French Onion Potato Bake is a flavor packed cheesy baked potato side. With layers of tender peeled potatoes and a creamy French onion sauce topped with gruyere it literally melts in your mouth. Achieving the rule of 3 for potato bakes by being creamy, cheesy and easy this potato bake with French onion soup will delight with every mouth watering bite.
Recipes like the Slow Cooker French Onion Meatballs and the French Onion Cob Loaf offer a variety of ways to enjoy French onion flavor.
The Slow Cooker French Onion Pork Chops, Slow Cooker French Onion Chicken and the Slow Cooker French Onion Beef are other options with different proteins.
🤍 French Onion Potato Bake
I have summarised everything that you will come to know and love (LOVE ❤) about this gruyere cheese scalloped potatoes recipe in the points below:
- Potato bake: need I say more haha!
- Simple ingredients: arguably one of the best things about potato bake is that you don't need many or complex ingredients to make them.
- Versatile: this potato bake is versatile and lends itself to being paired with a wide variety of mains. It is an excellent choice for a table laden with plates of this and that.
🥗 Ingredients
The photo below is to show you everything you need to make the recipe. Please refer to the printable recipe card for specific ingredient measurements as well as detailed instructions.
As you can see the recipe calls for:
- Pepper: salt is an ingredient in the French onion soup mix, yet pepper is not. For that reason we do add a little pepper to the creamy sauce but we don't add more salt.
- French onion soup mix: we use one packet of French onion soup mix.
- Cream: we want to use heavy cream. This is the primary ingredient for the sauce.
- Cheese.
- Gruyere cheese: whilst this cheese is notoriously a little bit expensive I think that the cost is worth it for this recipe. Its a special occasion potato bake deserving of a special cheese and the gruyere takes it to the next level.
- Potatoes.
😉 Variations
Here are my sub ins and outs that you might be thinking about as you read the post and I will tell you if I think they will work or why they won't:
- Cream: I like to simply use cream for the sauce as it is 1 ingredient and straight forward. You could also use half cream and half milk if you wish too.
- Cheese: if you don't want to use the gruyere cheese you can simply use double the amount of regular grated cheese.
- Thyme: for garnish. Other options are fresh parsley or chives.
👩🍳 How to Make French Onion Potato Bake
To make the potato bake we start by gathering the ingredients to make the sauce.
🍳 Instructions
- Gather the sauce ingredients (Photo 1)
- Combine (Photo 2)
- Peel the potatoes (Photo 3)
- Slice the potatoes (Photo 4)
Pour the cream into a large jug then add the French onion soup mix and black pepper. Stir to combine then set aside.
Next use a vegetable peeler and cutting board to peel each of the potatoes.
Once done either use a mandolin (thin vegetable slicer) or sharp knife to thinly slice the potatoes.
- Grease the baking dish (Photo 5)
- Add the potatoes (Photo 6)
- Pour over the sauce (Photo 7)
- Cover and bake (Photo 8)
Next spray a large baking dish with olive oil or cooking spray. Then add the sliced potatoes like you see in the photos above.
Once done pour the cream sauce over the top of the potato slices then cover the baking dish with a layer of aluminum foil.
Now place the potatoes into the oven (middle shelf) and let them bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour.
Once this initial cook time is up use oven mitts to remove the potato bake, place it onto a heatproof surface and discard the foil.
- Remove potatoes and discard foil (Photo 9)
At this point the dish will be looking like the photo above.
Now sprinkle the layer of grated cheese over the top of the potatoes like you see in the photo below.
- Add the cheese (Photo 10)
Then sprinkle the grated gruyere over the top like you see in the photo below.
- Add gruyere (Photo 11)
Now place the potato bake (uncovered) back into the oven and let it cook for a further 15 to 20 minutes. During this time the cheese will melt and you want some little golden brown bits on the surface.
Once the potato bake has fully cooked, use your oven mitts to remove it from the oven, place it onto a heatproof surface and then let it sit for 10 minutes (this will settle the bubbles) before serving.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
So this is a side dish, definitely not a main and the good thing about that is that it works alongside so many other dishes!
Try it with the Greek Ribs, Thyme Roast Chicken, Pulled Lamb Shoulder or Slow Cooker Coke Pulled Pork.
Or some other options are on the side of the Marinated Lamb Ribs, Beef Ribs, Chicken Ribs or the Slow Cooker Dry Rub Ribs.
Dish it up with the Crumbed Lamb Cutlets, Slow Cooker Pork Belly, Slow Cooker Stuffed Pork Tenderloin, Honey Soy Pork Ribs or the Sticky Pork Rashers.
Here I serve it with a chicken couscous salad and every single bite is serious delicious!
👍 How to Guide
How to Store
If you have leftovers you can keep them in the baking dish, cover with foil and refrigerate them to use at your next meal. Or you can transfer these to an air tight container with lid and refrigerate.
How to Reheat
Transfer leftover potato bake into a bowl and cover with cling wrap. Reheat on high in the microwave for 1-3 minutes until warmed through.
How To Freeze
It is not recommended to freeze this dish. The potato bake is best cooked and consumed or leftovers reheated.
💡 Tasty Tips
Here are my top tips and tricks that I want to share with you so that you master the recipe from the get go:
- Potatoes: these days I lean more towards using a knife to slice the potatoes thinly than a mandolin. It involves less cleaning up and I find the results are much the same. As much as it is a good to aim for consistently sliced potatoes we are cooking them for a decent period of time. This means than even the odd thicker sliced bit will still cook through.
