Southern Sweet Potato Casserole (+Video)
This Easy Sweet Potato Casserole has a creamy filling made with canned sweet potatoes and is topped with a brown sugar streusel topping.
AN EASY RECIPE FOR SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE
Sweet potato casserole is a must-have, must-make side dish for me at the holidays. I’ve mentioned this before but I would be totally happy with a bunch of side dishes for holiday meals. It just isn’t Thanksgiving for me without sweet potato casserole!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
I do a ton of cooking on Thanksgiving and over the years, I have learned ways to make my recipes not only easier to whip up but still have that same great taste I love. I use canned sweet potatoes or yams and I make this whole thing the night before, pop it into the refrigerator and it’s ready to bake the next day. If you want to prep this a few days or more in advance, you can freeze it (just make sure you wrap it really well.) Put into the refrigerator overnight to thaw and proceed with the cooking instructions below. Or cook from frozen but add on additional cooking time.
The pecan praline topping on this is my favorite but I will never turn down a good ole marshmallow topping either. Instead of the pecan praline topping, you can leave it off and top with mini marshmallows towards the end of cooking. If you put them on too early, they will burn. Or. you could do a half and half. Just don’t add the marshmallow topping until the end of cooking. Also, if you don’t like pecans in the topping, you can just leave them out.
Of course! You’ll need about 3 small sweet potatoes. They need to be cooked soft enough to be mashed. Boiling is probably the simplest way to make them. Just peel and dice the sweet potatoes into large cubes and boil until tender then continue with the recipe as written.
This answer is two-fold. Most people don’t allow their casseroles to set up after baking. The casserole needs at least 15-20 minutes to cool before serving. The casserole sets up as it cools. However, if you prefer a really thick sweet potato casserole, you can add about 2-3 tablespoons of flour to your sweet potato batter and this will help the mixture to thicken. This is an especially good idea if using fresh sweet potatoes.
If your sweet potato casserole turned out “watery”, its usually because you forgot to add eggs; you didn’t let your casserole have enough time to set up after baking or you used fresh sweet potatoes and didn’t boil them long enough before mashing. Sweet potatoes retain a lot of moisture so boiling them well beforehand will help release a lot of that excess moisture before adding them to your casserole mixture.
This one is for all you food fact nerds like me. Sweet potato casserole was actually invented by a marshmallow corporation in 1917. So the original recipe was intended to be made with marshmallows. They were trying to market the sweet pillowy treat with a recipe. This is a marketing technique we see regularly these days. However, southerners eventually morphed the original dish and added the sweet pecan brown sugar topping.
Cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Or you can freeze leftovers. Cover and wrap well to protect from freezer burn. Casserole will freeze for up to 6 months.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (FULL RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST)
- canned sweet potatoes
- salted butter
- milk
- sugar
- vanilla extract
- eggs
- brown sugar
- all-purpose flour
- chopped pecans
HOW TO MAKE SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE:
Preheat oven to 350f degrees. In a large bowl, mash the sweet potatoes and stir in melted butter, milk, sugar, vanilla extract and beaten eggs. Stir until combined well.
Pour sweet potato mixture into a 2-quart (8-inch square) baking dish.
In a bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar, flour and chopped pecans. Use a fork or your fingers until mixture becomes small crumbles.
Sprinkle crumbles over sweet potato mixture.
Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes until topping is golden brown. Let casserole cool for about 15-20 minutes before serving. This is important as the casserole will set-up as it cools.
Makes 8 servings.
MORE SIDE DISH RECIPE IDEAS:
Originally published: November 2016
Updated and republished September 2019
Southern Sweet Potato Casserole (+Video)
Ingredients
For the casserole:
- 1 (29 oz) can sweet potatoes, drained
- ½ cup salted butter, melted
- ⅓ cup milk
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, beaten
For the topping:
- 5 tablespoons salted butter, melted
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees. In a large bowl, mash the sweet potatoes and stir in melted butter, milk, sugar, vanilla extract and beaten eggs. Stir until combined well.
- Pour sweet potato mixture into a 2-quart (8-inch square) baking dish.
- In a bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar, flour and chopped pecans. Use a fork or your fingers until mixture becomes small crumbles.
- Sprinkle crumbles over sweet potato mixture.
- Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes until topping is golden brown. Let casserole cool for at least 15-20 minutes before serving. This is important as the casserole will set-up as it cools.
Video
Notes
- Three small fresh sweet potatoes (peeled, diced and boiled) can be used instead of the canned sweet potatoes.
