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Scalloped Potatoes

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My favorite cheesy, creamy, garlicky, always-delicious scalloped potatoes recipe.

Scalloped Potatoes Recipe

Anyone else out there still have yet to plan your menu for Easter Sunday this coming weekend?

Well, good news: 1) you’re not alone and 2) I’ve gotcha covered!

We have all sorts of delicious recipes here on our Easter section of the blog that are sure to please a crowd. If you’re feeling those brunch vibes, there’s everything from my favorite 1-hour cinnamon rolls, to the world’s best sour cream coffee cake, to a classic breakfast casserole, to nearly every way to prepare eggs, to mimosas and more. Or, if you’re going more of the Easter dinner route, our family’s favorite salad, classic deviled eggs, these perfectly roasted Brussels sprouts, an easy fruit salad, these quick 1-hour soft and buttery dinner rolls might be calling your name. Of course, carrot cake (or this vegan, gluten-free carrot cake) is also a must around here every Easter.

But the other non-negotiable for me each Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving and — let’s be real — any night of the year that I’m craving some creamy, garlicky, cheesy comfort food?

Scalloped potatoes. ♡

Specifically, these scalloped potatoes (which are technically potatoes au gratin). In my humble opinion, they are simply the best. And in the years since I originally posted this recipe here on the blog, thousands of you have also tried them and agreed! So today, I thought I’d bump this recipe back to the top of the stack for those of you who might be new to the blog and looking for a tried and true recipe to make this weekend. As someone who has made these dozens and dozens of times, I can vouch — they won’t let you down.

Scalloped Potatoes Recipe | 1-Minute Video

Scalloped Potatoes Ingredients:

The ingredients to make this classic scalloped potatoes recipe are pretty simple. You’ll need:

  • Yukon gold potatoes: I prefer these to Russets because of their nice creamy texture and buttery flavor. Be sure to slice them uniformly — about 1/4-inch thick — so that they will cook evenly.
  • Shredded cheese: It’s important to have a good melty cheese for these. I have always preferred a nice sharp cheddar (not one that has been aged, since those don’t melt as well). But I have also made these with mozzarella, gouda, fontina and gruyere, and all have been delicious. So feel free to pick your favorite, or use a mix! Plus, some freshly-grated Parmesan is also a must.
  • Sliced onion: For extra flavor. I always cook the onion in the sauce, and then strain it out and add it to the middle layer of the potatoes, so that there aren’t a bunch of onion slices sitting on the top layer.
  • Garlic: If you ask me, the more the merrier. The recipe calls for 4 cloves, but I’ve used up to 8 before. :)
  • Fresh thyme: I’ve always used fresh thyme as my main seasoning for scalloped potatoes, but you could also use a teaspoon of dried thyme instead. Or any other favorite fresh herbs or dried seasoning blends! (I occasionally love adding a teaspoon of Cajun seasoning to my sauce — it’s delicious.)
  • Cream sauce: In lieu of heavy cream, my sauce for this recipe calls for a roux with butter and flour, whole milk and chicken stock (or vegetable stock).

Yukon Gold Potatoes for Scalloped Potatoes

How To Make Scalloped Potatoes:

To make this scalloped potatoes recipe, simply…

  1. Make the cream sauce. Sauté onion and garlic in butter until softened. Then stir in the flour to form a roux and help to thicken the sauce, followed by the stock, milk, salt, pepper and thyme. You want to cook the sauce until it just reaches a simmer. (Don’t let it boil, otherwise it can “break” and become watery once baked.)  Then remove it from the heat until you’re ready to put it to use.
  2. Layer the potatoes. Spread half of the sliced potatoes in an even layer on the bottom of the pan. Top evenly with half of the cream sauce. (I usually strain out all of the onions and add them here too.)  Then sprinkle evenly with 1 cup of the shredded cheddar cheese, and all of the Parmesan cheese. Top evenly with the remaining sliced potatoes, the other half of the cream sauce, and the remaining 1 cup of cheddar cheese.
  3. Bake: Cover the pan lightly with aluminum foil and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the sauce is all bubbly around the edges. Remove the foil and bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through and the cheese on top is nice and golden. (If the cheese starts to get too brown on top, just lightly cover the top with a sheet of foil again until the potatoes are ready to go.)
  4. Cool. Transfer the pan to a wire cooling rack and sprinkle with the remaining teaspoon of thyme and extra Parmesan.
  5. Serve. This casserole is definitely best fresh out of the oven, so dive in while it’s nice and warm!

