Slim Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
Why I Love This Recipe
Growing up an Ohio farm boy, I love comfort food of all sorts. Of course, scalloped potatoes and ham is exactly one of the those comfort foods (along with macaroni and cheese and for me, pizza). Unfortunately, traditional scalloped potatoes are a caloric nightmare. After some recent surgery, I have been forced/convinced to lose all this extra weight I have been carrying around and scalloped potatoes has been off the menu for some time now. That is why, when I found this recipe, I had to try it out. It seemed to carry the comfort food heft and taste with a smaller hit to my daily caloric budget.
While this recipe ended up pretty good, we had some trouble with it. First, although no one mentioned it in the original recipe or the comments, I believe the prepared hash browns used in the recipe were pre-cooked in some way. I decided to use regular diced potatoes and we had difficulty getting the potatoes cooked through. It took much longer to bake then called for and still the potatoes weren't as thoroughly cooked as we would like.
In the future, I would probably parboil the potatoes for 5-10 minutes, cooking them halfway before including them in the casserole mixture for baking. I have also altered the temperature and instructions of the original recipe to help the baking time.
That said, these were extremely tasty and something I would definitely make again. The flavors were strong and pleasant and while not "creamy" it certainly gave the feeling of traditional scalloped potatoes with both a crunchy top and sides and a smooth interior.
Ingredients You'll Need
1 (32oz) bag frozen SHREDDED Hash Browns (I used diced potatoes, but probably need to parboil them for 5-10 minute and drain before using)
1 1/2 cups plain Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup Chicken Broth
1/2 cup Milk (at least 2%)
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Onion Powder
1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning (I used a mixture of dried oregano and basil)
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1 cup Shredded Cheese (of your choice...but be sure it is NOT low-fat)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 lb diced ham (we used leftovers from holiday meal)
Directions
If using uncooked potatoes instead of prepared hash browns, parboil for 5-10 minutes and drain before continuing
PreHeat Oven to 400 degrees.
Combine all ingredients into a large bowl
Grease a 9 X 13 glass or ceramic baking pan with cooking spray.
Pour potato mixture into baking pan and spread evenly.
Bake, covered for 45 minutes (or until potatoes are cooked through, you may have to adjust this for your ingredients and oven)
Remove cover and bake for an additional 30 minutes until casserole is set, golden brown and crunchy on top
