- Frozen tater tots add a crispy, flavorful topping to classic potato gratin.
- Alex Guarnaschelli’s recipe combines homemade comfort with store-bought ease.
- Leftovers reheat well, making this a perfect make-ahead or next-day dish.
My husband often jokes that potatoes are my love language. I love spuds in all forms, from toasty baked potatoes to crispy fries, and I enjoy finding new ways to serve them up to my family. But there’s a tried-and-true potato gratin recipe my kids and I know cannot be beat: Alex Guarnaschelli’s cheesy potato gratin, topped with a store-bought ingredient that really takes the flavor up a notch.
If you’ve made a potato gratin before, the Chopped judge and Iron Chef’s version will feel familiar. A gratin is made by layering thinly sliced ingredients, like potatoes, in a baking dish (often with a cream mixture and cheese), topping them with a breadcrumb crust, baking until tender and cohesive and broiling until the topping is golden and crispy. It’s a side dish best served hot, right from the pan. Guarnaschelli’s potato gratin contains many typical gratin ingredients, like butter, thinly sliced potatoes, Gruyère cheese and cream but has a store-bought twist my family can’t get enough of.
The Surprising Freezer-Aisle Upgrade for Potato Gratin
The secret ingredient in Guarnaschelli’s potato gratin can be found in your grocery store freezer aisle. Instead of topping her gratin with breadcrumbs or additional cheese, the Supermarket Stakeout host places frozen tater tots atop her cheesy, creamy gratin for the perfect crunchy, potato-packed topping.
“This is classic gratin and can be served as is,” Guarnaschelli says on her website. “I love it with an extra layer of the classic frozen tater tot on top. People just get so excited when you bring this to the table because it’s that perfect mix of homemade and store-bought. Makes great leftovers too.”
Potatoes are delicious enough on their own, yes, and baking them in cheese and cream only adds to their deliciousness. Topping said potato-and-cream dish with more potatoes, though? The result is truly a flavor and texture upgrade.
How To Make Alex Guarnaschelli’s Gratin at Home
To make Guarnaschelli’s gratin at home, I gather up ingredients like butter, baking potatoes, nutmeg, salt and pepper, heavy cream and whole milk, Parmesan and Gruyère cheeses and a big bag of frozen tater tots. I use my mandoline to slice the potatoes into thin rounds, sometimes peeling them first and sometimes leaving the skin on for a more rustic look and taste.
Once the potatoes are ready, it’s time to start on the creamy sauce. I add the cream and milk to a large saucepan over medium-low heat and bring it to a simmer, then add nutmeg, a big pinch of salt and some black pepper and allow the mixture to slowly simmer.
When the sauce has thickened a bit and has a creamy consistency, I add the potato slices to the large saucepan with the cream mixture and allow them to simmer until they’re about two-thirds of the way done, which usually takes about 15 minutes. Next, I take a 9-by-12-inch flameproof gratin dish and place it right on my stove over low heat, brushing the bottom and sides with melted butter. Before assembling this tasty gratin, I spread some minced garlic in the bottom of the dish and allow it to cook in the butter until toasted, 3 to 4 minutes.
Once that garlic is fragrant and golden brown, it’s time to make up the gratin. I start by adding a layer of potatoes to the baking dish. Next, I combine the Gruyère and Parmesan in a bowl, then sprinkle a third of the cheese mixture over the potato layer. This lasagna-esque layering style gets repeated twice more. Then, the final layer of cheese gets topped with tater tots, arranged side by side across the pan until the entire top layer is made up of the yummy frozen potatoes. All that’s left to do then is place the gratin on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until bubbly and golden.
Tips for Making Tater-Tot Potato Gratin
Guarnaschelli offers some advice to home cooks attempting this delicious gratin, most of which I follow myself. “I don’t peel the potatoes because it saves work and the skin adds nice flavor,” she says. “I cook the potatoes on the stove first, then move things into the oven. This first cooking allows excess water to escape from the potatoes. It also allows you to control the seasoning longer into the cooking process.”
“If the top of the gratin becomes too brown early in the baking stage,” Guarnaschelli adds, “cover until there’s about 15 minutes left, then remove the cover to get a nicely browned crust.”
Guarnaschelli’s gratin recipe is incredible made just as the recipe instructs. But I’ve also tried a few variations over the years, like substituting sliced zucchini for half of the potatoes or precooking and crumbling a few slices of bacon and adding them to the potato mixture. The dish works great as a holiday side, a potluck contribution or even just a weekend side for my family. And Guarnaschelli is right: the leftovers from this potato gratin are really, really good—so good I’ve been known to have some for breakfast or plan another main course on a weeknight when the side dish can reappear on my dinner table, reheated in the oven for a bit before we all sit down to dinner.
This store-bought hack for making the perfect crust atop your potato gratin is worth trying. Next time you’re in the frozen foods aisle, pick up a bag of tater tots and get ready to be impressed.
