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Casseroles are a versatile dish. Practically anything can go in them, get a quick trip in the oven, and come out as a comforting, homey family meal. What people love to put in them varies regionally based on what's popular, available locally, and traditional in an area. Here are the signature casseroles from every state, including lots of iconic ingredients and recipes.
Made with yellow squash abundant in summer, squash casserole is a Southern classic that's often one of the choices for your meat-and-three meal as well as family suppers at home. This recipe includes all the things that make vegetables better: butter, mayonnaise, three kinds of cheese, and buttery Ritz crackers on top for a toasted, crunchy texture.
Recipe: Southern Living
Related: 21 Casseroles Your Grandma Could Make Without Opening a Cookbook
It's impossible to think about Alaskan cuisine without salmon, and this cast iron skillet-baked smoked salmon pot pie is a great way to eat it. Dill and lemon zest in the creamy sauce make it unique and complement the salmon. Instead of a fussy pie dough, biscuit dough flavored with fresh chives is dropped onto the top for a more substantial and easy crust.
Recipe: Alaska From Scratch
The three sisters are the crops of squash, corn and beans, which were planted together and eaten extensively by Native Americans, including in what's now Arizona. This casserole honors that tradition with a layer of black and pinto beans with green chile, a layer of zucchini squash and onions, and a layer of cheese-topped corn pudding.
Recipe: Southwest Living
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Arkansas produced more rice than any other state, so rice casseroles are ubiquitous. This shrimp and rice casserole recipe is from the 2017 Miss Arkansas Rice, Shelby Bosnick, and helped her win her title. It includes colorful bell peppers, lots of okra and white wine, soy sauce and parmesan for an abundance of flavor.
Recipe: Taste Arkansas
Related: Creative Rice and Bean Dishes From Around the World
Chicken Tetrazzini was created in the early 1900s at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco to honor Luisa Tetrazzini, an Italian opera star who debuted in the U.S. around that time. Today, it's still a popular comfort food casserole consisting of spaghetti in a wine-spiked cream sauce with mushrooms, chicken, peas, and a crown of crunchy, buttery toasted breadcrumbs.
Recipe: Food Network
The Denver omelet is a classic that you can find on practically every breakfast menu in the country, let alone its namesake city. It's easy to turn into a casserole that feeds a crowd, like this version that also includes hash browns to make it more substantial. The combination of ham, peppers and onions gets a boost from cheddar cheese and garlic.
Recipe: The Wholesome Dish
Related: 13 Simple Ways to Cook Eggs
The Lighthouse Inn, a hotel in New London, Connecticut, was famous for its creamy, baked potato side dish. The hotel closed in 2008, but many locals still make their own version of those beloved potatoes. Unlike many potato casserole recipes, this one calls for chunks of potato instead of shreds, making it more substantial. They swim in a sauce of cream and butter and are topped with a golden panko and parmesan mixture.
Recipe: Cook's Country
With all its Atlantic coastline, Delaware is well known for its blue crabs. A crab boil is delicious, but if you'd rather not go through all the work to pick your own crabs, you can try this crab imperial casserole instead. Lump blue crab meat is mixed with mayonnaise, dijon mustard, lemon and shallots for a dish that's like one giant, creamy crab cake.
Recipe: Savory Experiments
Since the DC Council named the cherry as the official fruit of Washington, D.C., it's only fitting to bake with the red, round fruit as a tribute to the city (and the fictitious story about the first president chopping down a cherry tree). This breakfast bake is a winner because it's quick, relies on cherry pie filling, and can feed the whole family.
Recipe: Mr. Food
Florida's citrus is famous, especially its oranges. This recipe for orange pecan French toast utilizes both fresh orange zest and orange juice so the orange flavor is prominent. Pecans, another crop that is grown in parts of Florida, goes into the bottom of the pan along with brown sugar. After baking, turn the slices upside down to reveal their gooey, pecan-studded side.
