In my family, the Best Sweet Potato Casserole recipe is one that’s served up sweet and salty with a delicious, crunchy streusel topping! You’ll love this mashed sweet potato recipe and the nutty brown sugar crunch on top!
For more holiday side dishes, don’t forget the Instant Pot Green Bean Casserole, and of course Pistachio Salad!
Why this Sweet Potato Casserole is Best
Every family has traditions, and in most cases, you can’t shake things up. Ever.
For instance, Thanksgiving. You are either a plain sweet potato or a mini marshmallows topped sweet potato family. There is no middle ground. (of course you could also love candied sweet potatoes)
For years, my family was divided. Depending on who hosted Thanksgiving dinner, we either were served gooey, sweet marshmallow sweet potato casserole….or a sweet potato casserole with a little butter and brown sugar.
Now I serve both.
If you’ve ever been to a Ruth’s Chris restaurant you’ll recognize these potatoes!
- Sweet and creamy mashed sweet potatoes.
- Topped with a brown sugar crumble with a crunch for salty pecans.
- One of the best things about these sweet potatoes is that you can have them prepped ahead of time so that you only need to bake them on Thanksgiving.
Ingredients in Sweet Potato Casserole
- Sweet Potatoes. Choose fresh sweet potatoes that have no root growing off of 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 this Easy 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. OR you can pop them in the Instant Pot! Cook them tender by using my Instant Pot Sweet Potato recipe!
Mash the sweet potatoes.
Once your potatoes are cooked, combine them in a large bowl with the sugar, salt, vanilla extract, eggs, and melted butter. Using a mixer, 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.
Make the 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.
Once your sweet potatoes have cooked, top with streusel (and extra pecans on top if desired) and return to the oven to bake an additional 10-15 minutes. Serve hot.
Making ahead of time
There is nothing worse than trying to figure out what goes in the oven, and when. Fortunately, this 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 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.
Favorite Side Dishes
See all Side Dishes recipes
Sweet Potato 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.
Do you leave the skin on the potato? Making this for a friendsgiving!
No, do not leave the skin on!
Peeling can be a pain BUT of u choose to Bake them leave the skin on and when they are done the skin slips right off
Yes it does! I do not boil my potatoes any more. The flavor is so much bettet.
This is exactly what I needed to hear! The recipe doesn’t clarify that the potatoes need peeled after they’re baked and I need these kind of details in my life!
Nope, peel the potatoes.
I actúa tried them in my instant pot and so easy and fast!
Peel the potatoes.
Made this for Friendsgiving yesterday and everyone was raving about it! I also added mini marshmallows on top of the pecan streusel.
Marshmallows are the perfect addition : )
How would I freeze ahead of time?
Should I bake it all and freeze or bake sweet potatoe mixture and add strudel then freeze?
I need to know the same! Would love to freeze tonight and cook thursday
Has anybody made this with GF flour?
Yes it’s just fine with gf flour
GF flour would work great. We love using cup4cup.
Make every year with GF flour as my son has celiac. It’s his favorites side dish.
This was the best sweet potato casserole that we had tonight. Thank you for the recipe.
This sweet potato recipe was so delicious. I made this tonight and my family said they loved it.
So glad you enjoyed this meal!
I would like to make this for Christmas but make it a day or two in advance (without the topping). I can bake it Christmas day so should I freeze it unbaked or bake it and just reheat?
I was wondering how long extra I’d have to bake it for if I wanted to double the recipe?
Our Aunt Marion uses this recipe and adds a 1/2 cup of Jack Daniels Whiskey in the mix. Trust me on this…it makes the casserole taste so good! Don’t worry the alcohol cooks out but that sour mash mix gives the casserole such a nice added taste. You should try it sometime!
Sounds delicious!
Omg I added Heath toffee bits to my strudel mixture and marshmallows and it was out of this world, a thanksgiving classic is now being enjoyed as a summertime favorite!
This is a great recipe. I add coconut and raisers to the sweet potatoes. It really takes it up a notch!
This was a Easter hit. I made 2 pans and the family lived it. The topping was the game changer! Thanks for sharing it.
SO glad it was a hit with your family!
can I make this two days ahead of time? I would like to put together today for EAster
I made this last Thanksgiving for my family and I loved it. So much, that I have craved it whenever I think about sweet potatoes. I mean, I love a good sweet potato fry and that’s my first choice. But when I was grocery shopping and ran into the sweet potatoes at the store, well this was the recipe that NEEDED to be made. Its the streusel topping for sure! And I don’t mind the melted butter in the streusel – it made it a little sticky but it helps to keep that amazing top layer floating like clouds in heaven! So yesterday I paired it with a nice baked ham and again – so delicious! I even snuck some outta the pan yesterday before it was completely gone – to save for my lunch today at work. I can’t wait for lunch! It’ll be the best part of the day! Thank you so much for your amazing page of recipes!!
So happy to hear you love it too. We’ll be making it again for Easter, to go with our ham 🙂
Outstanding – I made this at thanksgiving and it was such a big hit I decided to make it for New Year’s Eve as well.
2nd time tryin’ it!
Do not melt the butter to make the streusel topping, cut it up in small pieces and using a pastry blender or fork keep working the ingredients until small tiny balls form. Then sprinkle on top of sweet potatoes, bake for about 10 more minutes or until streusel is light brown.
I can’t wait to try this. I would add raisins to the sweet potato mixture and add marshmallows to the streusel.
What type and size pan should I use?
Oh my goodness. I have gotten so many requests for this recipe! Everyone loved this more than the family sweet potato recipe. Streusel topping was not stick for me. I prebaked the sweet potatoes the day before. Added the streusel topping once the sweet potatoes were cool. Refrigerated until I was ready to pop in the oven to warm up and serve.
So happy to hear it 🙂
Ma’am, how long did you reheat?