Scalloped Potatoes are an easy classic recipe, perfect for your Easter dinner, Christmas, Thanksgiving or even just for Sunday dinner.
In this side dish, thinly sliced potatoes and onions are layered in an easy homemade cream sauce and baked until tender, golden, and bubbly. Potato perfection!
An Easy Classic
Of all the potato side dishes from Oven Roasted Potatoes to Perfect Baked Potatoes, nothing says comfort food like creamy side of scalloped potatoes (except maybe creamy buttery mashed potatoes).
So exactly what are Scalloped Potatoes? Thought to have originated in England, the word ‘scallop’ is basically a definition for how the potato is sliced. Thin and uniformly cut potatoes are layered in a casserole dish and then covered with a seasoned onion cream sauce and baked. The result is this savory scalloped potato recipe!
Ingredients
- Potatoes Yukon gold potatoes (or red potatoes) have tender skin and don’t require peeling (they hold their shape well). Russet potatoes or Idaho potatoes will work but tend to break apart more (but still taste good).
- Onions Onions add a lot of flavor to this recipe and are a classic ingredient.
- Cream Sauce A quick cream sauce made with flour, butter, milk and broth. If you’d like to add cheese, remove the sauce from the heat and stir in a handful or two of shredded cheese. It will melt from the heat of the sauce.
- Seasonings Simple seasonings in this recipe include salt, pepper, onion, garlic. Add in your own favorites including thyme, rosemary, parsley.
How to Make Scalloped Potatoes
Making scalloped potatoes from scratch takes time but it is easy. While true scalloped potatoes do not have cheese, we sometimes add a little bit in!
- Thinly slice potatoes & onions.
- Make homemade sauce (recipe below)
- Layer potatoes, onions and sauce. Cover and bake.
- Remove foil and bake a bit more, this step creates the delicious brown top on the scalloped potatoes
IMPORTANT Cool 20 minutes before serving to allow the sauce to thicken.
Tips for Perfect Scalloped Potatoes
- Slice the potatoes evenly to ensure the scalloped potatoes cook evenly
- Use a mandoline to make this job extra quick (a $25 mandoline like this one does a great job and will save you lots of time)
- A roux is the foundation for a creamy sauce. A roux just means to cook fat (in this case butter) and flour and add liquid to make a sauce!
- If you decide to add cheese to the sauce (which will actually make these into Potatoes Au Gratin) remove the sauce from the stove and stir in 1 1/2 to 2 cups of cheese (cheddar/gruyere are great choices).
- Season the potatoes with salt and pepper between layers.
- Cover with foil while it bakes, this allows it to steam and the will potatoes to a bit faster.
To Make Scalloped Potatoes Ahead of Time
To make these ahead of time (and keep cooking fast on the day of serving) we have tested partially baking them with great results.
- Bake the dish covered for 50-60 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and cool completely on the counter (leave them covered, the steam will help to finish cooking).
- Cover well and refrigerate.
- On the day of serving, remove from the fridge at least 30 minutes before baking. Bake uncovered about 35 minutes or until heated through.
More Potato Recipes You’ll Love
- Twice Baked Potatoes – Make ahead & freeze!
- Easy Oven Roasted Potatoes
- Loaded Mashed Potato Cakes – Great for leftovers.
- Twice Baked Potato Casserole
- Cheesy Ham and Potato Casserole
- Baked Potato Soup – Easy weeknight meal
Scalloped Potatoes Recipe
Ingredients
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 large onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 3 pounds white potatoes sliced about ⅛" thick
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F.
Sauce
- To make the sauce, melt butter, onion and garlic over medium low heat. Cook until onion is softened, about 3 minutes. Add flour and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Reduce heat to low. Combine milk and broth. Add a small amount at a time whisking to thicken. The mixture will become very thick, continue adding a little bit of liquid at a time whisking until smooth.
- Once all of the liquid has been added, bring to a boil over medium heat while continuing to whisk. Stir in salt and pepper and let boil 1 minute.
Assembly
- Grease a 9"x13" baking dish. Place ⅓ of the potatoes in the bottom and season with salt and pepper. Pour ⅓ of the cream sauce sauce over top.
- Repeat layers ending with cream sauce. Cover and bake for 45 minutes.
- Uncover and bake for an additional 35-45 minutes or until golden brown and potatoes are tender. Broil for 3-4 minutes to obtain a golden top.
- Allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Video
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Side Dish
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What is the Difference Between Scalloped and Au Gratin Potatoes?
Potatoes au Gratin are also called cheesy potatoes because the white sauce is actually a cheese sauce (and they often have cheese sprinkled between the layers and/or breadcrumb topping).
This scalloped potato recipe can (of course) be topped with cheese or have cheese added in but sometimes I love the simplicity in this recipe without cheese. The sweetness of the onions and milk is the perfect addition to these sliced potatoes!
Can You Freeze Scalloped Potatoes?
These potatoes will keep in the fridge for about 4 days and reheat well in the microwave, oven or in a frying pan! If you want to freeze them longer, yes, scalloped potatoes can be frozen!