Recipe: AllRecipes
Peach cobbler is an iconic Georgian dish that's made with the state's tastiest crop. There are a number of ways to make it, but it's almost always in a casserole dish. This version is super easy: add melted butter and your cobbler batter to the pan, then pour the simmered fresh peaches on top. As it cooks, the batter bubbles up and melds with the fruit in mouthwatering ways.
Recipe: Tastes Better From Scratch
Spam, the salty canned ham, is ridiculously popular in Hawaii since it graced the islands during World War II. This award-winning breakfast casserole recipe for baked French toast combines it along with pineapple and coconut, two tropical fruits also loved and grown in the state. The sweet and salty combination of ingredients makes a satisfying all-in-one breakfast meal.
Recipe: Hormel Foods
Potatoes are synonymous with Idaho. There are a million ways to prepare them, but this twice baked potato casserole is comforting and feeds a lot of people on the cheap. Baked potatoes are mashed with butter, cream cheese and sour cream for extra richness, and then baked with even more cheese, bacon and green onions on top.
Recipe: Spend with Pennies
Related: Celebrate Spuds With 27 Tasty Ways to Cook Potatoes
Though there's plenty of debate over whether Chicago-style deep dish pizza is actually a casserole, this recipe is definitely only a casserole. Rigatoni noodles are used in place of a crust, and are combined with a creamy, cheesy sauce along with pizza toppings like sausage, mushrooms and peppers. It's topped with marinara sauce, cheese and pepperoni before being baked.
Recipe: Southern Living
Related: The Craziest Pizzas in Every State
Hoosiers are proud of their state's sweet corn, and turn it into all kinds of dishes and meals. Corn pudding, which is a cross between cornbread and creamed corn with a spoonable, rich texture, is a popular way to use it. This recipe is slightly sweet, and includes a dash of nutmeg for a fragrant, spiced addition.
Recipe: Taste of Home
Related: 30 Cheap and Easy Recipes From Canned Foods
Iowans love their pork since their state produces more than any other state, and like most of the Midwest, they love their creamy casseroles too. Boneless pork chops are seared and placed on top of a bed of thinly sliced potatoes and onions, then baked in a mixture of cream of mushroom soup and milk. Serve it with a side of fresh sweet corn on the cob for an extra Iowa touch.
Recipe: AllRecipes
Related: How to Feed a Crowd 15 Ways With a Cheap Cut of Pork
Bierocks are a beef and cabbage-stuffed bread roll, kind of like the Kansas version of a Hot Pocket. They're a great portable dish, but making individual buns is time consuming. In this award-winning casserole, a filling of beef, cabbage and rice is spread in a casserole dish and topped with a sheet of refrigerated crescent roll dough for a quick shortcut.
Recipe: The Active Age
The Kentucky Hot Brown is an open-faced turkey, bacon and tomato sandwich smothered in cream sauce and broiled. It was created at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, but you can make an easy casserole version at home. This recipe layers toast and roast turkey under a homemade cream sauce, then tops it with bacon and parmesan cheese. Fresh tomatoes and parsley after baking add a fresh touch.
Recipe: Taste of Home
Two pounds of fresh shrimp, a seafood popular in Louisiana and important to its unique cuisine, are the centerpiece of this Cajun shrimp casserole. It's flavored with onions, white wine, cayenne and garlic, and includes lots of typical Cajun veggies like colorful bell peppers and okra. Rice and cream of shrimp soup provide a creamy, starchy base.
Recipe: Southern Living
When you think of Maine lobster, you probably think of a whole steamed lobster on a plate, or maybe a lobster roll sandwich. But lobster casserole is an even more decadent way to enjoy the crustacean. The dry sherry in the cream sauce is the main flavoring, along with plenty of butter and egg yolks to put the richness over the top. Crushed Ritz crackers with paprika and parmesan lend crunch.
Recipe: New England Today
You can't go to Maryland without eating crabs, and fresh lump crab meat is used in this seafood bake casserole along with shrimp. They're combined with bread cubes, bell peppers, onions and parsley with an egg custard holding it all together. It's seasoned heavily with another Maryland classic ingredient: Old Bay, full of celery salt and paprika and synonymous with Atlantic seafood.