How To Make Scalloped Potatoes

Possible Recipe Variations:

There are all sorts of delicious ways that you can customize these homemade scalloped potatoes if you would like. For example, feel free to…

  • Add bacon or ham: Diced cooked bacon or ham would be a delicious addition here! (Or go for the gold and make scalloped potatoes with ham and bacon!)
  • Add greens: Fresh kale or baby spinach would also be delicious. Just stir a large handful to the sauce before layering the potatoes.
  • Add pesto: For an extra herby twist, feel free to stir 1/4 cup of basil pesto into the sauce.
  • Use half sweet potatoes: I also love making a version of this dish with half Yukon gold and half sweet potatoes. The sweet/savory combo is such a winner.
  • Use a different cheese: Mozzarella, gouda, fontina or gruyere would also be delicious in place of the sharp cheddar. Or you could also sprinkle some extra crumbled/diced brie, goat cheese, or feta into the casserole.
  • Use cream: Feel free to sub in heavy cream for half of the milk for an even creamier dish.
  • Make it gluten-free: Just use a gluten-free all-purpose flour blend (in place of the standard AP flour). Or whisk 2 tablespoons of cornstarch into the cold milk before adding it to the sauce.

Scalloped Potatoes

Make-Ahead Instructions:

Over the years, I’ve had lots of you ask if you can prep this recipe in advance — and the answer is yes! For make-ahead scalloped potatoes, just bake the scalloped potatoes and let them cool completely to room temperature. Then cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 3 days. And on the day you are ready to serve them, bake the pan covered (with foil) at 350° for 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are warmed through.

Scalloped Potatoes

More Potato Recipes:

If you love this recipe, be sure to check out some of my other potato faves including:

Enjoy, everyone!

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Scalloped Potatoes Recipe

Scalloped Potatoes

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.7 from 393 reviews
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 55 minutes
  • Total Time: 80 minutes
  • Yield: 10 -12 servings 1x

Description

My favorite recipe for garlicky, cheesy, perfect scalloped potatoes.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 small white or yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 4 large garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup chicken stock or vegetable stock
  • 2 cups whole milk (or half and half)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, divided
  • 4 pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes, sliced into 1/8-inch rounds
  • 2 cups freshly-grated sharp cheddar cheese*, divided (feel free to add more cheese if you’d like)
  • 1/2 cup freshly-grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

Instructions

  1. Prep oven and baking dish: Heat oven to 400°F.  Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray, and set it aside.
  2. Sauté the onion and garlic. Melt butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat.  Add onion, and sauté for 4-5 minutes until soft and translucent.  Add garlic and sauté for an additional 1-2 minutes until fragrant.  Stir in the flour until it is evenly combined, and cook for 1 more minute.
  3. Simmer the sauce. Gradually pour in the stock, and whisk until combined.  Add in the milk, salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon thyme, and whisk until combined.  Continue cooking for an additional 1-2 minutes until the sauce just barely begins to simmer around the edges of the pan and thickens.  (Avoid letting it reach a boil.)  Then remove from heat and set aside.
  4. Layer the potatoes.  Spread half of the sliced potatoes in an even layer on the bottom of the pan.  Top evenly with half of the cream sauce.  (I usually strain out all of the onions and add them here too.)  Then sprinkle evenly with 1 cup of the shredded cheddar cheese, and all of the Parmesan cheese.  Top evenly with the remaining sliced potatoes, the other half of the cream sauce, and the remaining 1 cup of cheddar cheese.
  5. Bake: Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.  The sauce should be nice and bubbly around the edges.  Then remove the foil and bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through.
  6. Cool. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack, and sprinkle with the remaining teaspoon of thyme and extra Parmesan.
  7. Serve. Serve warm.

