Hasselback Potatoes Over Roasted Red Onions

Red onions are the rack for perfectly roasted hasselback potatoes.

Roasted potatoes in almost any form are delicious, but hasselback potatoes have a cult-like following due to their simple preparation and unique appearance.  Recipes for this insanely popular dish are all over the food blogosphere, cementing their position as a classic food. This recipe for Hasselback Potatoes Over Roasted Red Onions puts a unique spin on the beloved side dish.  It’s a twofer, simultaneously producing perfect, unbroken,  potatoes along with sweet, tender, roasted red onions, which make the perfect condiment for grilled meat.

I made hasselback potatoes several times before I developed the recipe/technique for Hasselback Potatoes Over Roasted Red Onions but a couple of things about the traditional preparation always bothered me. The whole idea behind hasselback potatoes revolves around fanning out the thinly cut layers of potato, but it’s only after the potatoes bake and shrink a bit that their accordion-like appearance starts to take shape. I knew that if I could come up with a way to fan out the potato layers prior to roasting that it would make it easier to coat the individual potato layers with olive oil and would have the added benefit of roasting the potatoes more evenly.  Bending them over the rounded side of a large onion, sliced in half, turned out to be the perfect solution.

A well-known trick for perfect hasselback potato slices is to nestle a whole potato in between two wooden skewers. Your knife will hit the wooden skewers at the end of each cut thereby preventing you from cutting the potatoes all the way through. Still, unless the potatoes are lying completely flat when you cut them, the end pieces will likely fall off.  One way to solve this is to slice a thin layer off the bottom of the potato so the entire bottom surface is flat. This is an ok solution except that then you end up with random potato pieces that aren’t hasselbacked! A better solution is to cut the entire potato in half lengthwise (see first photo above). This way, it lays completely flat, ensuring perfect slices with no part of the potato wasted. It also creates a more reasonable serving size – half of a potato versus an entire one.

Serve Hasselback Potatoes Over Roasted Red Onions with dollops of Chive Sour Cream or Roasted Garlic Ketchup on top.   This dish goes well alongside any type of grilled meat but is an exceptional accompaniment to steak.

Hasselback Potatoes Over Roasted Red Onions

 

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Author: QUEEN OF MY KITCHEN

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 large russet potatoes, about 13 ounces each, cut in half lengthwise
• 2 large red onions, about 13 ounces each, cut in half with stem ends trimmed
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 Tablespoons fresh or freeze dried chives
• CHIVE SOUR CREAM
• 1 cup/8 ounces sour cream
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon fresh or freeze dried chives

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place a potato, flat side down, on a cutting board nestled in between two wooden skewers. Slice the potatoes into ¼ inch thin slices. (The wooden skewers will prevent you from cutting all the way through – this is what you want.) Repeat with the remaining potatoes.
3. Place the onion halves, flat side down, on a silicone or parchment lined baking sheet. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Cover each onion with a potato and secure it with a toothpick inserted in the middle. Brush each potato with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5. Roast on the bottom rack of the oven for 45-50 minutes until the potatoes are golden brown and the onions are tender. While the potatoes are roasting make the Chive Sour Cream by combining the sour cream, salt, and 1 tablespoon of chives. When the potatoes are done, sprinkle them with the remaining chives and serve with Chive Sour Cream.

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