Recipe: The Midnight Baker
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Whether you make them in a traditional bean pot or a more common casserole dish, Boston baked beans are a satisfying side dish all year round. Three ingredients are a must in this dish: navy beans, salt pork or bacon, and molasses. This recipe includes them all along with onion, dry mustard, worcestershire sauce and brown sugar, and is cooked slowly to fully hydrate the beans and let the flavors mingle.
Recipe: AllRecipes
Chili cheese dogs have a long history in Detroit, where they're called coneys. Fans usually have an allegiance to two rival restaurants, Lafayette and American, located right next door to each other. If you can't get to Detroit to try them, you can make this chili cheese dog casserole. Canned chili is spruced up with veggies, hot dogs, spices and cheese, then it's spread in between layers of cornbread and cheese.
Recipe: Taste of Home
Related: Famous Franks: 29 Best Hot Dog Stands Across America
Hotdish is the name for casserole in Minnesota, and they can come with practically any ingredients, as long as they're a type of casserole. But by far the most popular version of hotdish is this tater tot version. It's made with a layer of ground beef and vegetables in a creamy sauce of cream soup which is topped with cheese and a whole bag of frozen tater tots. It's kind of a creamy, upper Midwest take on shepherd's pie.
Recipe: I am Baker
Believe it or not, Mississippi has its own style of tamales. They have a long history in the area, are usually called hot tamales, and are smaller and wetter than the Mexican version they descend from. You can make a similar casserole with this recipe that includes a cornbread mixture on the bottom, topped with enchilada sauce, ground beef and plenty of cheese. Unlike the typical version of tamale pie with cornbread on top, the cornbread remains juicy and moist, just like Delta tamales.
Recipe: Delish
Kansas City is known for its barbecue, but burnt ends don't exactly make a good casserole. What does, however, are the sides that go along with them, especially the famous cheesy corn bake at Jack Stack Barbecue, which has been imitated at lots of other barbecue joints in the city. The creamy side is full of corn, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and garlic, plus a bit of smoked ham so you know you're at a smokehouse.
Recipe: KC Parent
Related: Bucket List Barbecue in Every State
Huckleberries are wild berries that are similar to blueberries but with a characteristic flat side. The purple berries love to grow on mountainsides, which is why they're so common in Montana. If you can find some, make this dessert casserole buckle that's similar to a cobbler. A thick batter is spread into the dish first, and then topped with the berries and hot water, making the final dish buckle as it bakes.
Recipe: AllRecipes
Runzas are yeasted pockets of bread dough filled with beef and vegetables. They're so popular in Nebraska that there's a fast food chain headquartered in Lincoln called Runza that opened in 1949. For this recipe, ground beef, onions and cabbage are cooked with cream soup, then sandwiched between refrigerated dough.
Recipe: Hy-Vee
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Nevada is the promised land of all-you-can-eat sushi. It's time consuming and complicated to make at home though, so this casserole can scratch that sushi itch for a lot less than a flight to Vegas. It's really better than it sounds, considering the only fish in it is surimi. Seasoned sushi rice makes up the bottom layer, plus surimi, plenty of Japanese mayo and furikake seasoning. Once it's hot and creamy, it's fun to eat as you wrap it in cold nori, avocado and other veggies.
Recipe: Bon Appetit
Heading to orchards to pick apples, drink hot apple cider and eat freshly fried apple cider donuts rolled in cinnamon sugar is a New Hampshire fall tradition. When your eyes are bigger than your stomach and you have a bunch of stale cider donuts left, use them up in this bread pudding recipe. They stand in as a sweet replacement for plain bread, and chopped apple boosts the fruit flavor.
Recipe: AllRecipes
The famous Thanksgiving classic, Campbell's green bean casserole, was created by Dorcas Reilly, a New Jersian. She was the test kitchen manager in 1955 when she came up with the recipe, and holiday tables have never looked the same since. The original recipe is incredibly easy with only six ingredients, so there's no excuse not to make it if you haven't already.