Almost any casserole dish can be frozen perfectly with a little know-how. If making a freezer meal, the best way to freeze scalloped potatoes is to not fully cook them all way, but leave them a little undercooked. Then, once they are cooled in the fridge, portion them out the way you want to and wrap carefully before putting in the freezer. To reheat, simply thaw and finish the cooking until the potatoes are tender again!
While that’s a great option, most often we want to freeze leftovers. In this case, these scalloped potatoes freeze well, although I do find they sometimes break apart a bit when reheated but they still taste great!
REPIN this Fantastic Casserole
Freaking amazing! I made this for a special at-home date night for me and my husband and we both absolutely loved it. I have never made scalloped potatoes before and the only other time I have had them was at my wedding, and this recipe came out even better than our wedding potatoes for sure! Highly Recommend, easy to make for new cooks.
How wonderful Leia! I am so happy to hear you loved this recipe and you found it easy to follow!
This dish has never been one of my favorites, but I was cooking a ham for an event and wanted the perfect side dish that would be familiar to people. I was so surprised how everyone kept going on and on about how good the dish was, Will definitely make this again and using the mandolin to do the cutting made it so quick to put together,
I have made this recipe many times, it is so good. How do I amend it for redskin potatoes
White, red, or Yukon gold are all potatoes with thin skins and similar textures; they can be used interchangeably in this recipe as they will all hold their shape well. I am so glad you are enjoying this recipe Carol!
I have to hand slice my potatoes, so they end up on the thicker side. I boil them for about 5 minutes before putting everything together. I also sprinkle a few bacon bits into the layers. This turned out so delicious, and it’s easy.
Made these last night. Excellent. I was at a loss as to what vegetable to use on the side so I added some chopped peppers and mushrooms to the onion and then put some leftover bacon bits and frozen peas on each layer. Delicious
Definitely the best cream sauce I have ever tasted. The dish turned out great! Lots of second helping requests.
This was really good. I scaled back the size a little and substituted garlic scapes for onions since I cannot eat onion. I added a little thyme and sage and oregano and dried mustard to the cream sauce. I also put the cheese in the layers — didn’t have cheddar, so used slices of pepper jack in the first layer and some grated Mexican cheeses in the second layer. Added the top layer of cheese in the last 15 minutes as written. I thought it looked a bit dry so added a bit of liquid; this was a mistake — good but slightly soupier than necessary. I had left over Christmas ham in the freezer and sliced that and layered it as traditional scalloped potatoes i.e. alternative potato and cheese slices in each layer.
Baked an hour covered and 25 minutes uncovered with cheese the last 15. It was VERY tasty. With the salt in the ham, cheese and the half cup of bouillon used as the chicken broth I didn’t add more and it was perfect. Really good.
I would definitely say double the sauce or use smaller pan. I just got done putting this together and was only able do two layers. I had enough potatoes and room in pan to do one to two more layers but no sauce.
There are no directions or a video showing how to prepare the potatoes for this recipe.
I know how but I’m sure there are those out there that could use some guidance .
People of ages cook.
Hi Lisa, you can find the video for this recipe by scrolling to the bottom of the recipe or clicking the video icon at the top of the post. I hope this helps!
I believe Taylor is referring to the last line under “Tips for Perfect Scalloped Potatoes”.
“Cover with foil while it bakes, this allows it to steam and the will potatoes to a bit faster”.
I do not measure and I do things my own way. For those of us like me this is a fantastic guideline to create your own version. For those of you who do measure and follow recipes, this is a solid one. Trust it. For a nice twist simply use a smoked cheddar. It was really nice! I know everyone’s taste is different but we liked it a lot.
If I were to half the recipe would you decrease the cooking time?
Yes, the cooking time would decrease slightly. You’ll want to ensure that the potatoes are tender in the middle (poke it with a fork or butter knife). They will still likely need at least an hour to cook through. Let us know how it goes!
Don’t you hate it when recipes don’t tell you the temperature to bake an item, only just for a certain time?
Hi Frank, the first instruction includes the temperature. 1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Hope that helps.
Can this recipe be cooked in a crock pot?
Find the crockpot scalloped potatoes recipe here Robin. Enjoy!
Absolutely amazing!!! I’ve never made scalloped potatoes until now and this recipe is absolutely incredible the only thing I did was add an extra garlic clove as we love garlic. Definitely recommend thank you for sharing your recipe ❤️
So glad you loved these Katherine!
You need to go back to the drawing board. The scalloped potatoes were the worst .I followed your recipe to the T…seems it needs DOUBLE the cream sauce….very disappointed….I could have WINGED it better than this.
The best I can do with a HALF 9×13 pan of dry potatoes…..try to flip it into a soup of some kind…..if you would like my photos ….I can prove this isn’t what you assured to be at all ……bummer dinner !!
How disappointing Wendy, I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you. This recipe has been made thousands of times and based on the reviews, it doesn’t appear that other readers have had the same problem.
1/3 of the cream sauce should be added to each layer so you should not have had any dry potatoes without sauce. You could certainly double the sauce to your liking.
to steam and the will potatoes to a bit faster. ?????????
We cover the potatoes to help them steam and that helps them cook a little faster! I hope this helps Taylor.