Boulangère potatoes
110 min · 4 g protein · 176 cals / serving
The baker's-wife gratin: layers of thinly sliced potato and sweet, soft onion baked slowly in thyme-scented stock until the stock has soaked right into the potatoes, the middle is meltingly tender and the top is golden and crisp at the edges. No cream at all, just deep savoury flavour, which is why it goes so well with roast lamb or chicken.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 lb gold potatoes, peeled, sliced 3 mm (1/8 inch) thin
- 2 large onions, halved and thinly sliced
- 2 tsp butter
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp leaves fresh thyme, plus a few sprigs
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 cups chicken broth, hot, low-sodium (or vegetable stock)
- 2 tsp butter, in small dots
Steps
- Melt 2 tsp of the butter in a frying pan over medium heat and cook the onions with a pinch of salt for 10–12 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and lightly golden. Add the garlic for the last minute.
- Heat the oven to 350°F. In a 20 x 28 cm (8 x 11-inch) baking dish, layer the potato slices with the onions, scattering thyme, salt and pepper over each layer. Finish with a neat, overlapping layer of potato on top.
- Pour the hot stock over the top; it should come about three-quarters of the way up the potatoes. Dot with the remaining butter and lay a few thyme sprigs on top.
- Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes. Uncover, press the top down with a spatula and bake another 35–40 minutes, until most of the stock is absorbed, the top is golden and crisp at the edges and a knife slides through every layer easily.
- Rest 10 minutes before cutting into squares.
Good to know
Why is it called boulangère?
It means 'the baker's wife's'. French villagers once took their dish of potatoes to the baker to cook in the cooling bread oven, often under the Sunday roast so the juices dripped onto them. Bake it under a roasting chicken on a rack and you get the same effect.
Vegetarian?
Use a good vegetable stock; it's about the same score. A splash of dry white wine in the stock is a classic addition.
Per
- Calories
- 74
- Protein
- (10%)
- 2 g
- Fat
- (18%)
- 1 g
- Carbohydrates
- (72%)
- 14 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 2 g
- Sodium
- 277 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1055 kcal goes into the pot and 1885 g of ingredients comes out as about 1430 g of food: 74 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.