Amazing Hasselback Potatoes

I have been an avid Public Television viewer since I was just 3-4 years of age. My mom would watch Sesame Street with me and my younger sister – and that helped us learn our words, spelling, counting. Well, one thing would lead to another and The Frugal Gourmet & Julia Child started filling my life. To this day, I am an avid viewer of the cooking shows on Public TV. There are some advantages – they run commercial free, so one continuous view and, if you get the right shows – they can be very informative.

The shows I like on Public TV are: Cook’s Country, America’s Test Kitchen, Rick Bayless “Mexico – One Plate at a Time” as they teach, with out talking down to the average viewer.Today’s recipe was inspired by America’s Test Kitchen – Hasselback Potato. Until I saw the episode where they highlighted the staple Russet Potato – I had to see an inspiring potato dish for a long while.

This proved to be a game changer for parties, and just a general easy to do – Wednesday crock pot assist – that will bring an average week day meal to wonderful.

Ingredients:

6 Medium Sized Russet Potatoes
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/3 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons finely grated hard cheese, such as Romano1 tablespoon fine dry bread crumbs, suggest make your own or use Panko
Kosher Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Method:

Preheat your oven to 425º F.
Peal your potatoes and place in a bowl filled with salted, cold water.
On a cutting board, cut each potato not quite through in a series of crosswise slices that are consistent about 1/8-inch apart. Make sure the bottom of the potato is not cut – they need to still be joined at the bottom.
Whisk your olive oil and melted butter together.
Brush the potatoes with the melted butter-oil mixture and place in a small backing pan.
Add your minced garlic to the chicken stock.
Pour your chicken stock around the potatoes.
Sprinkle the potatoes with your thyme, salt and pepper.
Place potatoes in the oven and allow to roast until the potatoes are about half cooked – this will take about 25-30 minutes, baste your potatoes with the butter-garlic-chicken stock mixture.
Meanwhile in small bowl combine the grated cheese and bread crumbs and divide the mixture into 6 equal parts to cover the tops of the 6 potatoes. Add this to your potatoes.
Continue to roast the potatoes with out further basting for the remaining cooking time to allow the tops to crisp on the outside and the potatoes to cook through.
This should take about an additional 25-30 minutes.