One of my favorite side dishes when I'm grilling steaks or pork chops is the specialty of every great breakfast diner in America...hash browns. And you know the ones I mean. A really crispy golden crust with a rich, buttery interior. But when grilling, getting hash browns cooked to perfection for a crowd is a real challenge.
The challenge lies in the hardware and location of where and how you cook these things. Hash browns need to be cooked in the kitchen in a cast iron pan and steaks grilled over charcoal outside on the deck. Those two spots are 30 feet apart and careful attention to both requires stepping over our dog (who loves the rug in front of the sliding porch door) and managing egress/ingress through that porch door (closing constantly required to keep the bugs out of the house). It gets to be a frenetic dance which I don't like when I'm cooking.
Enter sheet pan hash browns. Perfect for a crowd. Here's the best part....they only require 10 minutes of prep. Then you toss 'em in the oven and forget about them until they are completed 40 minutes later. So while they cook, I can give my undivided attention to grilling my meat (and perhaps a sip of wine or two). The other bonus....the hash browns are perfect every single time. Thanks to Sommer Collier for the recipe.
INGREDIENTS
30 ounces frozen hash browns, thawed
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 400ยบ and line a rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Pour the thawed, shredded hash brown potatoes into a large bowl. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl then pour over the potatoes. Add the shredded cheese, salt, cumin, thyme and garlic powder. Toss to coat. Then pour the melted butter over the top and toss to coat again.
- Spread the potato mixture evenly over the baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake for approximately 40 minutes. Cut into squares and serve.
Grogs and Goldie, 1956
Fellow 1970's Hoigaard's co-worker (yes, from 50 years ago), Bob Wood, asked what to do if the hash browns are wet from thawing. My reply:
ReplyDeleteIf your thawed hash browns appear to be overly moist, spread them out on a sheet pan lined with paper towels and then blot dry. For super-dry potatoes, spread the frozen hash browns out on a sheet pan in a thin layer and then set them in the fridge to defrost over night.