Recipe: Campbell's
Related: 25 Betty Crocker-Era Holiday Recipes That We Secretly Love
Hatch green chiles, from the area around Hatch, New Mexico, are famous for their sweetness after roasting along with a moderate heat. They're becoming increasingly easy to purchase outside of the Southwest, either fresh or roasted and jarred. So when you find them, make a batch of these simple chicken enchiladas that let the flavor of the chiles shine through.
Recipe: Sunset
Related: 23 Traditional Hispanic Foods Most Americans Don't Know About (But Should)
New York is full of Italian-Americans, and they've contributed some of the best pasta casserole recipes to the rest of the country. Baked ziti is one of the classics, combining pasta tubes with tomato sauce and cheese. Mixing cream and ricotta into some of the tomato sauce makes the pasta layer extra creamy, and soaking the pasta instead of boiling it saves time and prevents it from getting overcooked in the oven.
Recipe: Serious Eats
Sweet potato is the official state vegetable of North Carolina, so it's apt that sweet potato casserole is popular there. The age-old debate of marshmallows versus pecans as a topping is easily settled with this recipe, which uses both. The pecans are added in the form of butter, cinnamon and brown sugar-filled streusel, adding more texture and crunch to the dish.
Recipe: Celebrating Sweets
Hotdish is ubiquitous in North Dakota, just like its neighbor, Minnesota. One of the most popular, award-winning versions is called Marge's World Famous Hotdish, served at the Boiler Room in Fargo and featured on the Food Network. They use ground bison with mixed vegetables, cheese and a topping of tater tots, just like this recipe.
Recipe: Mason Jars and Me
Related: 25 Delicious Dump-and-Bake Casseroles That Can Be Prepared in Minutes
A simple casserole of macaroni, beef, tomatoes and cheese, Johnny Marzetti was created at a restaurant in Columbus by Theresa Marzetti, and named after her brother-in-law. The restaurant closed in 1942, but the dish is still beloved in Ohio and often served in school cafeterias. This is the original recipe and it includes mushrooms, onion and cheddar cheese.
Recipe: Sun Sentinel
Oklahoma has an official state meal, and one of the 11 — yes, 11! — items that are included in the belly buster is the hearty combo of biscuits, sausage and gravy. It's easy to make them for a crowd in casserole form, like in this recipe. Canned biscuit dough is spread in a pan along with cooked breakfast sausage, eggs, cheese, and a homemade cream gravy. The whole thing cooks up into a rich, filling brunch meal.
Recipe: Tasty
Oregon produces 99% of the country's hazelnut crop, and it's the official state nut. Most people are familiar with it in sweet recipes, but they're also great in savory dishes as well, like this vegetable side dish that won a 2020 hazelnut recipe contest. A mix of fresh vegetables, cheese and chopped hazelnuts are covered in an eggy, biscuit-like crust.
Recipe:Wilco
Pierogies are a specialty in the Pittsburgh area, which has a large Polish heritage population. You can turn the frozen dumplings into a more substantial meal with this casserole recipe. A sour cream and chicken broth sauce is tossed with the cooked potato dumplings along with bacon, mushrooms and onions. Sliced smoked kielbasa would be a good addition, too.
Recipe: Powered by Mom
Clams are a staple seafood in Rhode Island, which is why clams casino are so popular there. Normally, clams casino are made by stuffing a mixture of bacon, breadcrumbs, bell pepper and seasonings into a clam on the half shell, but you can make it in small casserole dishes if fresh clams aren't available. This recipe uses three colors of bell peppers plus two kinds of cheese.
Recipe: Taste of Home
Shrimp and grits is a famous Lowcountry dish made with a pool of creamy grits topped with shrimp in a simple sauce. This casserole version bakes the heavy cream-laden cheesy grits and spoons a shrimp mixture made with bacon, white wine, bell pepper and garlic over the top. While cooking the shrimp in the casserole might be easier, cooking them separately ensures they don't overcook and the final dish is saucey.