Notes

Shredded cheese: As always when melting shredded cheese into a recipe, it’s best if you grate the cheese yourself just before adding it to the recipe.  Store-bought shredded cheese usually contains a coating that prevents it from melting smoothly.

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958 comments on “Scalloped Potatoes”

  1. Hi! If I wanted to make this in advance and freeze it until the day of the party, is it okay to assemble it already in the dish, freeze then bake it on the day I need it? Thanks.

    • Hi Rina! We wouldn’t recommend freezing this. You could try to freeze this but we wouldn’t recommend it because of the delicate potatoes and the high dairy content. Dishes with a lot of dairy typically don’t freeze very well and these potatoes would likely get mushy. Also, making it in advance will likely cause the potatoes to turn grey/brown, because they’ll oxidize. What you can do in advance though (if you want), is cut the potatoes up in advance, (they just need to be cooked first, otherwise they oxidize). We’d suggest parboiling them. We hope this makes sense!

  2. I don’t see it in the recipe but is that thyme I see in the photos? Looks very appetizing. How much did you use?

    • Hi Phil! That is thyme and it is included in the ingredient list, but we used 2 teaspoons (divided). We hope you enjoy the recipe!

  3. I am trying it today! I didn’t have the thyme and stock though but it’s working out :)

  4. i would use a diffeent cheese. regular milk instead of low fat.

  5. We are trying this tonight. But I am adding green pepper to the onion/garlic combo and sprinkling the top with bacon bits. Pretty much anything you would put on a baked potato will work with this. Awesome thanks for your hard work!

  6. Hi!  Made these last night for Sunday dinner. The flavor was very good but they were watery? Do you think my sauce was not thick enough? Is the sauce so thick that you spoon it over the potatoes or pour it. I layered everything earlier in the day and put them in the fridge. Maybe that was it??  But, still tasted great!  Thanks!

    • Hi Alice! We’re glad you enjoyed these but are sorry to hear they came out a bit watery. :( It sounds like maybe the potatoes got too soggy from sitting in the fridge with everything for so long. That’s the only thing we can really think of, as we haven’t had this happen before.

  7. You can’t classify this as vegetarian when you use chicken stock in your recipe.

    • Hi Jay — we state that you can use chicken or vegetable stock (using the vegetable stock would make this vegetarian). We hope you enjoy!

  8. good morning.  i was wondering if you have ever used buttery potatoes for this 

  9. Alice- the watery-ness was due to assembling it ahead of time and then refrigerating it. From the sound of it, your sauce “broke” which is a very common problem with dairy based sauces and is the same culprit to blame for dishes like this not being prime to freeze before cooking. If you want to make it ahead of time and avoid the sauce breaking, cook the dish completely and then bring to room temp (or close, just not hot from the oven) and then refrigerate. I still wouldn’t advise freezing, but who knows it could work out fine. You just want to sauce to bind together completely. It might be a good idea to make an extra 1/3 recipe of sauce or so if going this route because the potatoes could soak up some extra when you reheat/rebake it

  10. Didn’t have but one cup of milk! Still turned out great

  11. These were good. Been looking for recipes without all the fat laden sticks of butter, cartons of sour cream. Just discovered your site. I plan to save it and look forward to browsing the recipes.

  12. The thyme sounds wonderfully interesting, I’m trying them for Easter and hope the change up doesn’t throw anybody off.

