Please meet the ultimate crispy-on-top and creamy-in-the-middle potato dish... the hasselback potato gratin! Combining the very best of the roasted hasselback potato with the potato gratin; it’s the garlicy, cheesy, creamy, luxuriously decadent comfort food ya want in your life!
Standing the potatoes, with edges aligned vertically, creates a showstopping presentation that will deliver with every single bite!
The recipe is inspired by Kenji Lopez from Serious Eats. My version ups the alliums and the dairy cause… sometimes more is more. It can be made with any other root veggies… even rainbow style too like this!
Why this Recipe Works
- Best of both the hasselback and gratin world! We get the crispy exterior and creamy interior of a hasselback potato combined with the creamy cheesiness of a gratin!
- Tossing the potatoes with the cream mixture before baking! Ensures there’s garlicy, cheesy, creamy goodness in each and every bite!
- Standing the potatoes up vertically! Maximizes surface area to create more opportunity for a crispy crunchy exterior with a tender creamy interior!
- Roasting covered with foil followed by uncovered! Roasting covered traps the potatoes moisture, so they steam and become tender then roasting uncovered perfectly crisps them up!
It’s the ultimate luxuriously decadent comfort food! Cheese, cream, potatoes, garlic, shallots… need I really say any more?
It’s the luxuriously decadent potato dish of my dreams!
What is a Hasselback Potato?
A hasselback potato is a type of roasted potato where the potatoes are cut in thin, parallel slices, almost all the way through so that that potato remains intact at the bottom and roasted until the layers fan out.
For a visual, here’s some hasselback potatoes I made once:
What is a Potato Gratin?
A potato gratin is a casserole of potatoes dish where thin slices of potatoes are stacked horizontally in layers, covered with cream, sprinkled with cheese and roasted in the oven.
How to Make this Hasselback Potato Gratin
Thinly slice potatoes (preferably on a mandolin otherwise a sharp knife works).
Whisk together creamy, cheese-y goodness mixture.
Toss potatoes with mixture and arrange them, with the edges aligned vertically, in an oven-proof dish. *
Bake covered followed by uncovered, basting the potatoes with the excess cream mixture.
*It’s a rustic dish that’s gonna get messy when stacking the potatoes! No edge alignment perfection is necessary!
Ingredients
Potatoes: russet or any other high starch potatoes work best (thought any other variety can be swapped in!).
Note: other root veggies, such as beets, radishes, carrots and parsnips can be used as well.
Cheese: this recipes uses a combo of both Gruyere or Comte and Parmesan but if you have a little bit of any other cheese that’s been neglected in your fridge, simply grate it and add it in!
Cream/Butter: if vegan, both the cream and butter can be swapped in with their non-dairy counterparts.
Garlic/Shallots: more alliums = more flavor. The most common alliums are onions, garlic and shallots. Can omit these altogether (not recommended), use only one kind, or feel free to swap them with another allium variety (for example, using a minced onion instead of garlic + shallots will not ruin this dish!).
Fresh Thyme: The recipe call for fresh thyme though dried can be swapped in as well. And/or experiment with other herbs such as rosemary and oregano.
Rainbow Root Veggie Gratin
That time I made this exact recipe but… had carrots, beets, parsnip, radishes and sweet potatoes join the party!
Cooks Tips
- If you own a mandolin, now is the time to use it! Otherwise a sharp knife works too.
- For the most garlicy, cheesy, creamy result; be sure every slice of potato is fully coated in the creamy mixture before stacking vertically.
- Buy extra potatoes. Potatoes come in all shapes and sizes, thus the exact amount of potatoes that will fit into a single baking dish vary!
- For easing cleaning, place baking dish on a baking sheet to catch any creamy mixture that may drip and spill over.
- Perfect opportunity to grate up any other hard cheese scraps ya wanna make use of in your fridge. Simply add ‘em to the cream mixture.
- Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Have ya tried this recipe? I’d love to hear about it and see it too! Please leave a comment below and share it on Instagram with the tag @DanielaGerson! You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to see more colorfully delicious food and all sorts of awesome adventures!
Let’s make waves in the kitchen!
Stoked on colorful potatoes? Check out this All things Purple Potatoes Post!
Hasselback Potato Gratin
Ingredients
- 5 ounces finely grated Gruyère or Comté cheese
- 3 ounces finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- 3 cups heavy cream
- 4 medium cloves garlic minced (the garlic-shallot ratio is flexi, just be sure to add lots of garlic or shallots or a combo)
- 1 shallot minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves roughly chopped
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 1/2 - 4 pounds russet potatoes or another potato or root veggie variety; peeled and very thinly sliced on a mandolin.
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Combine cheeses in a large bowl. Transfer 1/3 of cheese mixture to a separate bowl and set aside. Add cream, garlic, shallots, and thyme to cheese mixture. Season generously with salt and pepper. Add potato slices and toss with hands, making sure to get this creamy goodness all over ever single slice of thin potatoes. Yes every single one. It is worth it!
- Grease a 2-quart casserole dish with butter. Pick up a handful of potatoes, organizing them into a neat stack, and lay them in the casserole dish with their edges aligned vertically. Continue placing potatoes in casserole, working around the perimeter and into the center until all potatoes have been added. Potatoes need to be very tightly packed, which means I often sneak more in once the casserole is full, sticking them in between any slices I can. Pour some of the excess cream/cheese mixture evenly over potatoes, until the mixture comes half way up the sides of the casserole. Reserve the excess cream mixture.
- Cover tightly with foil and transfer to oven. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil, pour any excess cream mixture over the potatoes and continue baking, uncovered, until the top is a pale golden brown, about 30 minutes longer. Remove from oven, sprinkle with remaining cheese and continue baking until the top is a deep golden brown and edges are starting to crisp, about another 30 minutes longer. Remove from oven, let rest for a few minutes, and serve.
Notes
- If you own a mandolin, now is the time to use it! Otherwise a sharp knife works too.
- For the most garlicy, cheesy, creamy result; be sure every slice of potato is fully coated in the creamy mixture before stacking vertically.
- Buy extra potatoes. Potatoes come in all shapes and sizes, thus the exact amount of potatoes that will fit into a single baking dish vary!
- For easing cleaning, place baking dish on a baking sheet to catch any creamy mixture that may drip and spill over.
- Perfect opportunity to grate up any other hard cheese scraps ya wanna make use of in your fridge. Simply add ‘em to the cream mixture.
- Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
What a perfect DELICIOUS and BEAUTIFUL dish to celebrate Thanksgiving!!!
Thanks Daniela fir sharing this GORGEOUS recipe 🙏🙏
Absolute pleasure Jacqueline ~ you are too cute for words! Can't get enough of this dish this time of year! It was such a pleasure to make this for ya last week :). Xxx.