Make Extra Rich Au Gratin Potatoes With One Store-Bought Shortcut

Few dishes warm the tummy quite like au gratin potatoes, that blend of soft potatoes bathing in a bubbling dish of hot cheese with a bit of savory crust on top. Given their origins in French cuisine, you'd be forgiven for thinking that whipping up a batch of them requires lots of ingredients and a complicated set of instructions. Yet thanks to the clever folks at Kraft Heinz and a little box of a product called Velveeta cheese, making au gratin potatoes becomes a simple and delicious process, without sacrificing flavor. Best of all, this store-bought addition means that you don't need as many ingredients to make the classic dish.

Three primary components give this version of au gratin potatoes their creamy consistency: the cooked potatoes, milk, and, of course, Velveeta cheese. Under normal circumstances, you'd need to make a roux of butter and flour that you'd later mix with milk to get that thick cheesy sauce that people associate with au gratin potatoes. However, the consistency of the Velveeta coupled with the starchy potatoes creates a thicker, richer sauce. 

This simple dish differs in another way from many traditional au gratin recipes in that you should cook the potatoes on the stove for a few minutes before assembling the ingredients in a baking dish. Besides helping to bind the sauce, pre-cooking the potatoes also cuts down on the overall cooking time. Traditional au gratin potatoes take around an hour and half to cook. However, the Velveeta version is done after about 50 minutes in the oven, because the spuds get cooked a bit on the stove beforehand. That's a plus you'll want to keep in mind if you're pressed for time.

Given the pivotal role that the potatoes play in this dish, it's imperative to choose a spud with the right amount of starch. You don't want one that's so starchy, that it causes the potatoes to fall apart in the oven. Instead, you want to choose a potato that falls somewhere between waxy and starchy. Yukon Gold or most purple or blue varieties work well here, because they have enough starch to drink up any extra water that may seep out of the partially cooked potatoes. At the same time, they hold their shape well, so you'll have nice round slices that don't fall apart when serving.

As for the savory elements that you're used to in this dish, it comes compliments of chopped onions, pepper, and mustard — you probably won't need to add any salt since Velveeta cheese is fairly salty on its own. Ultimately, though, how you hack this dish is a matter of personal preference, so go to town if you're so inclined to make it extra umami. If you are, then you might consider adding pepper — black, white, or even your favorite lemon pepper seasoning — garlic, rosemary, and bay leaves to bolster the savory flavors in this dish as well.

Many of us grew up eating what we called "scalloped potatoes." However, while the potatoes in the au gratin version of this creamy dish are sliced in scallops, technically speaking, it doesn't qualify as a traditional scalloped potato recipe, whether you use Velveeta or a different type of cheese. 

Both au gratin and scalloped potatoes have a lot in common — the milk or cream, flavoring from aromatic alliums like garlic or onions, and healthy amounts of thick, sliced potatoes. However, the key difference between the two dishes is the use of cheese. Unlike potatoes au gratin, scalloped potato recipes call for no cheese. (Oh, the horrors!) Opting for this version of the dish puts the flavors of the potatoes front and center — an option that might work well if you're serving another dish with a strong flavor, like a roast, which you'd want to be the star of the show.

However, if you can't bear the thought of having your beloved spuds without a bit of cheese, you still have a couple of options. Sprinkle a bit of Parmesan on top of the dish to upgrade your scalloped potatoes. This will make a bubbly brown crust on top of the dish that's both delicious and beautiful from a presentation perspective. The other option you have is just to make a regular scalloped potato recipe and sneak a bit of cheese — say, Velveeta — into the cream sauce. The exact amount is up to you. It'll be your little secret come dinnertime.