Loaded Scalloped Potatoes
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Learn how to make these delicious Loaded Scalloped Potatoes with lots of bacon and cheddar cheese. Comfort food at its finest, easy to make and you’ll end up with cheesy, creamy, tender potatoes every single time!
One of my favorite side dishes ever, right next to mashed potatoes, has to be these scalloped potatoes. They are loaded with cheese and bacon, they’re super creamy and so tender. What can I say other than I love my comfort food, and these scalloped potatoes scream comfort food.
While scalloped potatoes are usually a holiday side dish, I love mine for our Sunday dinners next to a nice roast chicken. My favorite part about these potatoes though has to be that top crust. This is why usually I like to put the broiler on for the last 5 minutes to get a nice crust going on, but maybe that’s just me. Sometimes I don’t even have them as a side dish, I just scoop some up into a plate and enjoy them on their own, they really are filling and fulfilling.
What Are Scalloped Potatoes
Scalloped potatoes are probably different everywhere. We know them as a dish of sliced potatoes with a dairy-based sauce which is either milk or cream. It’s a white sauce that is poured over the potatoes, then they are topped with cheese and/or breadcrumbs.
The sauce is similar to a bechamel sauce, equal parts butter and flour, then add in your liquids and spices. I added some garlic to my sauce because otherwise it wouldn’t be a Jo Cooks recipe if there was no garlic.
What You Need For Scalloped Potatoes
- Butter – use unsalted butter so that you can control the sodium content in your cooking.
- Flour – you need all-purpose flour.
- Heavy cream and chicken broth – I chose heavy cream and no sodium chicken broth. If you want to cut out some of the fat, you could use milk but if you’re making this for the holidays I recommend you go all out and use heavy cream.
- Garlic – this is optional but I love a little bit of garlic in my scalloped potatoes.
- Spices – salt, pepper and nutmeg. If you don’t like nutmeg feel free to skip it, however nutmeg is such a great addition to these potatoes.
- Cheddar cheese – this is what makes these potatoes super cheesy.
- Bacon – I would say the bacon is optional but we all know bacon makes everything better so you MUST add bacon, because if you’re going to have scalloped potatoes you might as well go all out.
- Chives – I like to garnish with a bit of chives because I love the subtle onion flavor they provide. You can use parsley instead.
How To Make Scalloped Potatoes
- Make the sauce: Melt the butter in a saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute just for 30 seconds until the garlic is aromatic. Sprinkle flour over the garlic/butter then whisk until well combined. At this point it should look like a thick paste. Stir in the chicken broth and whisk until combined. Add in the heavy cream and whisk until smooth. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and remove from heat.
- Layer the scalloped potatoes: Start with a spreading a couple ladlefuls of the sauce over the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Spread a third of the sliced potatoes over the sauce in an even layer (see video). Top with more of the sauce to cover the potatoes. Top with a third of the cheddar cheese and then a third of the bacon. You should have enough ingredients for 3 layers of potatoes. Continue layering with potatoes, sauce, cheese, bacon and repeat. Finally sprinkle with half the chives.
- Bake: Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes in a 400 F degree oven. Uncover and finish baking for for another 45 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.
What Is The Difference Between Scalloped Potatoes And Potatoes Au Gratin
Scalloped potatoes and potatoes Au Gratin are essentially the same with one difference. Au Gratin potatoes have cheese, which makes them my favorite because I love cheese on pretty much anything. Cheese and potatoes are a combination made in heaven. So if we wanted to be technical here, these potatoes are really potatoes au gratin since we loaded them up with cheese, but who’s trying to be technical.
Another minor difference is in how the potatoes are sliced. Potatoes au gratin are thinly sliced whereas scalloped potatoes are sliced a bit thicker. Sometimes potatoes au gratin also have breadcrumbs sprinkled on top of the dish.
The terms scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin are often confused. As I just said, I always call these potatoes just scalloped potatoes. In the end the name doesn’t really matter. I would take a plate of either dishes, or both!
