredients
- Frozen Hashbrowns: Diced hash browns are preferred. Always check labels on frozen potatoes because not all of them are gluten-free.
- Cheddar cheese: I prefer to shred my own cheese, I do it for my taco dip recipe too. But you can use pre-shredded if you like.
- Homemade cream soup substitute: Rice flour or potato starch, butter, milk, and chicken stock are all that's needed for this!
- Butter
- Sour cream
- Dried Minced Onion: Adds a huge flavor boost and is much easier than dicing an onion.
- Crispy Rice Cereal: Arguably the best part of this casserole is the crunchy topping! Always look for gluten-free rice cereal because the name-brand Rice Krispies are not gluten-free. Aldi and Malt-o-meal sell gluten-free versions.
Easy to Make
First, make the gluten-free cream soup substitute, basically just a thick gluten-free white sauce. Then, just mix all the ingredients together and pour the mixture into a casserole dish. You don't even need to thaw the potatoes.
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Pro-tip: It is easier to mix everything but the potatoes first, then add the potatoes and mix them in last. Since they are frozen, sometimes they cause the mixture to freeze up too!
For the topping, melt a little more butter and combine with the gluten-free rice cereal. Spread over the top of the casserole. Then it's time to bake!
Make It Ahead
If you're prepping for the holidays or a party, you can make this casserole about one day in advance and keep it in the fridge.
Pro-tip: Pull the casserole out of the fridge about one hour before you place it in the oven. If you place the cold casserole dish right from the refrigerator into a hot oven, it could crack.
Just look at that crunchy topping! That has to be the best part! Don't skip making this cheesy, gluten-free hashbrown casserole for your next gathering, whether it be Easter dinner, a potluck, or a birthday party! This dish is always a crowd-pleaser! If you'd like a somewhat fancier version of this recipe, check out these gluten-free au gratin potatoes!
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Recipe
Gluten-free Hashbrown Casserole
Ingredients
Casserole
- 32 ounce frozen diced hashbrown potatoes (do not thaw)
- 1 batch cream soup substitute (listed below)
- 16 ounces sour cream
- 8 ounces cheddar cheese (shredded)
- ½ cup butter (melted)
- 2 tablespoon dried minced onion
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Topping
- 2 cups gluten-free crispy rice cereal
- ½ cup butter (melted)
Cream Soup Substitute
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons sweet rice flour or potato starch
- ¾ cup chicken broth
- ½ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
Make Cream Soup Substitute
- Melt butter in a small saucepan.
- Whisk in rice flour or potato starch. Season with salt and pepper. Let bubble for 2 minutes, whisking throughout.
- Gradually whisk in chicken broth and milk. Continue to cook and whisk until thick. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.
Mix Casserole
- In a large bowl, stir together the cream soup substitute, sour cream, cheese, butter, minced onions, salt, and pepper.
- Stir in the hashbrown potatoes.
- Pour into a greased 9x13 inch casserole dish.
Make Topping
- Melt the butter and stir it together with the crispy rice cereal.
- Sprinkle evenly over the top of the potato mixture.
- Bake at 350°F for 45 - 60 minutes or until edges are bubbly, top is golden brown, and the center is hot.
Notes
Nutrition
* Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and should be used as an estimate only. See the nutrition policy for more information.
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Bonnie says
We prefer using the canned cream of chicken soup (gluten free) and using crushed Ruffles for tthe topping. The potato chips really taste better than the rice cereal or cornflakes.
Katie Olesen says
I haven’t tried it with ruffles. We’ve always used the crispy rice cereal but to each their own. But I do use gf cream soup from a can sometimes. This recipe is a great alternative though if you don’t have any on hand or don’t want to pay for the gf markup.
Anna says
Can you use vegetable broth to make it vegetarian?
Katie Olesen says
Absolutely!
Amy says
I want to freeze this for Christmas morning. Should i wait to bake it and put the topping on the morning of?
Katie Olesen says
You will have to let me know how freezing it ahead goes. I haven't done that with this recipe before. I would definitely add the topping on the morning of just to make sure it doesn't get soggy.
Donna Cienciera says
Can you use canned cream of chicken soup?
Katie Olesen says
Yes! Just omit all of the cream soup substitute ingredients and the steps to make it. Replace with one can of gluten-free cream soup.
Heather says
Can I use cornstarch instead of potato starch? I am so excited to find a GF recipe for this casserole!
Katie | Wheat by the Wayside says
Yes, that should be a fine substitution. The result should be thick, not soupy, so you may need to adjust the amount based on the final result. Hope that helps!
Heather says
Made this tonight with a few changes. I used cornstarch because I didn’t have rice flour or potato starch. Added 2 cups of cheese, some onion flakes and topped it with Parmesan. Next time I will make extra soup substitute (we like it creamier). It was delicious! Such a treat for my daughter, who is celiac. We will be making this a lot - great recipe, thank you for sharing it!
Katie | Wheat by the Wayside says
I am so happy you enjoyed the recipe, Heather! I love your modifications and I'm happy to hear cornstarch worked well! Thanks for sharing!
Betty Makela says
Always make it for our ladies' events because it's gluten-free and everyone can enjoy it. I used Aylmer cream of mushroom soup and gluten-free bread crumbs for the topping, so it's absolutely gluten-free.
Kimberly says
Thank you for asking this! I was wondering the same thing.
Jackie says
This was fabulous! I was so very leery of the cream soup substitute when getting ready to make this. I seasoned the soup substitute with S&P as stated in your recipe and then added about a tsp of dried thyme just because of being leery of flavor quality not having the canned soup. I had shredded hashbrowns on hand instead of cubed so I used those and my grocery store did not carry crispy rice gluten free cereal so I used gluten free crushed sea salt rice chips. none of these minor changes altered your recipe in any significant way and everybody loved this dish! I have always made hashbrown casserole with canned soup, but it was so much better with your soup substitute, I will always make it with the substitute from here on. thank you so much for another great recipe!
Katie | Wheat by the Wayside says
Glad you enjoyed it Jackie!