Boulangere Potatoes
Thinly sliced potatoes and onions baked in chicken stock with thyme and butter until soft and golden on top.
Photograph credit: Potatoes boulangere, 2013-(01) by Joy · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Don't Make These Mistakes
Slice the potatoes evenly.
Do not rinse the starch off.
If your oven runs hot, check at 50 minutes in all.
Use hot stock.
How to Make Boulangere Potatoes
Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.
-
Heat the oven to 180°C / 355°F and butter a 2 litre baking dish. Layer the potatoes and onions in overlapping rows, seasoning with the salt and pepper.
-
Pour in the hot stock until it comes two-thirds of the way up. Dot with the butter and scatter with the thyme.
-
Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.
-
Uncover and bake for 20 minutes more until the top is golden. Rest for 5 minutes.
Something wrong or unclear in this recipe? Report a problem with this recipe.
Why It Works
Where does the name come from? The baker, or boulangère: villagers once sent their dishes to the baker to be cooked in the bread oven as it cooled. The dish is the same as a gratin, with stock in place of cream.
The result is lighter, with a savoury, almost roasted flavour, and the potatoes keep their shape better. Slice them 3 mm thick, and do not rinse them, as the starch thickens the stock. Layer the potatoes and onions in alternate overlapping rows. The onions sweeten as they cook and flavour the stock.
Pour the hot stock down the side of the dish, until it comes about two-thirds of the way up the potatoes. Dot with butter, scatter with thyme and cover with foil. Bake at 180°C / 355°F for 40 minutes, then uncover and bake for 20 minutes more.
The top should be golden and crisp at the edges, and a knife should slide through the layers with no resistance. Rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Leftovers, Reheating and Keeping
Keeps in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat in a 180°C / 355°F oven for 20 minutes.
Swaps and Variations
- Vegetable stock in place of the chicken stock makes this meat-free without changing the method, if that is what you need.
Serving Boulangere Potatoes
- Roast chicken
- Roast lamb
- Green beans
- Red wine
The Numbers per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
You Might Also Like
More French cooking and dinner ideas from Weekly Delight.
Pommes Lyonnaises
Sliced potatoes fried in butter and oil with plenty of slowly browned onion until golden, finished with parsley…
Potatoes Au Gratin
Thin slices of potato baked in garlic cream and milk under a gruyere crust until tender and golden.
Duchess Potatoes
Mashed potato enriched with butter and egg yolks, piped into rosettes and baked until the ridges turn golden.
Gratin Dauphinois
Waxy potatoes simmered in garlicky cream and baked until the top is bronzed and the layers have fused into something…
Pommes Anna
Thin potato slices layered with melted butter in a pan, baked until the base is golden and crisp, then turned out…
.jpg){kind=link}
Petits Pois a la Francaise
Peas braised with butter, lettuce and spring onions in a little stock until sweet and tender, ready in 30 minutes.