- A marshmallow topping can be used instead of the pecan topping. Put the marshmallows on around the last 10 minutes of cooking.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Absolutely perfect – thank you!! Some of the folks who said they only like marshmallows on their sweet potato casserole were converted today. this was the only dish that ended up COMPLETELY empty after everyone was done. They went back for seconds and thirds LOL – it was so easy. Thanks so much!
Made this the night before and just covered it and put it in the fridge and then baked it off Thanksgiving day. It worked perfectly. Best sweet potato casserole ever!!
This is the second time I’ve made this for Thanksgiving over the years. Folks like it a lot. It does freeze well, too, if you have leftovers, and makes a great dessert!
Just wanted to come back and let you know this is the absolute best sweet potato casserole I have ever made. Everyone kept praising it on how good it was.
Can I double this and make this is a crockpot? If so, how long do you suggest for the cooking time?
I’ve never made this in the crock pot – sorry! If you try it, I’d love to know how it goes for you!
Should I double the recipe if I’m using a 9×13 dish?
Yes, that should work. You may have to adjust the baking time.
This will be the fourth Thanksgiving that I make this! It’s so delicious and my family requests it every year.
Last year (2022) I was looking for a Sweet Potato Casserole recipe and found yours. I liked what I read so I made it for Thanksgiving. I received the most complimentary comments, I thought it looked and smelled great. The ratio of sweet potatoes to the rest of the ingredients is perfect and the ease of preparing it is a huge plus. I knew it was a keeper. I’ve already added it to this Thanksgiving’s menu. This year I am going to make it the day before along with several other recipes. You can’t go wrong making this recipe. I’m positive you will love it as much as my family does.
How far ahead of thanksgiving can I make this , if I made it on Tuesday would it still be good if I cooked it on Thursday?
Hi Amanda, Tuesday should be fine. Keep it covered in the fridge. It may take a little bit longer to cook on Thursday since you’ll be starting from cold so just keep an eye on that 🙂
Yummy! A hit at our Thanksgiving Dinner. The only change I made, was using fresh sweet potatoes. Love the pecan topping.
Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and comment Jackie! So glad it was a hit and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Can you use brown sugar in the mixture? Is there a difference in taste between white and brown sugar in the casserole?
For this recipe I put the brown sugar in the topping. Brown sugar has molasses in it so it’s up to you whether you want to also add it to the sweet potato mixture. This is the only way I make it so I can’t speak to other variations 🙂
Delicious!! Super easy as well!
I’ve been making this for Thanksgiving for the past three years and my family always loves it! Thank you so much for sharing!
Where are the measurements of the recipe ingredients? I searched the entire post. Hopefully it’s my mistake and I scanned over it accidentally.
I guess I won’t know how good it is because I’ll never make it the same way that you did. Thanks for wasting my time.
You have to scroll to the bottom. You scrolled right past it to get to the comments.
Gosh, Jackie. Was your last sentence really necessary?
Happy Thanksgiving everyone
No s**t. scroll to the bottom. I love her recipe. I use it every year and it’s great… Brandie it’s perfect. don’t listen to the rude comments or rude ass people.. my family loves it
LOL thank you so much Stacy – the internet is a fascinating place sometimes haha
An easy recipe that is full of sweet flavor. Definitely a family favorite!
So, I see it can be done in the crock pot? I’m making this for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Do I just prepare like normal and fully cook it in the crock pot? How long do you think? Then throw it in the oven to crisp?
Thanks!!
Do you think if I use almond milk instead of milk would the consistency still set properly or would I need to add something else so it sets properly and isn’t runny?
Hi Jade, I’m not familiar with baking with almond milk at all so I really couldn’t say. I’m sorry! Perhaps someone else here can answer that question for you!
I will be making this for Thanksgiving this year, and I was wondering if you could use orange juice in place of the milk or, perhaps, half orange juice and half milk.
Thanks so much!
I know this is “side dish”, but can you provide me an idea of the serving size, since the recipe says it will serve 10?
About 1/2 cup or slightly more.
Can I substitute brown sugar with the regular sugar in the actual casserole?
Do you think this would work okay with only one egg?
Hi Kyra – it will work but it will be a little “loose” – not quite as set as a normal casserole should be. 🙂
It was awesome
Can I use two cans …and not double recipe
Can i prep this 24 hours prior
Yep!
Does the salted butter make a difference or will unsalted butter work just as well?
Hi Anna – it does actually. You could certainly use unsalted butter though if it’s all you have. That salted butter just adds to the depth of flavor.
Amazing. First timer making anything like this. Turned out delicious. Thanks for sharing.