5-Ingredient Ground Beef Casserole With Potatoes
Dinnertime just got easier. The 5-ingredient casserole is made up of ground beef, condensed cheese and mushroom soup, cubed potatoes, and shredded cheddar cheese. It is budget-friendly and takes a little over an hour to make and cook. Picky eaters LOVE this recipe!

Prep Time | Cook Time | Servings | Prep Level |
---|---|---|---|
15 minutes | 1 hour | 12 | Beginner + |

Ingredients
Ground beefโI use ground beef 85/15 for the recipe.
Cubed potatoesโI like to buy frozen cubed potatoes because they are easy to dump and use with this recipe.
Cheese and mushroom soupโI buy the canned soups to get the recipe to the table faster, but you can also use the homemade cheese and mushroom versions.
Shredded cheeseโYou can use store-bought shredded cheese to throw the recipe together faster or shred your own for a more melty experience.
Full printable recipe with ingredients, measurements, and instructions listed at the bottom of the post on the recipe card.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Start by cooking the ground beef. Drain the grease and add it to a large bowl. You’ll need a large bowl to mix up this ground beef meal. It’s a lot, and it will feed a lot of people. In fact, I have two teenage boys who eat quite a bit, and we had some leftovers. I think we all had a couple of servings, too.

Secondly, add the cream of mushroom soup and cream of cheddar cheese soup to the bowl. I make several dishes with the combination of the two soups, and they always work great and add a ton of flavor to ground beef, chicken, tuna, or pork casseroles. Plus, they are inexpensive and budget-friendly meals.

Next, add the cubed potatoes to the bowl. I used frozen cubed potatoes because they’re so much easier to prepare than chopping up a bunch of potatoes. You need three cups of cubed potatoes, so you can cut up some potatoes, boil them, and add them to the casserole, or add the frozen ones.

Pile the shredded cheddar cheese right on top. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, and give everything a good stir.

Finally, pour everything into a greased 9″ x 13″ casserole dish and spread it out. Sprinkle the remainder of the shredded cheese on top and cover with tin foil. You’ll be baking the dish for half an hour with the tin foil and half an hour without the tin foil, so the cheese will bake on top toward the end.

This is one of the best ground beef casserole recipes out there. It’s so simple to make.
Make-Ahead And Freezing Instructions
You can assemble the casserole one day in advance and keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to bake it. You can also freeze the casserole after assembly for up to two months. Be sure to take it out 24 hours before baking and keep it refrigerated until you are ready to bake.
Leftovers and Storage Instructions
If you have any ground beef casserole leftover, you can store it in an airtight container and refrigerate it.

Tips
- You can cook the beef ahead of time and store it in the fridge for a couple of days or put it in the freezer until youโre ready for it. Itโs handy to have several bags of cooked meat to pull out of the freezer, thaw it, and have it ready for the casserole.
- I buy my meat at the Fresh Market on sale days. They have a sale on chicken and ground beef, and I always try to stock up each week. It saves us a lot of money over a year, and I love their ground beef.
- I used two pounds of ground beef for this recipe, but you can use less.
Variations and Substitutions
- If you have a bag of hash-browned potatoes in your freezer, you can use those instead of the cubed potatoes.
- This recipe allows you to switch out the soups. For example, you can use cream of chicken or cream of celery. Iโve had readers use con queso cheese dip instead of the cream of cheese soup.
- You can switch out the potatoes for cauliflower for a low-carb recipe.
- Cut up some diced tomatoes, bell peppers, green onions, and taco seasoning for an authentic Mexican version.
- Add a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce for a pop of flavor.
- The recipe can easily be made with ground beef or turkey for more lean ground beef.
More Delicious Ground Beef Recipes
- Hamburger mac and cheese casserole
- The Best Crock Pot ground beef and potato casserole
- One Pot ground beef stroganoff
- 30-minute beef and noodles

What To Serve With Your Dinner
- Moist Jiffy Cornbread
- Corn fritters
- Jiffy jalapeno cornbread
- Jiffy creamed corn cornbread
- Buttermilk cornbread recipe
Check out other delicious recipes at: Julia’s Simply Southern and South Your Mouth