Chicken & Potatoes & Bacon Au Gratin

This is one of my favorite meals.

It’s restaurant quality good.

It’s also super easy to make.

It doesn’t take a good picture though!

Maybe you should see it before it’s all dished up!

You will just have to take my word on this one.

One of my MOST popular posts is the Creamy Cheesy Potatoes.

Did you ever make these?

I thought I would show you how to take these potatoes from a side dish to a MAIN DISH!

It’s super yummy.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Start by lining a cookie sheet with heavy duty foil. Place bacon strips as close as you can on top of that foil. Place in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until bacon is nice brown & crispy. Remove bacon to a paper towel lined plate and pat away any remaining grease. Set aside.

Wash your skinless chicken breasts and trim them of any unwanted fat.  Melt a stick of margarine in a skillet or an OLD electric fry pan like I’m using. You will probably use med/high heat on the stove top and I am using 325 degrees. (I’m using margarine, because butter burns too quickly.) If you use butter, add a bit of oil to the pan as well.

Fill a zip loc or baggie with flour and season it with salt and pepper.  Toss each chicken breast in the flour and shake it around until it’s well coated.

Place chicken in skillet and brown well on each side.

Keep in mind that your can also make this with boneless pork chops as well.

It should look about like this.

Don’t throw away all the nice golden pieces of goodness left in the bottom on your pan.

Try to separate those nice little jewels from all the grease.

Place chicken and those little crispy pieces in a 9×13 inch Glass baking dish.

Peel & Cut about 4 potatoes into shoestring slices.

Think thin french fries!

I’m using this handy dandy corn cob cutter – I use it for everything.

By now, you should have your fries ready, the crisp bacon ready and the chicken ready.

like this.

Arrange the potatoes around the chicken pieces and crumble as much bacon over the top as you like.

Salt & pepper once more for good measure.

As you can see . . . I really like pepper!

Grab a pint (at least 2 cups) of whipping cream and pour it over the potatoes, bacon and chicken.

Grate about 2 cups of good cheese. I’m using Colby, since that’s about all my sweet hubby likes. Sprinkle some parsley over the top, just to make it pretty. Some of you might also like to layer in some browned onion as well. Spray the underside of a big piece of foil with pam or other . . . so that the foil won’t stick to your cheese. Cover the pan and poke a few holes in the top with a fork.  Nothing big. Place in a 400 degree oven – on the middle rack for about 1 hour or until the potatoes are fork tender. If you want the underside of the potatoes to get nice brown and crispy like the pictures above, you must move your potatoes to the bottom rack for about the last fifteen minutes of cooking time!

EAT & savor every bite!

This is also great re-heated for the next nights dinner.

Reheat in a 250 degree oven until nice and warmed through.

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CHICKEN & POTATOES AU GRATIN

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