Food Network Kitchen’s best sweet potato casserole has a crunchy, nutty topping that creates an irresistible contrast to the creamy mash below. A Thanksgiving favorite, this crowd-pleasing side dish might just become part of your regular repertoire.

How to Make Sweet Potato Casserole Like A Pro

Because of the tubers’ natural sweetness, casseroles with sweet potatoes can taste cloying. Here’s how Food Network Kitchen keeps this recipe bright and balanced.

Start with whole sweet potatoes. The quality and sugar content of canned sweet potatoes varies greatly. Our recipe developers prefer the texture and flavor of whole, fresh sweet potatoes.

Use brown sugar. White sugar and brown sugar can sometimes be used interchangeably, but they have different flavors and textures that can make a big difference in certain dishes. Our recipe developers like how the deep caramel flavor of brown sugar plays off the vanilla extract and earthy tubers in this casserole recipe.

Try different nuts. We love the way crunchy pecans taste in this recipe for sweet potato bake, but you can swap in chopped walnuts, cashews or a combination of all three.

How to Store Sweet Potato Casserole

You can prep this sweet potato casserole up to 1 day before you bake it. Put the cooled filling without the topping in a baking dish, then cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until ready to bake. Store the topping in an airtight container at room temperature. Sprinkle the topping for sweet potatoes onto the mash right before you bake it.

Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. To reheat the casserole, cover it with foil and bake it in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes.

Other Sweet Potato Casserole Ideas

Check out Food Network Kitchen’s other expertly tested recipes for sweet potato casseroles and more.

Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole. Our recipe developers add sweet roasted carrots and freshly grated ginger to give our lightened-up sweet potato casserole recipe lots of flavor.

Small-Batch Sweet Potato Casserole. This sweet potato casserole with marshmallows is served in individual ramekins for an extra eye-catching presentation.

Slow-Cooker Sweet Potatoes with Pecans. This slow-cooker sweet potato dish takes just 20 minutes to put together and has the same flavors as the Thanksgiving classic.

Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole. Rich with creamy coconut milk, a vegan sweet potato casserole brings everyone to the table.

Recipe courtesy of Food Network Kitchen

The Best Sweet Potato Casserole

Level: Easy

Total: 45 min
Active: 15 min

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

This sweet potato casserole is sprinkled with a nutty crumb topping to create a pleasantly crunchy contrast to the creamy and soft mashed sweet potatoes down below. The filling gets an extra special pumpkin pie(ish) treatment with brown sugar and vanilla for a deep caramel flavor. (In fact, leftovers can be heated up and topped with a scoop of ice cream just like pie.) Want to make ahead for Thanksgiving or another special holiday? Not a problem. The casserole ingredients can be mixed and transferred to a baking dish. Cover and refrigerate until ready to bake but leave off the topping. Store it separately at room temperature in an air-right container and sprinkle it on right before baking.