In my family, we love this Best Sweet Potato Casserole. Sweet, salty, and topped with a crunchy streusel! You’ll love this mashed sweet potato recipe and the nutty brown sugar crunch on top!
Tried this recipe at a local Ruth’s Chris restaurant many years ago. After several tweaks, it’s so similar and still delicious.
I originally published this recipe in November 2018. It’s been republished with new images in January 2022.
Every family has Thanksgiving traditions you just don’t mess with. You’re either a marshmallow-topped sweet potato family or you aren’t, there’s very little middle ground. For years, my family was divided depending on who hosted. These days, I solve the problem by serving both.
After trying a similar version at Ruth’s Chris years ago, I came home and started tweaking until I got this Sweet Potato Casserole recipe just right. Fluffy, creamy sweet potatoes topped with a brown sugar and pecan streusel that’s sweet, salty, and wonderfully crunchy!
I’ve made this casserole for enough holiday dinners to know that oven space is precious, so I’ve tested several ways to prep it ahead. Make the sweet potatoes in advance, add the streusel when you’re ready, and you’ve got one less thing competing for oven space on Thanksgiving Day.
Aimee’s Recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole Notes
Taste: Sweet and savory with a rich vanilla flavor, topped with a nutty, brown sugar crumble.
Texture: Creamy and smooth mashed sweet potatoes paired with a crunchy, buttery pecan topping.
Ease to Make: Easy to prepare, with options to make ahead or bake in advance.
Cooking Method: Baked in the oven.
Top Tips:
- Add extra pecans for more crunch and flavor.
- Use fresh sweet potatoes for the best texture.
- Vanilla extract adds depth of flavor!
“This has been my go-to recipe for a long time now, I make it for every holiday or potluck and it never disappoints! Thank you!” – Hannah
Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe Ingredients
- Sweet Potatoes. Choose fresh sweet potatoes that have no root growing off them.
- Sugars. You’ll want sugar for the mashed sweet potato and brown sugar for the pecan topping.
- Vanilla extract. These candied potatoes are almost like a dessert. Using real vanilla extract (or try my homemade vanilla extract) gives even more flavor.
- Eggs. Helps the casserole fluff up to a delicious texture.
- Unsalted butter. If using salted butter, omit the extra kosher salt in the recipe.
How to Make The Best Sweet Potato Casserole
Start by cooking your sweet potatoes.
- Bake. You can bake them in the oven (my preferred method), at 400 degrees F for an hour.
- Stove Top. Or you can peel and boil potatoes in a large pot of water (for about half an hour).
- Microwave. The third way would be to poke them with a fork and microwave the potatoes for about 15-20 minutes.
- Instant Pot. Cook them tender by using my Instant Pot Sweet Potato recipe!
Mash the sweet potatoes.
Once you cook your potatoes, combine them in a large bowl with the sugar, salt, vanilla extract, eggs, and melted butter. Using a mixer or potato masher, beat them for about 4-5 minutes until fluffy and smooth.
Bake. Pour this into a 2 qt casserole dish and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes.
Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping. While the potatoes are baking, make your streusel topping. Combine brown sugar with flour, chopped pecans, and melted butter. Stir together with a fork and set aside.
After you cook the sweet potatoes, add the streusel on top. You can also add extra pecans. Then, put them back in the oven to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot.
Store sweet potato casserole in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
PRO TIP: Try my recipe for sweet potato casserole with marshmallows next!
Making ahead of time
Nothing is worse than determining what goes in the oven and when. Fortunately, this recipe for sweet potato casserole gets it’s “BEST” rating because of the flexibility.
Here are THREE options on how to make today’s sweet potato casserole recipe:
- First, you could bake as written above, if oven space is not an issue.
- Or, you could bake the 25 minutes, top with the streusel and refrigerate until the next day. Then you would only need to pop it back into the oven for about 20 minutes.
- You can also bake it as directed. Let it sit on the table for about 30 minutes. Cover it with foil to keep it hot. This gives you time and space to warm up some dinner rolls and get the rest of your food heated and ready.
