Hasselback Potatoes

Article by Layla Khoury-Hanold

Hasselback potatoes make an ideal side dish for holiday meals, dinner parties or a celebratory dinner. This simple yet impressive side features potatoes that are sliced most of the way through, basted with oil or butter and baked till the slices fan out like an accordion and the edges are crispy and the interior is tender. For her take, Ree Drummond brushes thinly sliced potatoes with seasoned chive butter and bakes them in a hot oven until crispy. With Ree’s easy Hasselback potatoes recipe, you’ll learn a simple trick for ensuring you don’t cut all the way through the potato, why thin slices matter, how baste the potatoes for maximum flavor and how long to roast potatoes to ensure crispy rounds with soft, fluffy interiors.

How to Make Hasselback Potatoes Like a Pro

Thinly slice potatoes to optimize fanning. Slice Russet potatoes as thinly as possible, stopping just short of the bottom of the potato. This will ensure that the potato stays intact and that the slices will fan out into crispy rounds as they bake, making it easier to baste the potatoes during roasting.

Use chopsticks as a guide to prevent cutting too far. To ensure that you don’t cut too far, lay 2 chopsticks or wooden spoon handles side by side and place the potato in the middle. As you slice downward, your knife blade will hit the chopsticks or spoon handles and prevent it from going all the way through the potato.

Make an herb butter mixture for extra flavorful potatoes. You can brush your Hasselback potatoes with olive oil, but Ree opts to make a tasty herb butter mixture by mashing softened butter with extra virgin olive oil, finely chopped chives, salt and pepper.

Brush the tops and between the slices of the potatoes. Brush the tops of potatoes with the butter mixture. Be sure to get extra mixture on the brush so that you can angle it into the cracks and crevices of the slices.

Bake potatoes in a hot oven, and don’t rush the process. Bake the potatoes on a baking sheet in a 450 degree F oven for about 1 hour. Brush the potatoes with extra butter mixture halfway through baking; by this point, the slices will have started to fan out, making it easier to ensure that they’re evenly basted and well-seasoned throughout.

What are Hasselback Potatoes?

Hasselback potatoes are thinly sliced potatoes with an intact base that are basted with butter or oil and baked until the slices fan out like an accordion and the edges are crispy and the interior is tender. Hasselback potatoes get their name from Hasselbacken restaurant, a Stockholm restaurant where the dish is said to have been invented in the 1950s.

Best Potatoes for Hasselback Potatoes

The best potatoes for Hasselback potatoes are russet or Yukon Gold potatoes. Ree opts for russet potatoes because they hold up to a lengthy roasting time in a hot oven and their hardy skin ensures that they crisp up nicely on the outside while retaining a tender, fluffy inside. Yukon Gold potatoes are also good for roasting, but they have more of a buttery flavor and creamier texture than Russet potatoes.

What to Serve with Hasselback Potatoes

Serve Hasselback potatoes with steak, meat entrees or roasted proteins as part of a fancy dinner or holiday meal. Try making some of Ree’s fan-favorite recipes, including Beef Prime Rib for Five, Perfect Pork Tenderloin, Rib Eye Steak with Onion Blue Cheese Sauce or Roasted Thanksgiving Turkey. Hasselback potatoes go with other vegetable side dishes such as Ree’s Blistered Green Beans or Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic and Cranberries, as well as salads, like Ree’s Colorado Wedge Salad or Caesar Salad.