What Potatoes Are Best
Starchy potatoes are best, which is why I prefer Yukon Golds. Russets have the most starch and make the creamiest sauce, but Yukon Golds hold their shape better.
How To Store Leftovers
Store leftover potatoes in an airtight container in the fridge for 5 days.
Make ahead tip: Prepare everything up to and including step 5, cover with foil and refrigerate over night. The next day when ready to bake preheat the oven and bake as instructed.
Freezing
Freezing scalloped potatoes may cause the texture and flavor to change.
Store them in an airtight container and freeze them for up to 2 weeks for best results. You can also freeze them in the dish they were baked in, but cover it tightly with aluminum foil or plastic wrap.
How To Serve
Potatoes are such a wonderful side because they really do go with everything, and I mean everything! Try some of these mains out:
- Beer Can Chicken
- Prime Rib Roast
- Pan Seared Pork Chops with Gravy
- Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb
- Easy Meatloaf
- Firecracker Chicken
More Delicious Recipes To Try
- Mashed Potatoes
- Roasted Broccoli
- Italian Parmesan Roasted Potatoes
- Cheesy Bacon Ranch Potatoes
- Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
- Roasted Potatoes with Garlic Sauce
- Potatoes Au Gratin
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Loaded Scalloped Potatoes
Video
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoon butter (unsalted)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 4 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 2 cups chicken broth (low sodium)
- 2 cups heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- ½ teaspoon pepper (or to taste)
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg (ground)
- 3 pounds potatoes (sliced 1/8 inch thin, I used Yukon gold )
- 4 cups cheddar cheese (shredded)
- 12 slices bacon (fried and crumbled)
- 2 tablespoon chives (chopped)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400℉.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds until the garlic is aromatic.
- Sprinkle the flour over the garlic/butter then whisk well until combined with the butter. Add the chicken broth and whisk until combined. It should look like a thick paste. Cook for another minute while stirring, then add the heavy cream and whisk until smooth.
- Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Continue cooking for 2 more minutes until the sauce comes to a simmer and thickens. Remove the saucepan from the heat and set aside.
- Start layering. Start with a spreading a couple ladlefuls of the sauce over the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Spread a third of the sliced potatoes over the sauce in an even layer (see video). Top with more of the sauce to cover the potatoes. Top with a third of the cheddar cheese and then a third of the bacon. You should have enough ingredients for 3 layers of potatoes. Continue layering with potatoes, sauce, cheese, bacon and repeat. Finally sprinkle with half the chives.
- Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and finish baking for for another 45 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.
- Garnish with remaining chives and serve warm.
Notes
- Leftovers: Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- *Make ahead tips: Prepare everything up to and including step 5, cover with foil and refrigerate over night. The next day when ready to bake preheat the oven and bake as instructed.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Making this for the 3rd time. It’s work, but so worth it!
Can i prepare this dish 2 days in advanced?
You can definitely prepare it 3 days ahead and store it in the fridge covered with foil until ready to bake.
Quick question Jo. I haven’t used your recipe (my bechamel sauce is almost identical) however I melt Gruyere cheese into the sauce and the last two times my sauce has separated. Any thoughts on what I’m doing wrong? Am I baking too low (@350) or should I layer the cheese and not melt into the sauce?
It’s possible you’re adding the cheese while the sauce is still over heat, this can cause it to split. So remove it from heat then add the cheese.
I made the recipe but it just seems like there is a lot of leftover oil from the cheese, is there anything I could do about that ( draining it a bit, using breadcrumbs etc.) It tastes wonderful but I could do with a bit less oil.
You could use less cheese if it’s too much for you.
So we’re having somewhere around 50-60 people for Christmas eve so I have to make a LOT of food. Is it better to cook them one at a time or can I load a couple trays of this in the oven at the same time? Should I make lots of different batches or should I just make more layers and less batches? I’m not a spectacular cook and I wasn’t expecting so many people and my mom is too stressed to cook much so I’m taking the job on. All that aside, this looks yummy and my Grammie loves potatoes, my cousins love bacon, and my brother loves cheese so thanks a million for the recipe and Merry Christmas!