Tips for Simple Sweet Potato Casserole
After making this casserole for countless holidays, I’ve learned a few small details can make a big difference. You want the sweet potatoes creamy and fluffy, with a buttery pecan topping that stays crunchy instead of sinking into the filling.
- Let the potatoes cool slightly before adding the eggs. If the sweet potatoes are piping hot, you risk cooking bits of the egg before everything is mixed together.
- Don’t skip the salt. With sugar in the filling and brown sugar in the topping, that teaspoon of kosher salt is important. It balances the sweetness and brings out the flavor of the sweet potatoes.
- Use an electric mixer for the fluffiest filling. I beat my sweet potato mixture for several minutes until it’s light and smooth. A potato masher works if you prefer more texture, while the mixer gives this casserole that creamy, almost souffle-like consistency.
- Watch the topping, not just the timer. During the final 10-15 minutes, you’re looking for a lightly browned, crisp streusel. If your pecans are browning faster than the casserole is heating, keep foil on top!
How to Serve the Best Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe
Sweet Potato Casserole is best served warm, after letting it rest for about 5-10 minutes out of the oven. This gives the creamy filling a chance to set slightly while keeping that brown sugar pecan topping crisp.
My family makes this casserole most often for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it pairs beautifully with all the classics. Since the sweet potatoes are rich and slightly sweet, I especially like adding something savory or fresh to the plate for balance.
For a complete holiday meal, try serving it with:
- Turkey or Ham– Using my Thanksgiving turkey recipe or honey glazed ham, this buttery casserole is a perfect contrast to a savory main dish.
- Green Bean Casserole– my French’s green bean casserole recipe is the perfect side dish.
- Mashed Potatoes– Yes, you can absolutely serve two kinds of potatoes for holidays. I don’t make the rules.
- Dinner Rolls– fresh rolls or my easy Artisan bread is perfect because we don’t count carbs on holidays.
And don’t save this recipe only for holidays. It’s just as easy and delicious alongside pork tenderloin and roasted chicken.
Thanksgiving Recipes
Pin this now to find it later
Pin It
Sweet Potatoes Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
For the Mashed Sweet Potatoes:
- 4 large sweet potatoes
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
For the streusel topping:
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
Instructions
- Cook sweet potatoes in desired manner, until soft. See notes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 2 qt baking dish with nonstick spray (I use coconut oil spray). Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine cooked sweet potatoes, granulated sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and melted butter. Beat with an electric mixer for about 4-5 minutes, until fluffy and smooth.
- Pour into prepared dish. Bake for 25 minutes.
- While baking, prepare streusel topping by combining brown sugar, flour, pecans, and melted butter in a small bowl. Mix with a fork and set aside.
- Sprinkle the baked sweet potato mixture with streusel and return to oven for about 10-15 minutes until crumble is lightly browned. Serve immediately or cover with foil and serve in 30 minutes.
Notes
- For the sweet potatoes you can cook them your favorite way. Bake in a 400 degree F oven for one hour. Or pierce with fork and microwave for 15 minutes (or more depending on size). Or peel and boil them for 30 minutes.
- Butter– for a traditional Ruths Chris topping, you’ll want to melt the butter. If you prefer more of a crumble, just use softened butter instead.
- First, you could bake as written above, if oven space is not an issue.
- Or, you could bake the 25 minutes, top with the streusel and refrigerate until the next day. Then you would only need to pop it back into the oven for about 20 minutes.
- You could also bake it as directed for entirety and allow to sit on the table for about 30 minutes (covered with foil to keep hot). This gives you time and space to warm up some dinner rolls and get the rest of your food heated and ready.
Can this be made without the nuts? My Dad is allergic to pecans?
Sure! Just skip them.
My family makes one very similar to this one, but we use walnuts instead of the pecans.
How long do you have to bake it if you double the recipe?
I am not Aimee but have a suggestion. The baking time is dependent on the size of the dish being baked. How thick is the determining factor. So if you have twice as much but in a larger dish the baking time is the same all other things being equal. It is the surface area and the thickness that matters. One quart of ingredients in a one quart casserole is about the same as two quarts of ingredients in a two quart casserole. See what I mean? Remember that the casserole dishes would need to be made the same so that the ingredients have the same surface area to volume ratios.
