Tired of eating baked potatoes for the holidays, but still love the simplicity and ease of making them? We suggest this simple variation on the baked potato: the Hasselback Potato. It’s only slightly more trouble, but it looks as though you spent hours making it up. Okay, well maybe not hours, but it does look nice.
We decided to make these when we looked at our potato supply in the cupboard and noticed that a couple of potatoes were a little the worse for wear. i.e., they were rotting. So we tossed those, removed any eyes on the good potatoes, gave them a quick scrub and set them on the counter to dry. All the while, we were thinking, “what should we do with eight potatoes?” Mashed? Oven Fries? Hash browns? Home fries? Then it hit us. It’s been years since we made up Hasselback potatoes, and it was time to make them again. We did a quick check for Hasselback potatoes on the Internet to get the baking time, so you could say we started with this recipe.
Hasselback Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 medium baking potatoes scrubbed
- 1-2 Tbs olive oil preferably garlic olive oil (see Perfect Bruschetta for the technique)
- Kosher salt
- Freshly-ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Working with one potato at a time, place it between two chopsticks. Use a chef's knife to slice the potato in 1/8-inch thick slices, taking care so you don't slice all the way through the potato (the chopsticks will help).
- Brush each potato with oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Bake 30 minutes. Again, brush each potato with oil and return to the oven for another 30 minutes or until potato edges are crispy.
Ingredient discussion:
Since we’re eating the potato skins, we went with organic potatoes. Potatoes are on the dirty dozen list, and we don’t want to be ingesting a lot of pesticides, so it’s organic for us. If we didn’t have organic, we would have peeled those spuds. We recommend garlic oil for brushing; so, what is it? We’d made some for the Perfect Bruschetta, but, basically, it’s 3 garlic cloves simmered in 1/4 cup of olive oil for 40 minutes. Discard the cloves at the end.
Procedure in detail:
Preheat oven to 425°F. You might as well move a rack to the middle of the oven, too.
Slice potatoes (almost). Place a potato between two chopsticks; this really helps to prevent cutting all the way through the potato. using a chef’s knife, slice the potato every 1/8 of an inch, leaving the bottom 1/4 inch of the potato intact. Repeat with the remaining potatoes.
Brush and season. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the potatoes all over with garlic oil. Don’t worry that the slices are sticking together. You’ll be brushing them again in a half an hour. Once brushed, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.
Bake. Slide the Hasselback potatoes into the oven, and set a timer for 30 minutes to remind you when you need to brush them again.
Ding. The 30 minutes are up, so take the potatoes — the slices should have pulled apart some — and brush them a second time with the oil. This second brushing really help to crisp up the skins.
Bake. Back into the oven for another 30 minutes, or until the skins are lightly browned and crispy.
Serve. Serve Hasselbacks immediately so everyone can enjoy those nice crispy skins. If you wish, you can sprinkle with Parmesan cheese or top with sour cream. We did both.
We’re not sure why these potatoes fell out of the menu rotation. They are incredibly easy and super tasty. We really like the very slight garlic taste the potatoes pick up, and you can never go wrong with crispy, either. Since they look so fancy, you definitely should consider making them for the holidays, but don’t forget to make them for those not so special dinners, too. An easy five stars.