This Crispy, Cheesy Potato Galette Feels So Fancy (but Couldn’t Be Easier)

2020 is the year that we all went home and ate potatoes. Like so many of you, I love potatoes — they’re inexpensive and versatile — but I often get stuck in a potato rut, rotating solely between baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, and roasted potatoes. 

Enter: this very special potato galette. The edges are crisp like potato chips, and the center is rich and cheesy, resulting in an elegant and delicious potato dish that’s endlessly versatile. Add caramelized onions, serve it with a side of bacon, or enjoy it for dinner with a light, herby salad. Whatever you do, it’s an easy, impressive way to switch up your potato game, and will be a refined addition to your table.

I started making this dish a few years ago when I was given a quart of duck fat, which isn’t just a delicious fat — it’s liquid gold! I usually stash it in my freezer for special occasions, but being stuck at home is hard, and so I’m treating myself and breaking it out way more often. You can use it like you would olive oil, whether you’re sautéing vegetables or making a vinaigrette, and here, it lends its irresistible unctuous quality to thin slices of potato.

If you’ve ever made duck confit, you’ll be left with enough fat to save for later, but duck fat is also easy to find and buy. That said, you can also substitute chicken fat (or schmaltz), beef tallow, bacon fat, or even olive oil. While the duck fat makes this potato dish tasty, it’s the way the potatoes are prepared that makes it truly special.

The first step of this galette is slicing the potatoes. I love using a mandoline, which creates thin and even slices and makes the process go so much more quickly. While it’s sometimes seen as a scary tool, the more you use it the better you’ll get. Most mandolines come with a slicing guard for safety and I also wear a latex kitchen glove on my slicing hand to protect myself. (You can also buy kevlar gloves if you prefer added protection). If you don’t have a mandoline, that’s okay — just make sure your knife is really sharp and try to slice the potatoes as thin as possible.

After tossing the potato slices with the duck fat and some salt and pepper, it’s time to build the galette. I form the galette like a pommes anna, shingling the slices in a rosette formation and working from the outside toward the center in a spiral (I like to draw a circle on the parchment to guide me). I lightly sprinkle Comté cheese in between the layers and on top of the galette, but feel free to use cheddar, Gruyère, or any melty cheese you prefer. Then, bake until the edges are deep golden-brown and the cheese is melting and browning in spots on top.

At Kitchn, our editors develop and debut brand-new recipes on the site every single week. But at home, we also have our own tried-and-true dishes that we make over and over again — because quite simply? We love them. Kitchn Love Letters is a series that shares our favorite, over-and-over recipes.