I am so excited to try this for Thanksgiving! It I want to double the recipe would it still work?
Enjoy! You can double it, making sure you have a dish large enough. I would also add some time to the baking to make sure it’s heated through 🙂
Question, going to bake my sweet potatoes as you mentioned. Do I need to wrap in foil or pierce with a fork before baking? I usually boil but heard flavor is better when you bake them?!
This looks delicious and I plan to try the recipe. My kids have always loved having marshmallows on their sweet potato casserole. Could I add some on top and how long should I cook with marshmallows?
Just made this. Omg… so delicious! I am allergic to nuts except almonds so just replaced the flour with almond flour and pecans with almonds. Delicious!
If I wanted to make ahead and freeze it, how would I do that? Thank you~
Hi! This looks great! I am lactose intolerant…do you think this would still work with a high quality margarine instead of butter?
I used a vegan butter and it still turned out really good!
My family loved this!! I did screw up and added a stick of butter to the topping. Threw it under the broiler for a few . Other than that it was a huge success. Will make a again. Those who ate it said this is our new holiday dish
This absolutely lives up to its name — it’s exactly what everyone at the table called it. Stephanie posted above (on 11/28/2019) that there were too many nuts, but I thought it was perfect. I baked it in a round dish, and it would have better in a rectangular dish so the sweet potatoes were more spread out. I also added about 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon and a pinch of salt to the topping. It is sweet, so could even be a dessert. This will definitely be on the permanent list! Thank you!!
Thank you! So glad you liked it 🙂
My hubby is diabetic so I’m making with sugar substitute this year, wish me luck!
The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of butter which is indeed 1 stick of butter for the topping. I just made this and the 1 stick of butter made the topping thick and wet…not like a streusel at all. I think maybe 1/2 stick or 1/4 cup of butter would be the right amount. I plan on trying to add more flour and sugar to it for (hopefully) a more streusel-like crumbly topping.
Ruth’s Chris streusel is not dry, it’s more like a cookie dough on top, if that makes sense. You can use less butter if desired to make a more dry crumb topping.
This is a really delicious recipe no doubt, but this is the first time I made it w/ the pecans & I think I like it better without. That could be tied into my dislike for pecan pie, but 1 cup of chopped pecans is a lot for a 2qt casserole dish. So folks, unless you’re a true nut lover, I would use 1/2 cup or just sprinke them on top of the coating as you wish. If you go in for the full cup, it’s going to taste like you just ate a handful of them with every bite.
Do you have to peel the potatoes after baking? Or just mash them up with it on.
I’m sure they are meant to be peeled. The peel comes off easy.
What do you suggest on reheating if you already made it in its entirety?
I would just warm it up in the microwave for a few minutes until hot!
We eat it cold with whipped topping and we use walnuts instead of pecans. Add a dash of nutmeg to the potatoes to add a depth of flavor. Good hot or cold
Please list the amt of sugar, salt, vanilla extract, flour, brown sugar please.
the ingredients, measurements, and directions are all listed in the recipe card.
How do you suggest this be done so I can make it the day before, to avoid doing most of the work on Thanksgiving?
I would assemble the mashed sweet potato portion the day before and put the crumble topping on before baking!
Clarification on this: would you bake the sweet potato part or just assemble and bake when serving, then add topping and bake longer?
yes also wondering
Do I use raw pecans? I’m assuming, but wanted to check 😊
Yep!
This recipe looks great 🙂 I also noticed there is no milk listed in this recipe…just want to make sure there is no mistake. You do not use milk, correct?
Nope, no milk in this one!
I added milk in it 1/3 cup and it made a huge difference and it was sk yummy try it ! My daughter who doesn’t like much loved it ! Making it again this yr 2023 .
Do you peel the potatoes after baking?
This was great. Roasting the yams whole in foil for an hour or so depending on the size of your yams gives awesome flavor instead of boiling… The family gobbled this up!!!
This casserole was so yummy, thanks!
When I was little I used to just eat the topping part but now I’ve come to enjoy the whole dish. It’s a must have for the holidays!
I could eat this whole thing. Sooooooo good!