  13. Can I make these scalloped potatoes in a crock pot and if so how long do you suggest to cook at low or high ?

    • Hey there! We haven’t tried these in the crock pot, but it can be done. We would cook everything on high for 4-5 hours, or until the potatoes are tender. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese on top, cover, and cook for about 5 minutes more (to melt the cheese). We hope you enjoy!

  14. Four pounds of potatoes is way too much for a 9 x 13 casserole. I’d suggest half that amount. I also added fresh nutmeg and used heavy cream. All in all, the recipe was very easy to follow. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. It’s in the oven now.

  15. Hi , making this for tomoro Easter brunch . Can I assemble today and refrigerate overnite ? 

    • Hi Kathleen! We’re so sorry for just now getting to your comment! We don’t advise making these in advance — unfortunately the potatoes will oxidize and making them in advance will cause them to be soggy.

  16. Can I put this together tonight and bake the next day?

    • Hi Janice! We don’t advise making these in advance — unfortunately the potatoes will oxidize and making them in advance will cause them to be soggy.

  17. I have never made scalloped potatoes before, and after trying this recipe, I feel like I’ll make them more often.  The combo of the cheeses and thyme with onion and Yukon gold potatoes was amazing… and I’m kind of lukewarm about potatoes :-)

  18. I have made so many different scalloped potato recipes.  I make it every year for Easter.  I’ve tried more elaborate recipes with added ingredients. However, this recipe…was nothing short of amazing.  The balance of flavors, the tenderness of the potatoes, was absolutely perfect. In the past, I’ve tried different kinds of cheeses, less cheese, more cheese.  Nothing beats this recipe.  It is a keeper.  Yes I know it is simple, but sometimes simple is best. It was a big hit. Thank you so much!!

  19. I made these as a side dish for Easter Dinner yesterday. They were delicious and I got rave reviews from my family. Thank you for the recipe.

  20. The taste was good, however, If I were to make it again I would par boil the potatoes, the reason being that although they were sliced quite thin with my mandoline, and cooked per the instructions, they came out a bit too firm in texture.

    • Thanks for sharing, we appreciate your feedback. We’re sorry they weren’t cooked quite enough, but we’re glad you enjoyed the taste!

  21. Made it tonight. Turned out great. I used lactose-free cheese and milk. I didn’t have onions so had to sub in powder. Don’t think I’ll bother with store bought again.






    • Thanks for sharing with us, Jeannie, we’re so glad to hear that!

  22. I used this recipe for our church Mother Daughter banquet, and they turned out excellent. I will continue to use this recipe for family occasions. I did make some changes for gluten free needs: used the gravy thickener (rice starch) instead of flour to thicken it and didn’t use the chicken stock, substituted plain water.

  23. I made these tonight and they were the best scalloped/au gratin potatoes I’ve ever made. I had to sub Russet potatoes, mild cheddar cheese and dried thyme instead of the original ingredients but this dish still came out perfect and delicious. Even my husband sat up and took notice and he’s generally a “it was fine” kinda guy when handing out food compliments. I can’t wait to remake this recipe again but with all the ingredients as written.






    • That’s such a nice compliment, Jen, we’re so happy you loved them!

  24. This was easy to make. I did some modifications–I forgot to buy fresh Parmesan, so I used the shaker kind you buy for spaghetti. Worked fine. It took another 15 minutes after taking the foil off to get the potatoes completely done. I did use a mandoline to slice them thin–could just be my oven. Delicious! I wanted to post a pic, but didn’t see where to do that?






    • Thanks for sharing with us, Theresa — we’re glad you enjoyed it! And in the future, you can share a pic on Instagram or Twitter, and use the hashtag #gimmesomeoven! :)

  25. Made today to have with pork chops. Loved it! Did not have fresh thyme, but still used thyme herb spice and alstroemerias added flax kernels to recipe. We will definitely do this one again. Very tasty.






