We found adding ground onion powder makes the cooking easier and imparts the right amount of onion flavor. However, you can add sautéed onions if you’d prefer.
Au Gratin Potatoes Recipe (VIDEO)
Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes are an easy, impressive Thanksgiving or Christmas side dish that we make every year. Thinly sliced potatoes are tossed in a rich and velvety cheese sauce and baked until bubbly and golden. Every bite is delicious!
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If you love Scalloped Potatoes, you’re going to love this leveled-up recipe for the creamiest Au Gratin Potatoes made with lots of melted cheese.
Au Gratin Potatoes Video
Watch Natasha make these creamy and cheesy au gratin potatoes. These potatoes are so luxurious, yet so easy to make! Here’s why you’ll love them, too:
- Gruyere Cheese – Gruyere cheese brings sophisticated flavor to this super-simple potato recipe. If you’ve never tried Gruyere before, you’re in for a treat.
- Easy Technique – Tossing thinly sliced potatoes with the cream sauce before adding them to the casserole dish allows each potato to be coated with sauce, for the tastiest gratin potatoes.
- Perfect for the Holidays – Cheesy potatoes au gratin are great to make ahead for a delicious Thanksgiving or Christmas side dish.
Au Gratin Potatoes Recipe
This Au Gratin Potatoes recipe is a showstopping potato side dish that we make every year for the festive season. Just like our Creamy Mashed Potatoes, this potato casserole is absolutely holiday-worthy, but simple to prepare, especially with our quick method for thinly slicing the potatoes (more on this later).
Serve up this delicious Potato Gratin for your next holiday dinner. We guarantee that everyone will be impressed.
General Tso’s Chicken
This is a popular Chinese-American dish that appears in suburban Chinese restaurants here in Australia under various other guises. Peking-Style Chicken or sometimes something mysteriously titled House Special Crispy Chicken. I can never resist a House Special!
It is said to originate from the Hunan province of China and is named after a well-respected Chinese military leader, General Tso.
While the accuracy of either of these statements is questionable – and in fact, rumour has it that it was brought into the US by Taiwanese Chefs (!) – what we do know is that this is one of the most popular Chinese dishes in America and it’s not hard to understand why.
Crispy chicken. Sticky, spicy, savoury sauce. All good stuff we like!
What goes in General Tso’s Chicken
There’s 3 parts to making General Tso’s Chicken:
- Sauce/Marinade – one mixture does double duty to marinate the chicken AND to make the sticky sauce that coats the chicken;
- Crispy Chicken – tossed in cornflour/cornstarch then fried in as little or as much oil as you want. No, you don’t need to deep fry for this dish; and
- Stir Fry – it’s not really a stir fry dish, but we do sauté garlic and ginger at the end before making the sticky sauce to toss the chicken in.
1. Sauce / Marinade
Here’s what you need for the Sauce / Marinade:
- Chilli – the spiciness in the sauce. I like using Sambal Oelak which is a type of chilli paste sold at everyday supermarkets in Australia but feel free to use your favourite brand (preferably Asian, if you can!);
- Soy sauce – light or all purpose, just not dark soy sauce (way too strong flavour and will make sauce too dark). More on different soy sauces and when to use which sauce, here;
- Rice vinegar – for the signature touch of tang in General Tso’s Chicken. It has a distinct flavour different to Western vinegars (it’s made from rice – did the name give it away? ) and it is less sour. Best sub: White wine vinegar;
- Brown Sugar – for the sweet in the sauce with a slight caramel note. Not loads – just 3 tablespoons. Many other recipes use way too much. This is not a dessert, it’s a meal!
- Hoisin sauce – the secret ingredient! Adds a hint of extra flavour that takes this recipe from ok to yummo!
- Sesame oil – for a wonderful hint of sesame flavour;
- Chicken stock – to give the sauce depth of flavour without using Chinese Cooking Wine (Shaoxing Wine) and to make enough sauce to coat all the chicken; and
- Cornflour / cornstarch – to thicken the sauce as well as make it nicely shiny and clear (whereas wheat flour makes sauces more opaque, like with Gravy).
