Ingredients
Scale
- 3 lbs potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4″ thick (I use a mandoline slicer like this one to do the job)
- 1 medium onion, chopped small
- 2 cloves garlic, grated finely
- 3 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsps all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 3 cups milk
- 3 ⅓ cups extra sharp cheddar cheese
- Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Grease a 9″x13″ glass baking dish with butter and set aside.
- Prepare the potatoes by peeling and slicing them to 1/4″ thick. While preparing the rest of the recipe, allow the potato slices to sit in a large mixing bowl filled with cold water. It’s important not to skip this step – keeping the potatoes in the water while preparing the rest of the recipe will prevent them from turning brown from air exposure. This step is important in removing any excess starch.
- In a medium saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter.
- Add the onions to the pot and cook for about 5 minutes until softened.
- Add the garlic to the pot and cook for about 1 minute.
- Add the flour, salt and pepper to the pot and combine with the butter mixture using a whisk.
- Cook for about 6 minutes or until everything thickens up. You may need to increase the heat a little. Also, make sure you continually whisk, so nothing burns or sticks to the pot.
- Once the contents of the pot of cooked and thicken up a bit, pour the milk into the pot.
- Increase the heat to high, and bring the contents of the pot to a boil. Stir the pot with the whisk as it cooks for about 5 minutes more. The milk mixture should start to thicken up a bit.
- Turn down the heat to LOW.
- Add 3 cups of the shredded cheese to the pot and continue to stir, allowing the cheese to melt.
- Turn off the heat and remove it from the stove.
- Into the glass baking dish, layer half of the potato slices evenly on top of each other.
- Pour half of the cheese sauce mixture from the pot over the potato slices. Try to make sure the sauce is poured evenly.
- On top of the cheese sauce, layer the remaining half of the potato slices like you did before.
- Pour the remaining cheese sauce evenly over the potato slices.
- Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.
- Place into the oven to bake uncovered for 1 hour.
- The top should become golden.
- Set the dish on the counter to cool down for about 5 minutes before serving. It’s going to be very hot as soon as it comes out of the oven, so be careful! 😀
- Sprinkle the top with some chopped fresh parsley for garnish.
- We enjoy this as a side with pork chops, baked chicken, and more. 🙂
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 15 mins
- Category: Side
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American/Canadian
