The Best Au Gratin Potatoes
Prep
25m
Cook
70m
Total
95m
Bigly says
Listen to me. Au gratin. Au GRATIN. We're saying it correctly today — 'oh-grah-TAN,' a little French in the back of the throat, classy, elegant, the way the French INTENDED it before the suburbs got hold of it and started calling it 'cheese potatoes' which, fine, accurate, but unsophisticated. We're being sophisticated today. The combover demands it.
Here's the difference between scalloped and au gratin, write this down, most cookbook authors get this WRONG, they say it's the same thing, it's NOT the same thing — scalloped is cream-based, au gratin is CHEESE-FORWARD, au gratin has a breadcrumb top, it's a different animal entirely. Anyone telling you otherwise has never been to France and frankly should not be writing about food. These are the cheese-forward, breadcrumb-topped, GOLDEN-CRUSTED legends of the side dish world. The greatest cheese potatoes ever assembled. People literally fight over them at my dinner parties. I have to assign portions. I have a portion-assignment system. It's complicated. I'm working on a patent.
The secret — and you're getting this FREE, no popup, no email gate, no 'this site uses cookies' banner with ninety vendors you've never heard of including one called 'DataMonster Synergistic Insights' which sounds MADE UP and probably is — the secret is the béchamel. You make a real béchamel. Butter, flour, milk, you whisk, you build, you SEASON. Other so-called chefs just throw cream and shredded bag cheese in a dish like animals. We're not animals. We're cooks. We're going to do this properly. We're going to do this BIGLY. Nobody disputes this.
Ingredients
- 3 lbYukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8-inch thick
- 5 tbspunsalted butter(divided — 4 for the sauce, 1 for breadcrumbs)
- 3 tbspall-purpose flour
- 2.5 cupswhole milk, warm
- 3 clovesgarlic, minced
- 1 tspDijon mustard(the secret weapon, do not skip)
- 1/4 tspfreshly grated nutmeg
- 1.5 tspkosher salt
- 1 tspblack pepper
- 8 ozsharp cheddar cheese, grated(grate it yourself, the bag stuff has anti-caking dust on it)
- 4 ozGruyère cheese, grated
- 1/2 cuppanko breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cupParmesan cheese, finely grated
- 1 tspfresh thyme leaves
- 2 tbspfresh chives, snipped (for serving)
Steps
- 1
Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- 2
Place the sliced potatoes in a large pot, cover with cold salted water, and bring to a simmer. Cook 5 minutes — they should be just barely tender. Drain carefully and set aside.
- 3
Melt 4 tbsp butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds until fragrant.
- 4
Whisk in the flour and cook 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly, to form a pale roux.
- 5
Slowly pour in the warm milk, whisking continuously to prevent lumps. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook 4-5 minutes until thickened to coat the back of a spoon.
- 6
Remove from heat. Whisk in the Dijon, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and three-quarters of the cheddar and all the Gruyère, stirring until smooth.
- 7
Arrange half the par-cooked potatoes in the buttered dish. Pour over half the cheese sauce. Top with remaining potatoes and the rest of the sauce. Scatter the reserved cheddar on top.
- 8
Melt the remaining 1 tbsp butter and toss with the panko, Parmesan, and thyme. Sprinkle evenly over the top.
- 9
Bake uncovered 40-45 minutes, until the top is deeply golden, the breadcrumbs are crisp, and the sauce is bubbling at the edges.
- 10
Rest 10 minutes. Top with chives and serve.
One more thing
Au gratin done right is a religious experience. Done wrong, it's a wet sad cheese mess on a plate and most chefs would have you believe that's normal. It's not normal. It's not acceptable. Bigly demands better. YOU deserve better. Make this, serve it next to a roast chicken or a beautiful piece of beef or honestly just eat it standing over the sink at midnight — I won't tell, the combover keeps secrets — and know that you have made the greatest version of this dish in the entire neighborhood. Probably the city. Possibly the country. Now go eat.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
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Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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