Thanksgiving: Funeral Potatoes

My son requested these for our turkey dinner tonight after I listed the potato options.  I have never made or eaten this before but it sounded delicious.  I have made similar casserole dishes for breakfast.  For me, the Thanksgiving meal should be comforting so this would fit right in with the stretchy pant nosh... I used real potatoes and parboiled them rather than frozen bagged hash browns which I'm not a fan of.  

• 10 medium russet potatoes, parboiled 10 minutes in salted water, then cooled, peeled and diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 6 tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can "Campbells" cream of chicken soup
• 2 cups sour cream
• Few dashes of "Tabasco" sauce, to taste
• Fresh chives, snipped to taste
• 1 box of "Cheez It Crunch" crackers, crushed w/mallet in the package
• 3 cups old cheddar cheese, grated
• Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

I preheat the oven to 350°F.  In a frying pan I sautéed the onions and garlic in 2 tablespoons of butter.  I cooked until soft.  

I mixed these with all the other ingredients except the crackers and 1 cup of cheese.

I coated a 13" x 9" baking dish with cooking spray.  I poured the mixture in and topped with the remaining 1 cup of cheese.  

I melted 4 tablespoons of butter and mixed those with the crackers.  I scattered over the top of the dish evenly.  This went into the oven for about 50 - 60 minutes, until it was bubbling and cooked through.  

Just a note:  When I was basting the turkey about 10 minutes into the potato bake I noticed the crackers were already browning!  I remedied this by covering it with foil...

The rest of our meal, also all homemade:

• Fresh free range turkey with gravy
• Cornbread & Andouille sausage stuffing
• Maple roasted root vegetables (onions, carrots, rutabaga, yam)  & squash (butternut, kabocha)
• Cranberry orange sauce
• Honeycrisp apple crisp or pumpkin pie ( I bought the pie, lol)

This dish would have been way easier/quicker if using frozen hash browns.  However, it was absolutely decadent and heavenly using real ones.  I guess it's good they were heavenly since they're called "Funeral Potatoes".  😉 They were very easy to peel when cool as well.  You could grate the taters rather than dicing which would be quicker too.  All that praise said, these were RICH!!!.  We barely dented the whole dish and I gave some away as well.  They're like loaded baked potatoes.  

The best thing today was being able to share a plate of this dinner with an ICU nurse.  She's been working insanely hard and her husband told me of a recent 17 hour shift she did because there was no one else to come in.  I hope she enjoys dinner on her break tonight, it was the least I could do...  😘  Happy Thanksgiving.