Monday, June 13, 2011

Play with it and it will taste better.

Way back on January 20, 2011 I posted the recipe for a traditional Utah recipe, Funeral Potatoes. Not having the orange variety of Cheddar cheese, cornflakes or fresh potatoes available, and being too lazy to go to the store, I decided to try a few other ingredients and see what I could come up with. I must say, it was a very tasty experiment.

Now, at the same time the potatoes were cooking, I also had in the oven a tray of chicken legs and thighs baking in my Homemade Barbeque Sauce. I removed the skin from the chicken before coating it in the sauce, so the chicken meat itself absorbed the flavor of the sauce, and the baking process actually put a little char on it. Basically, once the chicken is in the oven, just leave it alone and let it do its own thing. I baked up 20 chicken legs and 12 thighs, so they started in the oven while the potatoes were warming up on the counter, and finished while the potatoes were resting. Perfect timing!


Saucy Shredded Potatoes

Ingredients:

6 Tbsp butter
6 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
½ tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
2 Tbsp sour cream
½ cup heavy cream
2 (14.5 oz) cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk
1 cup each shredded white Cheddar cheese and Swiss cheese
1 (28 oz) bag frozen shredded potatoes

Preparation:
In a large saucepan, medium-high heat, melt butter and whisk in flour, salt, black pepper and onion powder. Stir in sour cream, heavy cream, soup, milk and cheeses; bring to a low boil; reduce heat to low and let cook for 5 minutes.

Put the potatoes into a large bowl, pour the cheese mixture in and mix thoroughly. Pour this mixture into a 2 qt baking dish (sprayed with nonstick cooking spray); cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, remove from refrigerator and let it sit on counter for a half hour. Preheat oven to 350F; remove plastic wrap, sprinkle plain dried bread crumbs over top, cover with aluminum foil and bake for one hour. Remove foil, bake additional 15 minutes; let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Mary Cokenour