Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes with Bacon
While I love a good bowl of loaded mashed potatoes as much as the next person, sometimes it is fun to try something new and just as delicious for a classic side dish! While we will most likely eat mashed potatoes on our real Thanksgiving day celebration as my family absolutely loves them, I decided to share a classic yet different version for our blog recipe!
These cheesy scalloped potatoes topped with home cured bacon were a real hit for my family. Just the right amount of flavor thanks to the bacon and perfectly soft, tender potatoes made them the favorite dish of the entire event. I was completely surprised! I figured it would be the rolls or apple dumplings, but no… it was the potatoes! I hope that you love this dish as much as I do.
ingredients & recipe:
6 cups sliced potatoes, about 1/4 inch thick or thinner (I prefer Yukon, but you could also use a red potato)
1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
4 tbsp flour
2.5 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
4 tbsp butter, sliced
2 1/2 cups hot milk
1 lb bacon
1 cup gruyere, shredded
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 350° F. Using 1 tbsp of the butter, heavily grease a 9x13” baking dish.
Place about 1/3 of the potatoes in an even layer across the bottom of the baking dish. Do the same with the onions.
In a small dish, mix together the flour, salt, and pepper. Evenly distribute about 1/3 of the flour mixture over the potatoes and dot with 1 tbsp of the remaining sliced butter.
Repeat with two more layers of potatoes, onions, flour mixture, and butter until everything is used.
In a small saucepan over the stove, warm the milk until just about to boil. Pour the hot milk over the potatoes until they are covered. Layer the potatoes with the 1 lb of bacon and sprinkle with the 1 cup of gruyere.
Grease a piece of foil with cooking spray and cover the baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove the cover and bake another 20-30 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender and the cheese is golden brown.
Allow to sit for at least 10 minutes before cutting into and serving.
This dish is incredibly flavorful and the best version of scalloped potatoes I have ever done, at least according to the people that I live with. I believe the addition of bacon helps to flavor the potatoes as the drippings fall into the lower regions of the dish. One thing I might suggest altering would be to chop the bacon into 1-inch pieces, as it makes the dish easier to serve. The bacon I used in these photographs was the bacon we butchered and cured ourselves, which I sliced by hand, so the pieces were thicker and more difficult to cut through.
This makes a wonderful side dish to your Thanksgiving meal, especially if you are thinking of something different rather than the classic mashed potatoes!
xoxo Kayla