As a side note, do you happen to have any other recipes that are good for large groups of people?
Hi Hannah! I would probably do it in batches as it’s easier to bake and easier to check and make sure it’s done. So yeah do a couple trays at a time and load them both in the oven, on bottom and middle rack and I would rotate them half way through.
As far as other recipes, pretty much any recipe can be modified for large groups of people. In the recipe card if you hover over the number of servings, a slider should pop up and you can change the number of servings to whatever you want and it will adjust the ingredient amounts accordingly. Hope this helps.
I made it and everybody really liked it! I was asked to make it again for New Year’s. Thanks for the recipe. It’s fantastic, and it was easy to make. Thanks for the baking tip too.
Hi Jo, I would like to make this recipe with a prime rib roast for Christmas. Since the rib roast will be cooked in a 325 oven prior to dinner time, can I bake the scalloped potatoe recipe the day before and reheat at 325 prior to dinner. What do you suggest? It’s not often, but these are the times I wish I had 2 ovens.
Absolutely! That’s exactly what I’d do. 🙂 Happy holidays!
Hi Jo, love your recipies and ideas, suggestions, but for this particular dish, have you tried with milk instead of cream, increase the roux, and at the end of, top with seasoned bread crumbs, more cheese, top with chives or green onions, on broil to finish? To me anyway, that is au gratin version.. thanks!!
Hi Bradley! You can try my potatoes au gratin here: https://cravinghomecooked.com/potatoes-au-gratin/
Absolutely delicious!
Love your recipe for loaded scalloped potatoes…there are only two of us and I want to 1/2 the recipe for us for Christmas with our beef….have you had any luck with cutting it in 1/2? Many thanks for this answer and your website, which I love.
You can absolutely cut it in half! You’ll just have to use a smaller baking dish than what we used.
No to be a stickler, these do look phenomenal and I will make, however these are technically potatoes au gratin, since traditional scalloped potatoes do not use cheese at all. Thank you for the great recipe. I could eat the dish on its own!
Because all the positive comments I plan to make this for my Christmas Family Dinner. I’m sure they will like it with BBQ Ribs.
Let me just say that Jo definitely knows how to cook ! I made this recipe as a side dish for
Jo’s Instant Pot Turkey Breast recipe. Yum. Yum. This scalloped potato recipe is incredibly delicious. I will be taking this dish to my relative’s house for Thanksgiving dinner….. To make the recipe, I used my OXO Mandolin Slicer for the potatoes, and I baked my 12 slices of bacon in the oven on a cookie sheet @ 400 for 15 minutes since it was already preheated. 🙂 Thanks Jo
Thanks for the compliment, Charles! So happy you liked the recipes!
I made this for dinner, last night, and it was AMAZING! (It’s also incredibly rich, with all of that cream, butter and cheese, so I’ll probably only make it a couple times per year.)
I substituted tapioca flour for the wheat flour, due to a medical issue my girlfriend has. That made getting the roux-based cream sauce to the proper consistency more of a challenge than expected. I ended up with more sauce than I needed, but I’m sure it won’t go to waste (though possibly to waist!).
I also used some spiral-sliced ham left over from another dinner in place of the bacon. Apart from those minor changes I made the recipe as directed.
This was easily one of the most delicious scalloped potatoes recipes I have tasted. It would be just as impressive served as a side dish at a fancy holiday dinner. It’s definitely a keeper!
Thank you, Jo. You scored a home run with this recipe.
You made my day, Scott! Love your changes. 🙂
The final photo there just looks so damn delicious! I’m really looking forward to make this!
Loaded Scalloped Potatoes with BACON!! Yes!! These look absolutely delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe, Jo!
My pleasure!
This likes delicious, as all of your recipes do!
The video says to bake for 1 hour. The recipe says to bake for 45 minutes covered in foil and then 45 minutes without the foil covering. Which is correct?
*looks delicious…
Follow the recipe instructions, those are correct.