Imagine this: Melt-in-your-mouth tender potatoes that are bursting with garlic and fresh thyme. This elegant potato dish is a beautiful side for holiday meals (or really, just anytime!). The concept is simple—use a mandoline to thinly and evenly slice potatoes, toss with melted butter, fresh garlic, and thyme, stack in muffin tins, and then roast in the oven until the tops are browned, and the potatoes are tender in the middle.
We tried this a few times, and we found that olive oil also works for a dairy-free version. Sweet potatoes are also quite good.
Some Notes on Tools:
- Mandolines can be dangerous to use, so be careful and use the safety food holder. You can also consider using a protection glove like this one. I used a very simple mandoline like this one. However, I really like this one that makes the process quick and easy as well as very safe.
- I use my reliable stainless steel muffin tins for this recipe.
- I love my garlic grinder too.
Note on Ingredients:
- Yes, this is a large amount of butter or oil, but you need the potatoes to be well-coated with fat to cook properly and not dry out.
- Make sure the potatoes you use are small enough in diameter that they can stack, sliced, in your muffin tins. We tried out a variety of potatoes and they all worked! My favorite may have been Yukon golds.
- Feel free to cut the recipe in half.
Thyme and Garlic Potato Stacks
PDF Printable, Serves 8-12
Ingredients:
- 3 lbs potatoes (see note above), scrubbed and rinsed.
- 1 cup butter or olive oil (if using olive oil, start with ¾ cup, and use the extra ¼ if needed)
- 1 ½ teaspoons of salt
- 2-4 tablespoons of fresh thyme (rinse, and then slide your fingers up the stem of thyme sprig to remove the herb leaves for this recipe)
- 6-8 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced
Directions:
1: Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease muffin tins (2 dozen).
2. Using the thinnest setting (1/16 inch), thinly slice the potatoes using a mandoline.
3. Melt butter in a small pot until just melted. Take off heat and cool slightly. Add salt, thyme and garlic to the butter, and then pour over potatoes and gently toss until each slice is coated. (If using olive oil, start with ¾ a cup, and add an extra ¼ cup, if needed to lightly coat potatoes).
4. Stack potato slices in muffin tins. They will shrink while cooking, so stack higher than the top of the muffin tin.
5. Put into the middle of the oven, and cook until the potatoes are soft in the middle (I check with a toothpick), and the edges and tops are starting to brown. This should take around 45 minutes, but start checking at 35-40 minutes.
6. Carefully remove potato stacks from muffin tins (I find a thin heat-safe spatula or butter knife helpful here), and serve right away.
7. For Thanksgiving, I put them in a casserole dish and covered with foil to keep warm until serving.
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For this recipe, is a mondoline a must have? Can I slice them without, if I promise to slice super thin?
You can! But they would need to be nicely even and thin! I decided I didn’t have quite the standard of knife skills needed without one.
I’ve got them in the oven now. They smell wonderful. I had to use dried thyme, and I cut the recipe by 2/3, since there are only two of us. But I’m excited for them. Thank you for the recipe and glad to hear you’re feeling better!
I hope they turned out great for you! This is our new favorite way to cook potatoes!