Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes Recipe On a Sheet Pan
Senior Editor & Writer
Nicholetta Bokolas
Award-winning food blogger and writer sharing simple recipes, good food, and the stories that come with them.
If there is a pan of lasagna, pizza or basically anything covered in cheese in front of me, I am ALWAYS going for the crispy edge piece. Give me all those browned, cheesy edges! So when I made this homemade cheesy scalloped potatoes recipe on a sheet pan instead of in a traditional casserole dish, I knew immediately it was going to be my kind of potato recipe.
And honestly, these are SO GOOD. You still get everything you want from homemade scalloped potatoes — tender Yukon Gold potatoes, a rich creamy sauce and lots of cheese — but because everything is spread out on a sheet pan, you get so much more of that golden, crispy top and those amazing edges.
When we made these with the East Coast Kitchen team, we practically ate the entire pan ourselves. That should tell you everything you need to know.
At a Glance
- Extra crispy: The sheet pan gives you way more golden, cheesy edges than a deep casserole dish.
- Three cheeses: Gruyère, old white cheddar and Romano make these potatoes ridiculously flavourful.
- No roux required: There’s no flour or butter-based roux to make. The heavy cream goes straight over the potatoes.
- Thin potatoes are key: I really recommend using a mandoline to get consistent ⅛-inch slices.
- Holiday-ready: This is such a crowd-pleasing side dish for Christmas, Thanksgiving or any big family dinner.
- About 1 hour: Give yourself roughly 15 minutes to prep, 40–45 minutes to bake and 10 minutes for the potatoes to rest.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup shredded Gruyère cheese
- 1 cup shredded old white cheddar cheese
- ⅓ cup freshly grated Romano cheese
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes scrubbed and cut into ⅛-inch thick slices
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Lightly grease a large rimmed baking sheet with oil or nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the shredded Gruyère, old white cheddar and freshly grated Romano. Set aside.
- Add the heavy cream, garlic, thyme, Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper to a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat and simmer for about 2 minutes, allowing the garlic and thyme to flavour the cream. Remove from the heat.
- Arrange half of the sliced Yukon Gold potatoes on the prepared baking sheet—slightly overlapping. Sprinkle half of the cheese mixture evenly over the potatoes.
- Arrange the remaining potatoes over the cheese in another overlapping layer. Slowly pour the warm cream mixture evenly over the potatoes.
- Cover the baking sheet tightly with foil and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are beginning to become tender.
- Carefully remove the foil and sprinkle the remaining cheese mixture evenly over the potatoes.
- Return the pan to the oven, uncovered, for another 20–25 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the cheese is bubbling and golden brown.
- Let the scalloped potatoes rest for 10 minutes before serving. Finish with chopped fresh chives.
- Don’t forget to rate this recipe and leave a comment!
Why Make This Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes Recipe on a Sheet Pan?
For me, it’s all about the ratio of creamy potatoes to crispy cheese.
Traditional cheesy scalloped potatoes are usually baked in a deeper casserole dish. Delicious, absolutely. But most of the potatoes are tucked underneath the surface, which means only that top layer gets really golden.
Spreading the layers of potatoes across a large sheet pan changes that.
There’s more surface area exposed to the heat of the oven, which means more bubbling cheese, more browning and WAY more crispy edges. The potatoes are also sliced very thin, so you’re not waiting forever for the middle of a deep casserole to cook.
You get tender potatoes underneath and that cheesy crust I’m always trying to steal from everyone else on top.
The Mandoline Really Matters For This Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes Recipe
If there’s one piece of equipment I really want you to use for this homemade scalloped potato recipe, it’s a mandoline.
The Yukon Gold potatoes need to be sliced about ⅛-inch thick, but just as important as getting them thin is getting them even.
If you have some thick slices and some paper-thin slices, they aren’t going to cook at the same rate. Uniform slices mean the entire sheet pan becomes tender at roughly the same time.
Those really thin slices also allow some of the edges to get beautifully crisp once the foil comes off.
Just please use the hand guard that comes with your mandoline. Those blades are no joke!
Why I Use Yukon Gold Potatoes
I love Yukon Golds — or other yellow potatoes — for this dish because they have such a naturally creamy texture and buttery flavour.
You’ll see plenty of scalloped potato recipes made with russet potatoes, and russets can absolutely be used for scalloped potatoes. They’re starchier and will absorb more of the sauce. For this particular recipe, though, I prefer the texture of Yukon Golds and the way the thin slices hold together on the sheet pan.
There’s also no need to peel them. I give the potatoes a good scrub and slice them with the skins on, which makes prep that much easier.
