Post a Comment On: Food, Fun, and Happiness

One of the recipes that I've seen a lot in Pinterest is for Hasselback potatoes. Actually, there are quite a few versions. And they look so interesting and yummy that I had to try them.
However, making one is not quite as easy as the pictures make it out to be. My problem with preparing a Hasselback potato is cutting the thin slices that are not quite all the way through. Just guessing on when to stop is not enough. I know since I've messed up several times. Almost always, there's a piece that's too close to the edge that breaks off when I'm adding butter. And that ruins the dish and the experience.

I kept looking and finally got lucky with one particular tip and that's to use a pair of chopsticks to uniformly guide the cuts. And it works. See the pics below.

[Image]
With this knowledge, I'm finally able to make a decent looking Hasselback potato.

How To Cut Hasselback Potatoes

Here are the ingredients that I use as a guideline:
1-3 Whole Potatoes (larger ones are better) 1-2 Butter Sticks Garlic Salt Pepper 1 Block of Cheese of your choosing (optional) Topping of your choosing (Ranch dressing, Sour Cream, Melted Cheese) Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C).

Scrub the potatoes clean without peeling the skin. To cut the potato, lay it down on its flattest side between two chopsticks to prevent you from slicing all the way.

With a sharp knife, slice down from top until the knife makes contact with the chopsticks. Repeat until the potato is completely chopped up with thin slices. For more tips / tricks / foodhacks, see here.

If you have more than one potatoes, soak the newly chopped potato in a mixing bowl of ice cold water to prevent discoloration while you're working on the others. Choose the stainless steel bowl size depending on how many potatoes you're cutting and how large or small they are. I prefer the potatoes to be completely under cold water as they wait.

Prepare the potato for baking in the oven by filling in between potato cuts with a slice of butter in each. Optionally, you may also slice a block of your preferred cheese and alternate between butter and cheese in the cuts.

Place the prepped potato in a baking pan lined with aluminum foil for easier cleaning. By now, the prepped potato will arch. The easiest way for me to keep it standing up is to prop it against the side of the baking pan. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how to keep the potato from falling to its side.

Season with garlic salt and pepper.

Bake for 60 minutes.

As the filling melts, the potato will lose its arch and flatten when serving. Drizzle with your favorite topping.

I'm using ranch dressing in the pic above. But sour cream, melted cheese, Thousand Islands, and other dressing will work as well. It's all up to you.