Utah. A battle of the taters.

Utah: the Beehive state (though I’m not sure why it's called that). Utah gets its name from the Native American tribe that originally lived there, “Ute”, which means people of the mountains. The biggest lake in Utah, the Great Salt Lake, is the biggest lake west of the Mississippi river, and the capital named after it, Salt Lake City, receives almost 500 inches of snowfall each year. Speaking of winter, Utah also hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002.

For our SoMP meal, we made funeral potatoes. But this time I made one batch, and mom made a completely different batch using a completely different recipe. We both raised our mighty and frightful armies to battle in the War of the Funeral Potatoes, a power-filled and delicious war that shall forever go down in history. Throughout the blog, me and mom will take turns writing about raising our armies for the battle, since I, Eli, played little to no role in making mom’s potatoes, and vice versa.

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Team Green Chile Gladiator

While researching, Eli and I stumbled upon two very different recipes for funeral potatoes: one was more of a classic recipe with lots of cheese and cornflakes on top, the other with more adventurous flavors and a bit more work. All it took was seeing green chiles in the ingredients list - I was sold. This would be a warrior fit for a SoMP night. I deem you worthy, Green Chile Gladiator!

My mighty gladiator called for more rigorous training. First, all the potatoes needed to be scrubbed and sliced into ¼” thick half moons. Next came the sauce: a rich blend of butter, garlic, and heavy cream. Like I really needed more convincing that this would be the winning recipe!

Once the sauce was heated through, I stacked layers of potatoes, green chilies and the cream sauce. Add some salt and pepper and it was ready for the oven.

The Green Chile Gladiator baked for 30 mins covered. Remove the foil and sprinkle with cheese, then another 20 minutes in the oven. A deliciously bubbling golden brown told me it was ready for combat.

You’re going down, cornflakes!

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Team Cheddar Champion Will Win!

My Cheddar Champion’s training started by nuking 4 tablespoons of butter. Then my champ was given the hard and enduring task of crunching cornflakes, to ensure that my warrior’s legs weren't mush.

When my champion was finished crunching cornflakes, he was rather tired, so I decided to mix the melted butter and the cornflakes together for him. I can tell you right now this will be the winning recipe! My two favorite raw ingredients- melted butter and cereal.

I then mixed together sour cream, cream of chicken soup, salt, minced onions, and grated cheddar cheese, and hash browns. The hash browns were still frozen, by the way. Personally, I think this would be not only the winner of the War of the Funeral Potatoes, I think this sounds like it would be great for a breakfast-for-lunch meal, too.

I then got out the world-famous nine by nine pan, and slathered the ‘taters (Sam Gamgee quote) into the pan. Once I had slathered the taters into the pan, I sprinkled my cornflakes on top. My cheesy warrior of mass destruction baked in the oven for forty-five minutes. The crispy golden-brown corn flakes and melted cheese on top looked absolutely delicious. It's making me hungry just thinking about it…. Sorry, haven’t had dinner yet. My bad.

My Cheddar Champion is going to win the War for sure!!!

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The verdict? You decide!

What to serve with the funeral potatoes? We're not going to a funeral, so let's make it a party and add some steaks. Ranching is very popular in most of the Western states so there's plenty of beef. Dad and I grilled it up and served it out.

So how were the funeral potatoes? Which one emerged out victorious? We honestly couldn't pick. The Green Chile Gladiator was a much richer, creamy sauce with very subtle cheese flavors. The Cheddar Champion was definitely cheesy and more of a classic potato casserole that you find around the Midwest too.

If you're looking for a traditional, gooey, cheesy dish, opt for Eli's version. If you want to spice it up a bit, try his mom's edition.

But hey, don't take our word. Try them both for yourself. You can find both recipes here: Utah's Funeral Potatoes