Three Cheeses Are Better Than One
There is A LOT of flavour happening in the cheese mixture, and each cheese is doing something a little different.
Gruyère: This is such a good melting cheese. It gives the potatoes that nutty, rich flavour and beautiful gooey texture.
Old white cheddar cheese: I like an old cheddar here because it brings a sharper flavour that can stand up to the heavy cream.
Romano: Freshly grated Romano is salty and punchy, so a little goes a long way. It finishes off the cheese mixture without making the dish feel one-note.
Grating the cheese yourself is worth the extra few minutes. It melts much more smoothly than many pre-shredded cheeses.
No Roux, No Flour, No Fuss
One thing I really like about this homemade scalloped potato recipe is that you don’t need to stand over the stove making a traditional creamy sauce with butter and flour.
Instead, I gently heat the heavy cream with garlic, fresh thyme, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. That gives the garlic and thyme a chance to flavour the cream before it gets poured over the potatoes.
The Dijon is subtle. You’re not going to eat these and think “mustard,” but it gives that rich cream and cheese a little extra depth.
It’s simple, but SO flavourful.
Tips and Tricks for Crispy Scalloped Potatoes
Don’t eyeball the potato thickness. I know I keep saying it, but ⅛ inch really does matter. A mandoline makes this so much easier.
Overlap the potatoes slightly. You want nice, even layers of potatoes rather than piles of slices. This helps everything cook evenly.
Cover them for the first bake. The foil traps steam and helps those thin potatoes become tender before we concentrate on browning the top.
Then uncover them. This is where the magic happens. Add the remaining cheese and put the pan back into the hot oven uncovered so that cheese can bubble, brown and crisp.
Let them rest. I know you’re going to want to dive in immediately — I did too — but give them about 10 minutes. The cream settles and thickens a little as the potatoes rest, making them much easier to serve.
Can I Substitute the Cheese?
Yes, although I really love this exact combination.
If you’re making substitutions, think about how the cheese melts and how strong it is. You want a good melting cheese for that bubbly top, balanced with something sharper or saltier for flavour.
Whatever you choose, I would stick fairly close to the total quantity of cheese in the original recipe so you don’t dramatically change the balance between the potatoes, cream and cheese.
If you’re in full potato-side-dish mode, twice baked potatoes are another great option, especially when you want something you can prep ahead.
Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes Recipe: FAQ
Can I make cheesy scalloped potatoes ahead of time?
You can do some of the prep ahead, but I think these are at their absolute best straight from the oven after that final uncovered bake. The whole point of making them on a sheet pan is getting those crispy edges, and reheating can soften them.
Do I have to peel Yukon Gold potatoes?
No. I leave the skins on. Just scrub the potatoes really well before slicing them.
Why are my scalloped potatoes still hard?
The most likely culprit is the thickness of your potato slices. If the slices are thicker than ⅛ inch, they will need longer to become tender. This is exactly why I recommend a mandoline for this recipe.
Can I use russet potatoes instead?
Russets are commonly used in homemade scalloped potatoes and can work, but I prefer Yukon Gold potatoes here. They have a naturally creamy texture and hold their shape nicely in those thin sheet-pan layers.
How do I know when scalloped potatoes are done?
The potatoes should be completely tender when pierced with a knife, and the cheese should be melted, bubbling and golden brown. If the potatoes still have resistance, give them a little more time in the oven.
What goes with cheesy scalloped potatoes?
These are definitely a rich side dish, so I love them as part of a holiday meal alongside roast beef, turkey or chicken and some simple vegetables or a fresh salad.
Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes Recipe: The Potato Dish I’m Going for First
There are plenty of things I love on a holiday table, but put a pan of crispy, cheesy potatoes in front of me and I already know what I’m reaching for first.
I especially love that this cheesy scalloped potatoes recipe takes something really classic and changes just one thing — the pan — to give you a completely different result. You still get the creamy, decadent centre of traditional scalloped potatoes, but now there are golden, cheesy edges everywhere.
And really, isn’t that the part everyone wants anyway?
You should make these. They’re excellent.
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Nicholetta Bokolas
Nicholetta is an award-winning food blogger and writer whose work lives at the intersection of food and story. She shares simple, approachable recipes inspired by the flavours she grew up with, grounded in the belief that good food should never be too complicated. She is currently writing a food memoir that traces her grandmother’s journey from Greece to Canada, and the recipes that carried her through building a new life and a successful restaurant. A lifelong home cook, Nicholetta is most at home in the kitchen, cooking for the people she loves and gathering around a table where food is as much about connection as it is about what’s on the plate.
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