Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes – a traditional French side dish recipe that will complement any main course like pork, beef, poultry, and also seafood. This recipe is easy to make, requires super simple ingredients, and is loaded with plenty of cheesy and creamy flavors!
Luxuriously creamy and cheesy potato slices are baked until perfectly soft and topped with plenty of cheese and a hint of thyme.
If you love easy potato recipes (basically best comfort food ever!) please don’t forget to check out my other potato recipes: Mashed Potatoes With Cream Cheese And Garlic, Sweet Potato Fries with Truffle Oil, Twice Baked Cheesy Potatoes, Homemade Parmesan Truffle Fries.
Whenever it’s steak night at our house these creamy potatoes au gratin is a must on the dinner table. What’s your go-to side dish of all time?
For the recipe, there are two ways of making these baked potato slices. The first method – making the sauce base with heavy cream, cheese, and butter, and the second is making a flour-based roux and adding milk and cheese.
But today we are going to make it with a gluten-free flour base and lots of cheese. The sauce is creamy, thick, and enough to cover the potatoes for a very luxurious creamy flavor.
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Ingredients
- Potatoes – use starchy potatoes like Yukon, Russet, Idaho which are great for baking, mashing and deep frying.
- The best cheese for potatoes au gratin – choose any good melting cheese like Mozzarella, Colby jack cheese or Cheddar types.
- 2 lb starchy potatoes, cut into ⅛ inch thick slices
- 1 medium brown or red onion, cut into thin circles
For Cheesy Sauce:
- 3 tbsp butter
- 5 tbsp gluten-free flour blend
- 1 cup milk (plant based nut milk like almond is perfect)
- ½ cup veggie or meat broth (or bio bouillon cube dissolved in hot water according to instructions)
- 1 ½ cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded or Monterey Jack cheese blend
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced or paste
- ½ tsp thyme, dried (or dried rosemary)
- 1 ½ tsp kosher salt (or add to taste upto 2 tsp)
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Top with:
- ½ cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped
- Thyme sprigs
How to make Au Gratin Potatoes
Start by making the sauce (depending on how confident you are in the kitchen you can slice the potatoes before making the sauce). The key here is to preserve the precious starch in the potatoes, so for this recipe, you’ll need to wash and rinse the potatoes properly, then pat dry with a kitchen towel. After slicing them, I wouldn’t recommend adding them in a bowl of water like I usually do, but if you feel it’s taking longer to make the sauce, feel free to place the potato slices in a bowl of milk or cream.
Slicing the potatoes – I found that the best method is to use a food processor, the slices come out not very thin and not too thick, just perfect (about ⅛ inch thick).
Alternatively you can always use a mandolin or cut by hand (will take a while to cut to even sized slices!).
For meal prep – make the potatoes au gratin ahead, by keeping potato slices submerged in the cream and milk mixture the night before to prevent browning, all you’ll need to do the next day is the sauce and bake.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Melt butter in a skillet/pan over medium heat. Add garlic and gradually add flour, constantly whisking at the same time until a roux has formed.
Stir in the milk slowly and whisk vigorously.
Finally add in the cheddar and whisk until the cheese is fully melted and set aside.
Layer the potato slices in an 8×12 or 9×13 inch dish (butter or spray with cooking spray prior), add the onion sliced in between. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and dried thyme.
Pour the cheese sauce all over the potato slices, cover with foil and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Remove the foil and top with mozzarella cheese and return to the oven until cheese is melted and bubbly, slightly browned. You can use the broiler method but be careful as the cheese can burn very quickly.
Can you freeze potato gratin?
Best to be stored refrigerated, tightly sealed in a glass food container for up to a week tops. When ready to use, reheat in the oven (about 375 F for 20-40 min or less) until soft and creamy again.
This cheesy potato au gratin doesn’t freeze really well, however, if you do need to freeze this, you can do so by transferring them in an airtight container and keep in the freezer for up to 2-3 weeks.
Tips and variations
Salt – in this recipe I added 1 tsp however for every person it’s different and some people like their food to have enough salt all the time.
I am trying to decrease my salt consumption by adding less and less each time, and after tasting the final-cooked dish I can always add a little extra if needed so.
Feel free to bump the salt to 2 tsp to be sure.
Thyme – sub to dried rosemary or add few fresh sprigs to the mix (just be careful and remove them when serving). Or if you not feeling the herbs, simply leave them out, but they add a little twist to the traditional potato au gratin recipe.
Paprika – sprinkle smoked or regular paprika powder over the potatoes just before adding the sauce.
Toppings – if you’re in the mood, sprinkle with slightly cooked bacon pieces all over the potatoes in the last round of baking, just before topping with cheddar cheese. Alternatively, add uncooked small bacon slices between the potatoes along with the onion slices.
If you are like me and love a little heat in your meals, add 1 tsp of chili flakes to the cooked sauce, right before topping the au gratin potatoes.
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How do you keep potatoes au gratin from becoming watery?
As I mentioned above, it is important to choose more starchy potatoes for this recipe as they hold their shape, don’t become watery, and are perfect for baking.
For the milk – use a full fat milk, nut milk or cooking cream for best results.
What goes well with au gratin potatoes?
Potatoes au gratin are best to be served with the main course like pork, beef, or chicken however for a lighter meal you can always enjoy these by themselves with a portion of freshly made leafy green side salad.
Here are my favorite suggestions on what to serve with Creamy potato au gratin:
More Cheesy & Creamy Recipes
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Thank you,
Julia
Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes
Ingredients
For Potatoes
- 2 lb starchy potatoes cut into ⅛ inch thick slices
- 1 medium brown or red onion cut into thin circles
For Cheesy Sauce
- 3 tbsp butter
- 5 tbsp gluten-free flour blend
- 1 cup milk plant-based nut milk like almond is perfect
- ½ cup veggie or meat broth or bio bouillon cube dissolved in hot water according to instructions
- 1 ½ cup sharp cheddar cheese shredded
- 2 large garlic cloves minced or paste
- ½ tsp thyme dried (or dried rosemary)
- 1 ½ tsp kosher salt or add to taste up to 2 tsp
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Top with:
- ½ cup mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1 tsp fresh parsley chopped
- Thyme sprigs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Melt butter in a skillet/pan over medium heat. Add garlic and gradually add flour, constantly whisking at the same time until a roux has formed.
- Stir in the milk slowly and whisk vigorously.
- Finally, add in the cheddar and whisk until the cheese is fully melted and set aside.
- Layer the potato slices in an 8×12 or 9×13 inch dish (butter or spray with cooking spray prior), add the onion sliced in between. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and dried thyme.
- Pour the cheese sauce all over the potato slices, cover with foil and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes.
- Remove the foil and top with mozzarella cheese and return to the oven until cheese is melted and bubbly, slightly browned. You can use the broiler method but be careful as the cheese can burn very quickly.
Notes
- Potatoes – use starchy potatoes like Yukon, Russet, Idaho which are great for baking, mashing, and deep-frying.
- Salt – in this recipe I added 1 tsp however for every person it’s different and some people like their food to have enough salt all the time. I am trying to decrease my salt consumption by adding less and less each time, and after tasting the final ready-cooked dish I can always add a little extra if needed so. Feel free to bump the salt to 2 tsp to be sure.
- Thyme – sub to dried rosemary or add few fresh sprigs to the mix (just be careful and remove them when serving). Or if you not feeling the herbs, simply leave them out, but they add a little twist to the traditional potato au gratin recipe.
- Paprika – sprinkle the smoked or regular paprika powder over the potatoes just before adding the sauce.
- Toppings – if you in the mood, sprinkle with slightly cooked bacon pieces all over the potatoes in the last round of baking, just before topping with cheddar cheese. Alternatively, add uncooked small bacon or ham slices between the potatoes along with the onion slices.
- If you’re like me and love a little heat in your meals, add 1 tsp of chili flakes to the cooked sauce, right before topping the potatoes au gratin.
Note: Nutrition information is estimated and varies based on products used.
Full Nutrition Disclaimer can be found here.
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Enjoy this easy and super creamy mashed potato recipe!