- Gruyere: I use a food processor with the shred blade to grate this.
- Baking dish: you will find that liberally greasing the baking dish with olive oil spray will help to have less cheese and potatoes stick. The dish will also be easier to clean up once empty.
- Cook time: if you are unsure if your potatoes are cooked through when you remove them from the oven you can take a skewer and insert it directly into the top of them. It should go straight through with ease. We are also cooking the potatoes in 2 time frames ie without the cheese and then with it so if they are a tiny bit firm after the 1st cook time is up they will still soften further in the 2nd cook time when we melt the cheese.
- Love potato bakes? Then you might like the Creamy Garlic Potatoes, Potato And Onion Bake, Potato And Broccoli Bake, Potato And Sweet Potato Bake, Potato And Cauliflower Bake or the Potato And Ham Bake.
🤓 French Onion Potato Bake FAQ's
This depends on the taste and texture you want for the dish. Whilst it is not essential to peel the potatoes you often get better results with a more melt in your mouth texture if you do peel the potatoes before layering them.
Place the covered potato bake in the oven for the initial cook time and bake for 1 hour. Then remove the aluminum foil, top with cheese and return to the oven uncovered for the final 20 minutes.
Gruyere cheese is a Swiss cheese made from cow's milk. It is pale yellow in color and firm. It is commonly used in French onion soup, or in croque-monsieur, which is a traditional and highly popular French ham and cheese sandwich that is toasted.
😍 More Easy Side Recipes
If you love the sides more than the main dish I hear you! In which case it is a good idea to have plenty of options up your sleeve to keep the dishes on the table varied with different flavor profiles. Try these next time you are entertaining.
- Bread sides: Tortilla Garlic Bread, Slow Cooker Cheese And Bacon Bread, Tortilla Garlic Bread.
- Other types of potato dishes: Skin on Roast Potatoes, Garlic Butter Potatoes, Duck Fat Roast Potatoes,
- Non potato sides: Caramelised Fennel, Microwave Coconut Rice, Quick Caramelised Onions, Brown Rice Fried Rice.
- Mushrooms: Crumbed Mushrooms, Air Fryer Breaded Mushrooms.
It is time to get our French onion potato bake on my friend! You can also find all of my side dishes or roast potato sides in the one place.
Adrianne
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📖 Recipe
French Onion Potato Bake
Ingredients
Cream Sauce
- 2 cups/500ml heavy cream Note 1
- 1 packet French onion seasoning Note 2
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Potatoes
- 2 kg/ 4.4 pounds potatoes Note 3
Cheese Topping
- 1 cup colby cheese grated, Note 4
- 150 grams/1 ½ cups gruyere cheese grated, Note 5
Instructions
- Preheat the oven: preheat the oven to 180°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5.
- Sauce: add the cream, French onion soup mix and black pepper to a large jug, whisk to combine then set aside.
- Potatoes: use a vegetable peeler and chopping board to peel each potato. Then use a mandolin (thin vegetable slicer) or sharp knife to slice each potato into thin peices.
- Baking dish: liberally spray a large baking dish with cooking spray. Cover the base and spray up the sides.
- Potato slices: next place the slices of potatoes into the greased baking dish. Spread them out so that the slices don't stick together and are layered on top of each other across the baking dish.
- Sauce and bake: now pour the combined sauce over the potato slices and then cover the dish with aluminum foil. Place the covered potato bake into the oven (middle shelf) and let the potatoes cook for 55 minutes to 1 hour.
- Cheese topping: once the initial cook time is up, use oven mitts to remove the baking dish from the oven, set it on a heatproof surface and discard the foil. Sprinkle the colby cheese over the top to form a layer. Then sprinkle the gruyere cheese over that layer of cheese. Return the dish to the oven (uncovered, middle shelf) and let the cheese melt for 15 to 20 minutes.
- To serve: once the cheese has melted with some golden brown spots visible, use the oven mitts to remove the baking dish and set it on a heatproof surface. Let it rest for 10 minutes then garnish with thyme leaves and serve.
Video
Notes
- Note 1 - Cream: most supermarkets will sell a 600ml bottle of heavy cream. This is just a little over 2 cups. You can simply use this amount if you get that size and not worry about having 100ml leftover with no purpose for it.
- Note 2: French onion soup mix: this will be in the supermarket aisle where the dried beans and pulses are. It is around $1.50 for a packet which is 40 grams. It is excellent as a way to add flavor to recipes and is so convenient that you simply tear open the packet and pour it into the cream.
- Note 3 - Potatoes: I use a large 2kg bag of white washed potatoes. I find that with a large baking dish I can fit the full 2kg or 4.4 pounds into it (with a tiny room on top to spare).
- Note 4 - Cheese: you don't have to use 'colby cheese'. You can use your favorite type of grated cheese be it tasty, cheddar cheese or a cheese blend with parmesan, mozzarella and pecorino.
- Note 5 - Gruyere cheese: I buy this from my local supermarket. There is it sold as a 150 gram block. This is expensive as it costs around $10.50 for that however, I really think it delivers when it comes to flavor. It can be crumbly and a little tricky to grate with a box grater so I put it through my food processor with the shred blade. That way there is very little of the block that doesn't get finely shredded.
Rebecca says
Yes please! These sound delicous.