Although it is laborious to discover a Thanksgiving desk that does not have potatoes on it, all too usually which means a bowl of dry mashed potatoes or bland roasted ones. However as straightforward as it’s to mess up potatoes, with a little bit know-how, it is nearly simply as straightforward to make them one of the vital scrumptious components of the meal. As a substitute of settling for mediocre spuds on Thanksgiving, wow your company this 12 months with potato recipes like pommes aligot (a.okay.a. super-gooey mashed potatoes full of cheese), the crispiest roast potatoes you have ever had, or a good looking hasselback potato gratin.
Mashed Potatoes
Extremely-Fluffy Mashed Potatoes
If you’d like fluffy mashed potatoes, simply know that starch is your largest enemy. The key is dicing the potatoes and rinsing them properly earlier than and after cooking, which is able to do away with that extra starch and go away the mashed potatoes tremendous gentle. Even in the event you often desire creamier mashed potatoes, as I do, this recipe is the most effective for making gravy volcanoes.
Pommes Aligot (Tacky Mashed Potatoes)
If our ultra-fluffy mashed potatoes nonetheless aren’t fairly luxurious sufficient for you, you have to take a look at pommes aligot. This conventional French dish packs potatoes with a lot melted cheese, it virtually appears to be like like fondue. For essentially the most fascinating taste profile, use a mixture of Alpine cheeses, akin to Swiss, Gruyère, and Comté.
Roasted and Pan-Fried Potatoes
The Greatest Crispy Roast Potatoes Ever
We have now a number of roast potato recipes, but when you are going to attempt only one, make it this one. Right here, we parboil the potatoes in water spiked with baking soda to make it alkaline, then toss them roughly in fats earlier than roasting; the aggressive dealing with batters the potatoes’ exteriors barely, which builds up a starchy slurry. You will find yourself with potatoes which might be mushy and creamy on the within and beautifully crispy on the skin.
Extremely-Crispy New Potatoes With Garlic, Herbs, and Lemon
One of many hardest components of roasting potatoes is coping with the skins (assuming you are leaving them on). We would like our potato skins good and crispy, but they usually come out papery or powerful. To keep away from these outcomes, we parboil the potatoes in vinegar-spiked water—the acidity helps construct up a layer of starch that will get crusty within the oven—and toss the potatoes with loads of fats earlier than roasting.
Crispy Smashed Potatoes
This is not essentially the most easy potato recipe in our assortment—parboiling the potatoes, smashing them with a skillet, and frying them slowly in small batches is a minor ache. However the extremely crispy potatoes that outcome are properly value it. Plus, you are able to do a lot of the work Wednesday night and reheat the potatoes within the oven, with out sacrificing crispness.
Skillet Potatoes With Cajun Blackening Spices and Buttermilk-Herb Sauce
On the lookout for a potato recipe that can actually stand out in your Thanksgiving desk? These potatoes make a critical assertion, because of an intense Cajun-style blackening rub made with smoked paprika, cumin, garlic and onion powders, brown sugar, oregano, and cayenne. To stability out the spice and warmth, we serve them with a creamy buttermilk-based sauce flavored with garlic, dill, chives, and parsley.
Casseroles and Gratins
Traditional Wealthy and Silky Potato Gratin (Scalloped Potatoes)
That is potato gratin the best way it must be: wealthy, melt-in-your-mouth creamy, and loaded with taste. We layer russet potatoes with Gruyère cheese so as to add earthy nuttiness, whereas a combination of cream and milk slowly bubbles and cooks down because the potatoes bake. A crispy golden crust of further Gruyère and Parmigiano-Reggiano is the crowning glory.
Hasselback Potato Gratin
Keep in mind the Hasselback potato development? The pictures at all times regarded terrific on Pinterest, however the gimmicky recipe by no means appeared to work properly sufficient in actual life to be helpful. This recipe retains the most effective a part of the thought (the abundance of crispy potato edges) by making what’s basically a sideways gratin. We organize the potatoes, sliced on a mandoline, in a baking dish and canopy them solely partially with a combination of cream and cheese. That leaves the tops uncovered, permitting them to crisp up properly.
Crispy Mashed Potato Casserole With Bacon, Cheese, and Scallions
Mashed potatoes do not are inclined to reheat properly, which means you must time your Thanksgiving prep exactly with a purpose to end them proper earlier than serving dinner. There’s a workaround, although: Combining the mash with a number of bitter cream offers the potatoes sufficient further moisture to permit them to maintain within the fridge for as much as 5 (!) days. All you will must do earlier than serving is high the casserole with diced bacon, cheese, bread crumbs, and scallions and bake till it is scorching.
Tater Tot Casserole (Hotdish)
Tater Tot casserole—or “hotdish,” because it’s referred to as in its Midwestern birthplace—is nice for gatherings any time of 12 months, and Thanksgiving is not any exception. Positive, almost certainly your Tater Tots will come frozen from a bag (although you’ll be able to attempt making your personal in the event you’re actually hardcore!), however combining them with a flavorful home made mushroom sauce and punctiliously seasoned floor beef makes this model further particular.