Bacon Lattice Hashbrown Casserole

Hashbrown casserole is a family favorite at Christmas. My dad makes it every year, and my brother and I love it. On Thanksgiving, my brother and I celebrated the holiday by ourselves, and we took a good thing and made it even better by adding a bacon lattice on top. Let me tell you, Bacon Lattice Hashbrown Casserole is the perfect holiday side dish (or splurge-worthy meal). I don’t recommend making it on the regular because it is terrible for you (and you’ll be tempted to eat the whole dang pan), but it’s the best holiday side dish you could ever make.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s incredibly easy to make? Because easy holiday foods are where it’s at, and this bacon lattice hashbrown casserole won’t take you very much time. Weaving the bacon is the most time-consuming part, but if you don’t have to take a million pictures, it goes a lot faster… I promise.

Bacon Lattice Hashbrown Casserole

You can check out the video here, but I’m warning you: it’s my first attempt at a recipe video, and I don’t love how it turned out. Hopefully when I’m in my own house, I will be able to come up with a setup that is really conducive to food videos – but for now… this is as good as it gets.

First, let’s talk ingredients. You will need:

1 pound of hashbrowns
16-24 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese
32 ounces of French onion dip
2 pounds of bacon (you won’t use all of it, but it will take most of it)

Did I mention that we don’t really do recipes in my family? All of these measurements are 100% negotiable. Only have 12 ounces of cheese? or 24 ounces of French onion dip? You will survive. These measurements will make a VERY rich and creamy hashbrown casserole, but it is good a little dryer too so feel free to work with what you have.

How to make a Bacon Lattice Top for your casserole

You’re going to have to weave the crap out of that bacon, but don’t worry. It’s simpler than it looks. Start by laying horizontal stripes of bacon across a cookie sheet. It will take two strips of bacon per stripe.

Next, you will fold every other stripe halfway back and place a piece of bacon across the ones that are still laying down. Fold the other stripes back over this piece, and you have the beginning of your lattice. Alternate which stripes are folded back each time until you reach the end of this half. Then you will need to do the other half in the opposite direction.

Voila, a perfect bacon lattice top!

Now, just bake that thing at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-45 minutes depending on how crispy you want your bacon. Your times will vary because of how much fat is in your bacon. Start checking the bacon lattice at 25-30 minutes and you should have some idea how long your top will take to get to the desired crispiness.