  26. Heey….am trying this out today hope it turns out well?

  27. Went by this , and it was awesome cooked par cooked the potatoes with skin, then cut them much easier. The taste was awesome, we like them very much, Thank You!!!!

  28. great side dish






  29. I love scalloped and always looking for new ideas. This is the best recipe I’ve ever made the layers made a big difference with the cheese I added California blend vegetables as one layer, cauliflower broccoli and carrots because it’s a way to get people to have a vegetable and in one dish.Ibstemmed veggies before adding and was done a lot faster. Thanks for sharing!?Rosemary






    • Wow, thank you so much for your sweet compliment, Rosemary! We’re so glad to hear you loved this!

  30. I made this last night for dinner. Very good. I cut the recipe in half and it made plenty for my family. I used oregano instead of the thyme, gruyere cheese instead of Parmesan and leaks along with the onions. There are so many possibilities… Jalapeños and cilantro. This recipe makes for a good base!






    • We’re so happy you enjoyed them, Donna! We love that you used gruyere and leeks in this! And yes, you’re right, there are so many possibilities with cheese and herb combos. :)

  31. A friend and I tried making it in half the serving size and with a smaller pan. When we baked it (following the directions for the full size), the potatoes didn’t come out as soft as we expected. Are the potatoes supposed to be that way?






  32. I haven’t read all the responses and replies, do if this question has already been asked forgive me. I have a lot to do in the morning getting ready for church. We are eating at church after morning worship. I am peeling the potatoes tonight, leaving them whole, and putting in water to place in fridge overnight. Is that a bad idea?

  33. I had to share with you how much we enjoyed the potatoes. I did cheat and replace the milk with half & half plus added extra cheese. I used chicken broth I had put in freezer and parboiled the potatoes … but still cooked them the entire 55 minutes. This will be served often from now on. Thank you for sharing the recipe!






  34. My picky 4 year old daughter and equally picky husband love these! Great recipe! ?






  35. I use scallions and a wee bit of nutmeg

  36. Simply delicious






  37. I made this recipe tonight and it my favorite new potato recipe! It was quick to assemble and easy to make. Delicious






  38. very nice post thanku for sharing iwth us






  39. This was amazingly flavorful and very easy. I like using the Yukon Golds instead of Russets. A keeper for sure!






  40. This recipe is our family’s favorite!!!






  41. Yum!! We made this tonight with my two daughters helping because they couldn’t wait to try it – they weren’t disappointed :)






  42. This is our go-to recipe every year. Our family always looks forward to it!!






  43. I made this today instead of the traditional mashed potatoes with our Thanksgiving turkey. It was phenomenal!

    I followed the recipe exactly as written except I baked it about 15 minutes longer when it was covered because we like our potatoes softer. Everyone loved it. There were seconds (and some thirds) eaten.

    Thanks for a great slightly lighter version of these potatoes.

  44. Im making them right now , i added chopped cooked chicken breast in the middle layer. I hope it will turn out ok

  45. Delicious and easy. Best scalloped potato recipe I’ve ever made!






  46. I made these for Thanksgiving and they were delicious. Everybody loved them!






  47. Great recipe. I’ve been looking for a scalloped potatoes recipe that didn’t call for tons of cheese and cream. This recipe is it. Delicious and it’s true, you never miss the cream. The only change I made is I used Le Gruyere instead of the cheddar cheese. It’s a little more expensive but well worth it. Thank you, Hayley for posting a great and guilt free recipe!






  48. This is a delicious recipe. I added some ham off the bone and some hatch green chile which really put it over the top!






  49. These were truly delicious! I have tried other recipes, but none I’ve tried have compared to this!






  50. These look AMAZING! I am looking for the perfect accompaniment to our prime rib for Christmas dinner. However, the prime rib cooks at 325 and we only have one oven. Any suggestions for how we can still make these as a side – should we bake the night before then reheat, or cook longer alongside the prime rib at 325? Help!