Recipe: Southern Living
Indian tacos can be found all over South Dakota, and are made with fry bread, the official state bread. Most people don't want to fry in their own kitchen though, and for those people there's this taco casserole recipe. It's got a poured, breadlike batter that's close to fry bread, unlike the rice or tortillas of other taco casseroles. You can add the toppings like lettuce and cheese to the dish, or let your family add them to their own plate like they were making tacos.
Recipe: Lil Luna
Barbecue spaghetti is a specialty in Memphis' barbecue restaurants, where it's generally served as a side dish to smoked meats or as a main course. Instead of marinara sauce, spaghetti is tossed with a combination of barbecue sauce and tomato sauce, along with smoked pulled pork, then baked under a layer of cheddar cheese. Try using pulled pork from your favorite barbecue joint in this.
Recipe: Spicy Southern Kitchen
Though it's named after a cattle ranch, the King Ranch chicken casserole doesn't have any connection to it. That doesn't make it any less beloved in Texas, however, where it's a staple recipe. This is the classic version, made with canned cream soup, shredded chicken breast, a can of Rotel diced tomatoes, bell peppers, cheddar cheese and spices all layered like lasagna between corn tortillas.
Recipe: AllRecipes
Related: 50 Cheap and Easy Chicken Recipes
Though they're not exactly healthy and may lead to your own funeral eventually, funeral potatoes are so named because it's always brought to after-funeral events among Mormon church members. There are many slight variations to the recipe, but this one uses cubed potatoes, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, butter, cheddar, and a topping of Cornflakes that stay super crunchy after baking. You can add onions or use shredded potatoes if you prefer.
Recipe: Lil Luna
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Vermont is the nation's top maple syrup producer, and it's also got an abundance of apple orchards. Those two ingredients just happen to go together well, especially in a casserole dessert like bread pudding. Maple syrup sweetens and adds flavor to the custard along with cinnamon and apple brandy, and maple sauteed apples brown on top. It's perfect served with a drizzle of maple syrup.
Recipe: Bon Appetit
Related: Beyond the Pancake: 15 Recipes to Try for Maple Syrup Season
Thomas Jefferson can be credited with popularizing mac and cheese in the U.S. when he had a pasta machine shipped to his home in Virginia. It's now about as iconic American as he is, and especially popular in southern states. This recipe is extremely rich thanks to making the mornay sauce with half-and-half. A mixture of medium cheddar and gruyere cheeses gives it the right balance of sharpness and nuttiness.
Recipe: The Chunky Chef
The official state vegetable of Washington is the Walla Walla onion. They're grown around the town of Walla Walla, and the local soil is what gives them their sweetness and juiciness. Many people eat them raw, but this 5-ingredient casserole is almost as simple. Onions are sauteed, then mixed with a bit of sour cream and a lot of parmesan cheese. They're baked with cracker crumbs on top until it's golden and bubbly.
Recipe: AllRecipes
Pepperoni rolls are oblong buns baked with pepperoni and sometimes cheese in the middle. They're found at every gas station and bakery in West Virginia for a snack or quick meal on the go. This genius recipe uses pepperoni rolls as the starch in a breakfast strata, a savory egg bread pudding. It's also got bell peppers, onions, Italian herbs and cheeses to make a kind of Italian spin on brunch.
Recipe: How Sweet Eats
Bratwursts are found all over in Wisconsin, from downtown Milwaukee food carts to Packers tailgates. They're often paired with sauerkraut and onions, as in this bratwurst casserole. The sausages are sliced and browned, then placed in the casserole dish with sauerkraut, a sauce of cheddar cheese soup, tater tots, more cheese and onions. Serve it with pretzel bread for an extra German touch.
Recipe: I Wash You Dry
Wyoming is known for its elk hunting, and people need recipes to use up all that meat. This elk cornbread casserole is like an elk tamale pie, with peppers, onions, corn and cumin in the bottom layer, with a pourable layer of cornbread on top. Garnish it with cilantro, pickled jalapenos and salsa for a spicy, tangy topping.
Recipe: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation