Loaded Au Gratin Potatoes
These Loaded Au Gratin Potatoes are a cheesy, creamy au gratin potatoes recipe filled with sour cream, cheddar cheese, and bacon. Everything you love in a loaded baked potato turned into a delicious potatoes au gratin recipe.
These easy Loaded Au Gratin Potatoes take a classic au gratin potato recipe and add our two favorite things, cheese and bacon. It’s a simple potato recipe that is great for easy weeknight dinners or holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.
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What is the difference between Au gratin and Scalloped potatoes?
The big difference between the two dishes is the cheese. “Au gratin” by definition means covered with breadcrumbs or cheese and then baked until brown whereas scalloped potatoes are baked in a creamy sauce and topped with breadcrumbs. Both are delicious!
How to Make Loaded Au Gratin Potatoes:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Grease a 2-qt. baking dish with butter.
- Peel russet potatoes and use a mandolin to slice the potatoes into 1/8 inch slices.
- In a large bowl whisk together the heavy cream, and flour.
- Add sour cream, garlic, salt, and pepper, mixing thoroughly.
- Arrange ⅓ of the potatoes slices in the bottom of the casserole dish, overlapping the edges.
- Pour 1/3 of the mixture over them, then sprinkle 1/3 of the bacon and ⅓ of the sharp cheddar cheese on top.
- Repeat this step to make a second layer.
- For the final layer arrange potato slices and cover with last ⅓ of the liquid. Keep last ⅓ of cheese and bacon in reserve.
- Cover dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Then uncover dish and continue baking for 20 minutes.
- In the last 10 minutes add cheese and bacon to the top of the potatoes. Continue baking for 10 more minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
- Garnish with chives
Do the Potatoes Really Need to Be Sliced That Thin?
The trickiest part of making au gratin potatoes is making sure the potatoes cook all the way through. No one wants a little crunch when they bite into a forkful of cheesy potatoes!
I have experimented with slicing the potatoes 1/4 inch thick and 1/8 inch thick and the thinner potato slices bakes more evenly and faster than the 1/4 inch potato slices. That why for this recipe I strongly recommend using a mandolin to quickly slice your potatoes into 1/8 inch slices.
IF you don’t have a mandolin and you want to slice them by hand you can slice them into 1/4 inch slices. If you do this you’ll want to bring a pot of salted water to a boil and carefully drop the slices into the boiling water to let them cook for 3-4 minutes until they are slightly softened (this is called par-boiling). Then drain the water and pat them dry before continuing on with the recipe as it is written.
Want More Easy Potato Recipes?
- Duchess Potatoes
- Not Your Mom’s Mashed Potatoes
- Everything Bagel Fingerling Potatoes
- Foil Packet Garlic Potatoes
- Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
- Roasted Ranch Potatoes
- Fully Loaded Hassleback Potatoes
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Loaded Au Gratin Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 large Russet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch slices
- 2 tablespoons Butter, softened
- 1 cup Heavy cream
- 1 cup Sour cream
- 2 tablespoons Flour
- 1 clove Garlic, finely minced
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Pepper
- 1 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
- 9 slices Cooked bacon
- 1 teaspoon Chives
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Grease a 2-qt. casserole dish with butter.
- Peel and use a mandolin to slice the potatoes into 1/8 inch slices.
- In a large bowl whisk together the heavy cream, and flour.
- Add sour cream, garlic, salt, and pepper, mixing thoroughly.
- Arrange ⅓ of the potatoes slices in the bottom of the casserole dish, overlapping the edges.
- Pour 1/3 of the mixture over them, then sprinkle 1/3 of the bacon and ⅓ of the cheese on top.
- Repeat this step to make a second layer.
- For the final layer arrange potato slices and cover with last ⅓ of the liquid. Keep last ⅓ of cheese and bacon in reserve.
- Cover dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Then uncover dish and continue baking for 20 minutes.
- In the last 10 minutes add cheese and bacon to the top of the potatoes.
- Let dish cool for 10 minutes before serving.
- Garnish with chives
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published on November 15, 2016. It was republished with updated photos on November 15, 2019.
This looks amazing! I definitely will not settled for just baked potatoes any more! YUM! {client}
This looks so good! I will admit it’s easy to get stuck using the same potato recipes over and over. I’m excited to try this one out! Besides, bacon and cheese…I’m there!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Shonee
http://www.hawthorneandmain.com
Thanks Shonee!
This looks so yummy! Thanks for sharing!
Please review the salt (and maybe pepper) measurement. I followed this exactly and when I measured out the salt, I thought “Hmmm this seems like an awful lot of salt.” but I just went with it and made sure I was using the correct measurement. Whoa! It was awful. Wayyyyyyy too much salt, it couldn’t be redeemed or ate 🙁 Otherwise it would have been very good. Everyone has different tastes, but I just can’t believe the salt quantity was correct. Typo?
Thanks so much for the feedback! You are right, I copied it down wrong. That’s what happens when you test recipes all day. I used 2, 1/4 tsp of salt not 2 tsp. I’m so sorry you had to try that! I’ve updated the recipe.
You hit the nail on the head! Au gratin potatoes ARE my favorite, even besting macaroni and cheese. Lovely site
Me too…though I do love some good Mac and cheese :). Sour cream and bacon put these potatoes over the top!
We had the same problem. The flavor is good, but the bake time is inaccurate.
I followed the directions to a T, but my potatoes were still raw.
Thanks for letting us know. We didn’t have that problem but we will take another look at the recipe.
The ONLY thing I am going to change is to buy a block of cheese & shred myself. The pre-packaged shredded cheese is coated in wax to help prevent it from clumping. Yuck!
I hope you like it as much as we did!
It is au gratin season, isn’t it? I’ve already offered to make a batch for an upcoming dinner party. I like the photos showing how easy it is to make. Thank for the inspiration!
We love au gratin season!
I made this for Easter dinner and all 4 families that came together absolutely loved it. Definitely a keeper in my book.
We love hearing that our recipes are loved by all! Thanks for letting us know.
Making this for Christmas dinner. Can it be made a day in advance?
Haven’t tried making it ahead but I think it should be okay then just reheat it day of.
These potatoes were fabulous. Thanks so much for sharing your delicious recipe.
I have mine baking now. I had to DBL the sauce recipe and I would have added about 3 more slices of bacon making it 4 per layer but I gave the kids the reserve. Lol thinking salt and pepper we’re not enough but didn’t want to over do just to be safe. Can’t wait to try it though.
Just a couple of things. I had to use a 9 x 13 pan. Your recipe says only 9 and I didn’t want anyone to think 9 square or round pan would be big enough. You have prep time as 15 minutes. Took me almost an hour when you include the time to peel and slice the potatoes. But, it wasn’t wasted since I also cooked the bacon during that time. Also, if you use the extra large russet potatoes, you only need 2 of them.
I made this for an Easter dinner and everyone loved it. It’s rich, delicious, beautiful and everyone wanted the recipe. I prepared it in the morning and cooked it for 60 minutes in my oven (saw the comments about some of it being raw. As long as it’s covered with foil, you can cook it a longer). I then took it to my brother’s for our Easter dinner (2 hours away). We put it in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, uncovered, with the last layer of cheese and bacon. Worked out very well.
I am not a good cook, but this really worked. Great recipe.
I realized after typing this I actually made a lot of changes due to the circumstances. Everything worked out and was delicious That’s the sign of a good recipe!
Sounds like you are a great cook to me :). Thanks so much for taking the time to let us know the changes you made that helped it turn out so well. Hope you had a very happy Easter !
Hi. Can I make this and freeze? Would I bake it before freezing?
Hi Paula, I have never tried freezing this and I’m not sure how well it would work. If you try it I would definitely bake it before freezing it.
Recipe is really tasty! It took 65 minutes to bake covered in a 9 x 9. I’d recommend a 9 x13 instead.
Pleas add to the cook time, my potatoes were still very crunchy after baking.
Excellent recipe! Enjoyed by all. I parcooked my potatoes just to make sure they where done…only change I made.