Crack Potatoes – the ORIGINAL recipe!! Potato casserole made with sour cream, cheddar cheese, real bacon bits, ranch dip mix, frozen shredded hash brown potatoes. Can make ahead and freeze for later. Everyone RAVES about these yummy potatoes! SO good!! Make them tonight!
Remember this recipe.
Pin this recipe to your favorite board now to remember it later!
Pin This RecipeOne of our favorite dips is Cheddar Bacon Ranch dip, or what I refer to as “Crack“. I usually only make it during football season because it is HIGHLY addictive. I only made this once this football season and I forgot to take it to the tailgate. I left it in my parent’s refrigerator! I was devastated!
I took the dip back home and started thinking about what to do with it – other than eat it all by myself. I decided to mix the dip into a big bag of frozen hash browns. The result? A fantastic potato casserole! We absolutely love this! Chicken Legs requests this all the time. I divided the potatoes up into 3 disposable foil pans and froze them so we always have potatoes when we need them. We just finished off the last pan, so I guess I need to add this to my grocery list this week.
Crack Potatoes
Ingredients:
- 2 (16-oz) containers sour cream
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1½ cups cooked chopped bacon (about 1½ pounds bacon)
- 2 (1-oz) packages Ranch Dressing mix
- 1 (32-oz) bag frozen shredded hash brown potatoes
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400ºF. Lightly spray a 9×13-inch pan with cooking spray.
- Combine sour cream, cheese, cooked bacon and ranch mix. Stir in hash browns and mix well. Pour into prepared pan.
- Bake uncovered for 45 to 60 minutes.
Notes:
Steph
Remember this recipe.
Pin this recipe to your favorite board now to remember it later!
Pin This Recipe
I cooked this tonight for our Thanksgiving dinner at Church. Everyone loved it. If I wanted to make a smaller version of it and cut all the ingredients in half what size pan should I use and what temp and how long?? Or can it even be cut in half?
My husband said this was the best dish i ever made lol do you think you could use only 1 pack of ranch dip to cut down on the salty taste? also what about light sour cream? would that change the taste to much? this was a HUGE hit at his grandmothers 100th bday party today! thanks
Jennifer – yes, just substitute the ranch dressing for the sour cream and mix.
I seen this recipe on pinterest and want to make it tonight. Looks so good!! I have all the ingredients but ranch dip mix…however, I do have ranch dressing. Do you think that will work???
Kristy – I think you could use plain yogurt or Greek yogurt. I think the Greek yogurt would work good since it is a little thicker
This recipe looks so simple! However, I absolutely hate sour cream (even if I can't taste it, I know it's in there which is the same thing to me). Do you think I can use plain yogurt instead? I'm not sure if it would work with potatoes but I use it in place of sour cream when baking and it seems to work. (I love your blog btw!)
I made this for the first time for my book club. It was a hit (people asked for the link), but it was a bit salty for me too. I used Hidden Valley. Next time I may try a different brand. Great flavor and so easy to make. Thank you so much for posting this. 🙂
tiggergal99 – you should make sure you use Hidden Valley brand instead of Great Value.
lol! I have a brunch I have to cook for. Is this dish BRUNCHABLE?
I definitely think these would be great at a brunch. Enjoy!
Just tried this recipe and it was SO SALTY!! wow..it was ok the next day, but still had to drink tons of water.
My kids love ranch, but were not fans of this recipe. Sorry, but would not try it again.
Just found this posted on pinterest and it sounds awesome! One question, though: how long do you bake it for when you freeze the smaller portions?
Jill – yes, that is the right size.
I'm making these tonight and wonder how large the bag of hash browns should be. My bags are 30 oz. Seems like an awful lot of ingredients for just one bag of potatoes. Is 30 oz. the right size?
shelley – you don't need to thaw the hashbrowns first. I usually let them sit out for about 5 minutes so I can stir them easier, but I bake them frozen.
If I don't divide them up into separate pans, approx how many people do u think it will feed? We have a household of 7!! 🙂 🙂 Think I'll be okay??
This may be a stupid question but I'm assuming I need to let the hashbrowns thaw first??
Made this the other night-simple recipe that lives up to it's name… husband kept sneaking back into the kitchen to eat more. 🙂
Made this the other night-simple recipe that lives up to it's name… husband kept sneaking back into the kitchen to eat more. 🙂