Comfort Food Until Inauguration Day #HashBrownCasserole

I write my blog posts on Sunday afternoons, and just so you know, it’s been snowing here in Idaho. The stillness inspired me to make a comfort food breakfast and after gobbling it up, I decided that I would make comfort food for the next 70 plus days. Until Inauguration Day.

Let’s start with breakfast. For the past few weeks, I have been experimenting with hash brown casseroles, only to steer clear of recipes with some kind of creamy soup (why add that??) or too much cheese (potatoes need to shine here) or even eggs. I don’t know what it is about adding an egg or two that made my attempts fall flat.

So, a few days ago I had a jalapeno ranch dipping sauce from Boise Fry Co. I love that stuff and the staff at the restaurant knows how much I love that sauce and always gives me enough to dip my fries and burger. I had one left over.

Ingredients

2 c Alexia Yukon select hash browns
1/3 c shredded Monterey jack cheese
2 chopped green onions
1 tblsp of lite mayo with seasonings of your choice

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, coat small baking pan with non stick spray.

In a medium bowl, add the hash browns and let them sit for about 30 minutes to defrost a bit. Then add the cheese, green onions and mix well. Add the tablespoon of mayo and combine thoroughly. Add a dash of sea salt, mix again.

Add the mixture to your pan and bake for 20 minutes, covered with foil. After that 20 minutes, remove foil and bake another 10 minutes. I like to broil at the end for color and to make it crispy.

My rule of thumb is for every 2 cups of hash browns, use a 1/3 cup of cheese. I baked 4.5 cups of hash browns this morning and used about a cup of cheese, but less is fine. And I did use about 3 tablespoons of that homestyle ranch. For that amount of potatoes, I baked it initially for 30 minutes covered, 20 minutes uncovered, 4 minutes under the broiler.

The variations are up to your imagination, too. Since my initial hash brown experiment, I have used siracha mayo, homestyle ranch dressing, finely minced jalapenos mixed in the mayo, even Tapatio mayo.

Bon Appetit!

#hashbrowns #hashbrowncasserole #breakfast