Did you know August was bacon month? I didn’t. Last year I had a bacon week. It was a lot of fun (with bacon brownies, how could anyone not have a good time?). Since I’ve already devoted an entire week to bacon, and I have a Pinterest board devoted to bacon, I decided to offer up another bacon recipe. This one inspired by a side dish served up at my favorite seafood restaurant. It’s called Bacon Ranch Potatoes.
This is an easy casserole to put together for a meal. It’s almost a baked potato salad as the assembly is certainly similar. Use thin skinned potatoes for this. Cut them into bite sized pieces and either boil the potatoes or roast them with olive oil and salt. Roasting them allows the potatoes to crisp up a little bit which adds a nice texture.
Figure one or two potatoes per person depending upon the size. For six people that would be about a dozen fist sized potatoes. We started out with one slice of bacon per person but after some consideration decided to add an extra slice of bacon for every three people (that’s 8 slices of bacon for 6 people). The rest of the ingredients are eyeballed like when making potato salad. It’s easier to use store bought ranch dressing, but if you’d rather make your own, try the ranch recipe in this post.
Ingredients
- 10 -12 small potatoes cubed and roasted until cooked through
- 8 slices bacon cooked
- 1 bunch green onions sliced thinly
- shredded cheddar cheese
- ranch salad dressing enough to generously coat the potatoes without drowning them
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Toss the potatoes with olive oil and salt then spread in a single layer on a baking sheet.
- Bake at 450 degrees until cooked through and slightly crisp, about 30 to 40 minutes.
- Meanwhile cook the bacon and diced it up.
- Transfer the cooked potatoes to a large mixing bowl. Reduce heat in the oven to 350 degrees.
- Add in the ranch dressing, half the bacon, half the cheese and most of the onions. Toss well.
- Add more ranch if needed and the remaining bacon.
- Transfer to a large casserole dish and top with more cheese.
- Bake until the cheese melts about 15 minutes.
- Garnish with the remaining onions.
- NOTE If cooking for a crowd, use a large aluminum pan to mix and bake the potatoes.
Your whole family will love this out of the ordinary side dish.
Bacon definitely deserves its own month. It’s a food group, right? 😉 This is such a terrific dish — thanks.
Bacon should be it’s own group, hahaha.
I love bacon – just about any way I can get it! 😀 I have even had bacon ice cream,and it was delicious! Thanks for yet another bacon recipe. Happy Wednesday, Lydia!