The Very Best Potato Gratin

Potato gratin is one of those

incredibly comforting dishes that every holiday cook

should have in their arsenal.

Everyone loves it, it's creamy and cheesy

and delicious, and that's what I'm gonna show you today.

The first thing I'll do is rub the dish

with a little bit of garlic.

Rub inside all of the surfaces, around all the sides.

Now just want to butter it.

It's not a low-fat dish, but, the holidays, so--

The next step is to assemble my cream mixture,

2 1/2 cups of heavy cream,

kosher salt,

some freshly ground black pepper,

four garlic cloves,

I have two shallots and thyme.

Now I'm gonna put this on the stove

and simmer it really gently.

I just want to simmer this on low

until the garlic and shallots are really tender

and they're ready to blend.

As the cream mixture cools down,

I'm gonna slice the potatoes.

You can do it by hand, a mandolin is way faster.

I don't even bother to peel the potatoes

because I kinda like the texture,

and also the look of the skins,

so four pounds of thinly sliced potato.

It's a lot, but this recipe feeds 12,

so you need it, but with this recipe

I put them in the baking dish fanned out

at an angle, and that way every piece touches

the bottom of the dish and is exposed to the top,

and that means every slice has a little bit of

crispiness and a little bit of creaminess.

We've already seasoned our cream mixture with salt,

so this gets poured over and that's it.

No need to add any additional seasoning.

I cover this really tightly with aluminum foil.

I have my oven preheated to 325.

I don't want the cream to get too hot

or over-reduced because then it can break.

Now that the gratin has cooled a little bit

I sprinkle it with three ounces

of finely grated Gruyere and then

an ounce of finely grated parm.

I'm ready to put this under the broiler,

it goes for five to 10 minutes

until the entire top is bubbling

and brown and crispy all over.

It smells so good.

The cheese, it was just bubbling a second ago.

The Gruyere got really gooey and the parm

got really crispy.

Because I sliced the potatoes so thinly,

it's so much fun to eat.

It's delicious.

Just take it with you.

Bye.

I hope that this makes it into your

Thanksgiving recipe arsenal.

So good, so easy, and it will feed a lot of people.