When it comes to the holidays and cooking, it’s so often about all of the traditional recipes.
We have Thanksgiving down to a science at our house, making sure we have everyone’s favorite dishes on the table.
And at Christmas, it’s all about the snack table for me. Dinner was always kind of a rotating menu, but the snack table was the old favorite.
That being said, I think trying out a new recipe at the holidays is fun. It’s a way to share a new experience with family and friends and change things up a bit. After some looking around, I think I found my holiday experiment for the year: parmesan encrusted potatoes.
This recipe takes baked potatoes to a whole new level, and they are perfect for the holidays, when most of us aren’t too worried about counting calories.
This comes from the blog “Audrey’s Apron.” You can find the original post at https://audreysapron.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/parmesan-upside-down-baked-potatoes/. I added extra cheese and seasonings to my version.
Parmesan Encrusted Potatoes
Ingredients
- about 6 medium-sized yellow or red potatoes
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- garlic powder to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the butter in a nine-by-13-inch baking dish and place it in the oven while it preheats. Preheat to 400 degrees.
- While the oven preheats, halve the potatoes, lengthwise.
- When the oven is hot, carefully remove the baking dish and tilt it to coat the entire bottom as evenly as possible with the melted butter.
- Evenly sprinkle the parmesan, garlic powder, salt and pepper over top of the melted butter. (Use just a touch more of each of the seasonings than you think you might want.)
- Place the potatoes, cut-side down, onto the parmesan mixture, pressing them down just slightly.
- Bake, uncovered, for 40 to 45 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.
- Serve the potatoes immediately, using a spatula to cut the crispy parmesan between each potato before scooping them out of the dish.
These potatoes were almost magical. They were delicious. The combination of the fluffiness of the potatoes with the crispiness of the cheese, the flavor pop of seasoning and the saltiness—it was so, so good.
We tried this recipe out with some delicious smoked chicken Joey made, and it felt like we were having a mini feast at our dining room table. We both agreed that this was a recipe to make for Christmas this year.
The other nice thing is it’s easy to expand or contract, depending on how many folks you’re serving. Really, if you can fit more potatoes in your baking dish, you don’t even need a whole lot more of the other ingredients. Just squeeze ’em in.
I will say that while these do reheat OK, they’re not the greatest leftovers. The cheese gets a little soggy, and trust me, the crispy cheese is the best part. They’re still good as leftovers but not nearly as awesome as the first serving.
As Christmas approaches, I’ll be mixing up my annual double batch of peppernuts and probably coating something in almond bark, but I’m also looking forward to sharing a new dish with my family. For me, that’s what the holidays are all about.
This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 15, 2022.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.