Grandpa’s Party Potatoes

Easter Sunday at Mama’s house in Sapulpa. The day Cody’s probation officially ended. Twenty-four months from April 17, 2020 to April 17, 2022. The family was at Mama’s by twelve-thirty — me and Dustin and Brayden (we had stayed over Saturday night), Cody (he had driven in from Tulsa that morning), Aunt Linda and Roy, Aunt Patty and Bobby with Hannah and Hayden, Roy Calloway (who had walked over from his house on Cedar Street the way he had walked over for Easter dinner at our house since I was four).

Mama had put a small handwritten card on Cody’s plate at the head of the table. I did not read the card. Mama did not read the card. The card was Cody’s. He read it before the meal started, folded it, put it in his shirt pocket, and did not say anything about it. The whole table watched without watching. The moment was small and it did not need narration.

Grandpa Eldon’s party potatoes were on the menu. The recipe is Mama’s father’s — Eldon Carlton, b. 1944, d. 2011, the grandfather Cody and I had grown up with at every family-meal and the grandfather I have been writing about on the blog since I started in 2016. The recipe is shredded hash brown potatoes, sour cream, condensed cream-of-chicken soup, melted butter, shredded sharp cheddar, salt, pepper, topped with crushed cornflakes mixed with melted butter, baked at three-fifty for forty-five minutes. The potatoes are creamy, cheesy, salty, and the cornflake crust gives them the textural contrast that elevates them from a side dish to a centerpiece-of-the-side-board.

I had made the potatoes Saturday afternoon at Mama’s house in her kitchen using her old casserole dish. The potatoes had baked Sunday morning while Mama was at the cafe for the breakfast shift and Dustin was on the back porch with Brayden and Cody had not yet arrived. The kitchen smelled like Grandpa Eldon for an hour.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 (30 oz) bag frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1 (10.5 oz) can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter, melted and divided
1/2 cup diced yellow onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups crushed buttery crackers (such as Ritz)

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
Mix the filling. In a large bowl, combine thawed hash browns, 1 1/2 cups of the cheddar cheese, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, 1/4 cup of the melted butter, diced onion, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Stir until evenly combined.
Fill the dish. Spread the potato mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish.
Make the topping. In a small bowl, toss the crushed crackers with the remaining 1/4 cup melted butter until the crumbs are coated. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup cheddar cheese over the potato mixture, then top evenly with the buttery cracker crumbs.
Bake. Bake uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes, until the top is golden and the edges are bubbling. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Grandpa’s Party Potatoes