Fried Potato Casserole – You have no idea how good this is!
Today I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner and I wanted something new. Something different. I had the ingredients to make all kinds of things, but nothing sounded quite right. For some reason I wanted some fried potatoes. But what would I make with it? I looked on the web for potato recipes and came up with some ideas – combining them all this was my recipe (that turned out great by the way!).
We’re going to make a fried potato casserole, and this is what we need to have:
- About a dozen medium sized potatoes
- Frozen chopped broccoli, about 1/2 bag
- 1 bag shredded Italian Cheese
- 1/2 pack crumbled Feta Cheese (3-4oz)
- 1 container softened cream cheese (6oz or so I think)
- 3 Cups Milk
- 4 tbsp. flour
- Garlic Powder
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Minced Garlic
Alright – now let’s get started. Peel your potatoes (or not if you like them that way). Dice them up into cubes and put in a big skillet that you drizzled with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I said drizzle – not soak! Salt and pepper them in the pan and turn the heat up to just under high. Be sure to to cover them with the tightest fitting lid you can find for that pan. You are going to fry these potatoes for about 20 minutes, and you’re only going to turn them 4 times (every 5 minutes). If they stick to your pan so badly that you can hardly scrape them off with your spatula – you pan sucks and should be replaced. I say this because the same thing happenned to us until we got a new pan. Now we make golden brown fried potatoes every single time.
While the potatoes are cooking put the 1/2 bag frozen broccoli in a medium sized bowl with about a cup of water in the bottom and microwave on high heat for about 2 1/2 minutes. Put a saucepan on the stove and add the 3 cups milk, turn on medium heat. Salt and Pepper the milk to taste and toss in the feta cheese. Also add a tsp or so of garlic powder (more if you like). Stir ever minute or so as it gets warm. Keep watching your potatoes and turn as previously described while you are cooking this milk/cheese mixture. Once the milk starts steaming stir constantly and add in 3/4 of the pkg shredded italian cheeses. While it’s melting keep stirring and add the container of cream cheese. Once everything is melted and just bubbling a bit turn off the heat and set on another burner.
About the time the milk mixture is done the potatoes should be about done. You’re going to take an extra large bowl and dump in the fried potatoes from the skillet. Then toss in the milky cheese mixture (all but just about 1 cup, reserve that much in the saucepan until the very end), and if you like add a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic on top (we love it!). Fold it all together with a big spoon. Take your broccoli out of the microwave and drain off the water. Add to the bowl and fold into the potatoes and cheese mixture.
Turn your oven on 375 degrees. Get yourself a big 9×13 pan, like the one you use for lasagna. Grease it up with extra-virgin olive oil. Toss the entire mixture in and spread evenly in the baking pan. Drizzle the remaining milk cheese mixture on top, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 bag of shredded italian cheese. You can top it with either Italian seasoning or Italian bread crumbs. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until bubbling hot.
We made our Fried Potato Casserole without any meat because we have one vegetarian in the house. You can however make this the exact same way with seasoned hamburger, chicken breast chunks, or even sliced polish or smoked sausage! This is also a great dish for pot-luck and bring a dish to pass dinners, or holidays when you are entertaining a lot of people! It does equally well as the main – or the side dish.
Got your own variation you’d like to share? Comment now!
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