Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on

12 Comments

5 from 4 votes
8 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes
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Easy Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes is the most delicious scalloped potatoes recipe with tender sliced potatoes and a garlicky cheddar cheese cream sauce.

One of the best (and easiest) Side Dish Recipes for the holidays has to be creamy, cheesy Scalloped Potatoes. It’s go-to comfort food disguised as a fancy side dish. 

Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes serving on spoon

CHEESY GARLIC SCALLOPED POTATOES 

Who doesn’t love potatoes smothered cream sauce and topped with bubbly, golden brown melted cheese? This easy recipe for Garlic Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes is ready for the oven in minutes with just a handful of ingredients. It’s a great hearty weeknight casserole with plenty of leftovers, or for special occasions and holiday dinners.

What makes these Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes the best recipe is the rich, thick and creamy sauce. This is not a side dish for counting calories! The heavy cream, whole milk, real butter, and parmesan are everything you want and more in a Scalloped Potato cheese sauce. You can always lighten up Scalloped Potatoes with our variations, but you’ll want to enjoy this delicious comfort food at least once in all it’s creamy, buttery, cheesy potato perfection!

Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes are great potato dish for potlucks, made with simple, crowd friendly ingredients! Garlic replaces the onion found in many scalloped potato recipes, so this is a flavorful no-onion potato recipe picky eaters will love! You can cut back on the garlic cloves for a milder, subtle garlic flavor. Add some thinly sliced onions if you are missing that traditional scalloped potato taste.

These Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes are a delicious with comfort food like Classic Pot Roast and Ultimate Meatloaf. Make Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes for special occasions alongside other holiday side dish recipes like Spinach Au Gratin. Keep the other dishes lighter to balance out this rich potato dish and serve with Roast Chicken and Sautéed Green Beans.

The slightly longer baking time for this Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes is worth it for perfectly fork tender potato slices and thick, rich cream sauce. You can make Scalloped Potatoes ahead of time, which is great for potlucks or upcoming holiday dinners. Follow our make-ahead instructions for Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes for a grab and bake side dish perfect for busy nights.

MORE POTATO SIDE DISHES

Tips for Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes

  • Use finely grated parmesan cheese, fresh grated is best. Do not use pre-shredded parmesan, it’s too dense so it won’t melt properly. You’ll end up with clumps of cheese instead of a smooth sauce if you use shredded parmesan.
  • Keep potato slices in cold water while you prep to prevent them from turning brown. Remove from water and assemble in the baking dish right before you start the sauce.
  • A mandoline is a great kitchen gadget for making scalloped potatoes. It slices thinly and uniformly, for evenly cooked potatoes every time. 
  • For a fancier presentation, arrange potato slices like a Hasselback potatoes. Place potatoes slices upright in rows with garlic between. Pour sauce over top. When you add cheese, carefully place some cheese shreds between slices if you want.

Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes before cooking

VARIATIONS ON GARLIC CHEESY SCALLOPED POTATOES

  • Bacon: Bacon, garlic, cream, cheese, and potatoes? Yes please! Add bacon crumbles with the minced garlic between the potato layers. Top with more bacon crumbles when you add the cheddar cheese.
  • Potatoes: The best substitute for russet potatoes is Yukon gold potatoes, they don’t need to be peeled like russets, but they stay firm and fork tender. You can use red potatoes with a reduced baking time. Try sweet potatoes as a savory swap for Candied Sweet Potatoes.
  • Cheese: Try other shredded cheese on top like Monterey Jack cheese or Colby Jack blend. Substitute Romano cheese or gruyere cheese for the parmesan in the sauce, or use a blend of cheeses.
  • Au Gratin: Since this scalloped potato recipe has cheese, along with cream, it’s already half way to Potatoes Au Gratin. Sprinkle with some breadcrumbs (tossed in butter) after the cheese is melted and broil for 3-5 minutes until browned.
  • Low-Fat: Cut some fat by using skim milk, low fat cheddar cheese, and use half and half for the heavy cream. You still want some fat in this dish, so don’t use fat-free milk.

MORE HOLIDAY SIDE DISHES

Make Ahead Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes

Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes is a great potato casserole dish to make ahead. There are two methods to make ahead your scalloped potatoes:

  1. Assemble the potatoes and garlic in the baking dish and cover with the cream sauce as usual. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap aluminum foil. Store in the refrigerator up to 2 days and bake as usual for 45 minutes, cover with cheese and cook for 25 more minutes.
  2. Assemble potatoes, garlic, and cream sauce in baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes and then cool before refrigerating or freezing. The day you bake, leave for 30 minutes at room temperature. (If freezing, thaw overnight in the refrigerator first) Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes. Add cheese and finish cooking for 20 minutes.
  3. Note: For pre-baked make-ahead Scalloped Potatoes, refrigerate up to 3 days and freeze up to 3 months.

HOW TO STORE CHEESY GARLIC SCALLOPED POTATOES

  • Serve: Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes can be served at room temperature for up to 2 hours. Cool completely before storing, do not refrigerate or freeze hot scalloped potatoes.
  • Store: Refrigerate Garlic Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes in the casserole dish covered tightly with plastic wrap or aluminum foil for easy reheating. Refrigerate scalloped potatoes up to 4 days and reheat in the oven on 300 degrees until hot and bubbly.
  • Freeze: Once cooled, cover baking dish first with plastic wrap then aluminum foil. Freeze Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature for 30 minutes before reheating in the oven.

Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes in baking dish

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Dinner, then Dessert

Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes

Easy Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes is the most delicious scalloped potatoes recipe with tender sliced potatoes and a garlicky cheddar cheese cream sauce.
Yield 8 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes serving on spoon
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Ingredients
 

  • 4 russet potatoes , sliced into ¼ inch slices
  • 4 cloves garlic , minced
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese , shredded

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  • Lay the potatoes one on top of each other in rows with the minced garlic.
  • In a pot, add the butter on medium heat until melted, then add the flour, pepper, salt and Parmesan cheese, whisking well for 30-45 seconds.
  • Add in the milk, heavy cream slowly while whisking until thickened, about 2-3 minutes.
  • Add the cream sauce over the potatoes and cook covered in the oven for 45 minutes.
  • Spread shredded cheddar over the potatoes and cook uncovered in the oven for an additional 25 minutes.

Nutrition

Calories: 384kcal | Carbohydrates: 25g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 27g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Cholesterol: 87mg | Sodium: 598mg | Potassium: 541mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 928IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 294mg | Iron: 1mg

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About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. Love, love love. I made this in a 9 X 9 baking dish, probably could have used a 9 X 13, but several of my potatoes had “bad” spots. I used a garlic press for the garlic, which made it harder to spread it around, (would recommend slicing or mincing), although it was still beyond delicious and family said plenty of garlic in every bite. I also did not end up using all of the cream sauce. So 4 good potatoes, and a larger pan and you should not have any leftover sauce. We all loved this so much, I can’t wait to try another recipe from your site.

    Reply

  6. What size of potatoes do you suggest, or even better, how many pounds of potatoes should I use in this recipe? Thanks ?

    Reply