Scalloped Potatoes with Kielbasa
Scalloped potatoes with kielbasa is my version of creamy scalloped potatoes – just kicked up a notch with meat… sweet smokey meat.
This recipe for scalloped potatoes is absolutely delicious on its own, but every now and then I like to add in the sausage. It transforms them from a hearty side dish into a main course. Wyatt loves kielbasa. Of course he’d probably say no if you were to ask him. We’ve always referred to it as “hotdog” to help him be a bit more openminded. He’s prone to claiming that he doesn’t like something before he’s even tried it. It drives me nuts! I’d heard that the “I don’t like that” food days were coming… but it’s so sad to see them here already. It’s especially sad and frustrating when you’ve spent time and money preparing a meal you know your kid would love… if they’d just pop it into their stubborn little mouth! Besides, what’s not to like about potatoes, cheese, and smoked sausage?
If you have an answer for that, I don’t want to hear it.
Anyway, rest assured that this is a dish that should please everyone at your table… even your pickiest of four year olds!
Scalloped Potatoes with Sausage Recipe
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Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 8oz cheddar cheese
- 12oz polish kielbasa
- 6 small-medium sized potatoes
Directions
| Step 1 | |
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash and peel your potatoes.  | |
| Step 2 | |
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I made this up and it had been a long time since I'd made these. So I had no idea how many potatoes I would need to fill my dish with deliciously starchy layers. I ended up with about three extra potatoes worth of slices. As you can see, this is by no means an exact science. But my (now experienced) guess would be about 6 small to medium sized potatoes. I split each one in half lengthwise; then sliced the halves into thin slices.  | |
| Step 3 | |
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Speaking of inexact sciences, the success of this dish does not depend on using exactly 12 ounces of sausage. You just need the smoked polish kielbasa of your choice. Here's what I was working with:  | |
| Step 4 | |
| Feel free to use as much or little of this to bulk up your potatoes. These things seem to last forever, so if you hold some back it'd definitely be tasty on a rainy day. | |
| Step 5 | |
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My family never shies away from extra sausage (or "hotdog" for Wyatt) so I chopped up the whole kielbasa.  | |
| Step 6 | |
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Heat up a skillet to medium high heat, and toss in the whole bunch.  | |
| Step 7 | |
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Toss around for a few minutes to give them some nice color like this, and then pull off the heat.  | |
| Step 8 | |
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and get ready to make the creamy sauce that really makes these potatoes "scalloped". Heat the 2Tbs of butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  | |
| Step 9 | |
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Add in the flour once the butter has melted and is just beginning to bubble.  | |
| Step 10 | |
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Whisk the flour into the hot butter. It will become a thick bubbly paste. Keep cooking and whisking for at least 30 seconds up to a minute. If you begin to add the milk/broth mixture too soon, it'll taste like raw flour... yuck.  | |
| Step 11 | |
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Be ready with your liquids. I measure the milk and broth in the same measuring cup, and then I'm ready to slowly add the whole mix.  | |
| Step 12 | |
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Slowly pour in some of the liquid and whisk. It will become a thick paste yet again.  | |
| Step 13 | |
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Continue adding and whisking until you're left with what appears to be a saucepan full of milk.  | |
| Step 14 | |
| Whisk regularly for about 15 minutes or until thickened. I know this seems like it takes forever, but that's just the nature of cream sauces. Add in the spices and you're ready to layer up this bad boy! | |
| Step 15 | |
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Butter the baking dish of your choice. I'm sorry I don't know the exact size of this one. I've had it for years, and it's the one I seem to use for almost everything.  | |
| Step 16 | |
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Ladle about half of the cream sauce into the the dish, and spread it around to cover the bottom.  | |
| Step 17 | |
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Shingle on potato slices into a complete layer next.  | |
| Step 18 | |
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Sprinkle over about half of your browned kielbasa.  | |
| Step 19 | |
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Now for about one cup of shredded cheddar.  | |
| Step 20 | |
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Repeat one more of each layer: cream sauce, potatoes, kielbasa, and cheese. Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake another 30 to 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork tender.  | |
| Step 21 | |
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Yum, yum, yum!  | |
| Step 22 | |
| It's insanely good! | |
This sounds amazing – I am trying it out for supper. I have a picky husband, so if he likes it – and I think he will, it’s definitely going into my favorite recipe collection!
Yay! I really hope y’all both like it! I love kielbasa so much… and I’m OK with that!
Mine as well so I mixed spinche red onion, red and green peppers in it just to wild the flavors
I love that idea! If only I could get my kids to be more adventurous 😉
can i premake this in the morning and refrigerate it so its ready for the oven at dinner time?
I say do it! I haven’t personally tried this, but I’m thinking pull it out about 30 minutes before it goes into the oven to help it get closer to room temp. Let me know if this works!
An update: We have now enjoyed your recipe several times already, and I am making it yet again tonite for dinner. It’s a winner with everyone in our family of four 🙂 Thank you for sharing it! ~ Ruth
We made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
It’s crazy, I hadn’t thought about this recipe in a long time and I just bought the stuff to make it this week! I’m so glad your family liked it!
This was a nice reminder of a recipe I used to use all the time. I doubled the cream sauce for an 13X9 pan. Added 6 strips of bacon chopped and sauteed, as well as 1/2 of a green bell pepper and 1/2 of a red one. I didn’t have any onions so i added some onion powder to my sauce. I had to mix cheddar and pepper jack cheeses which gave it a little zing. I used some hickory smoked links chopped in 3rds and browned. Wow, what a great taste. I did cut the potatoes in small slices as described and they did get tender fairly fast. I didn’t have a lot of milk so I used evaporated milk. Everyone raved about this. Thank you for the recipe!
I’m in love with the idea of adding bell pepper to this! So glad it worked out and everyone liked it, thanks for the comment!
I (Irish kid) tried this recipe without the smoked sausage as a side dish to fresh kielbasa and sauerkraut. My (Polish) family loved it. Thanks for the tip!
Fantastic!
I just made it, with my venison cheddar polish sausage. Wowza!! My whole family went back for seconds. And polished those off too. I made a two times recipe, we will have leftovers. And trust me, I’m excited about that! Thanks for the good recipe.
Oh and I added chopped onion to the potatoes.
I would totally add onions next time if my son didn’t hate them 🙁
Great idea though!
Sounds almost like an ancient recipe I use. Kibecisxa bechamel using cream cheese as the fat. I parboil my spuds then combine them with the bechamel and layer them w/sliced kielbasa topping the casserole with cgeddarxand parm
How many people can I feed with the receipt?
It depends on whether this is your main dish or a side, and also on the type of eaters you have. For a main course I think it would easily feed 4 to 5 hungry adults (more if you’ve got some kids or light eaters). And of course as a side dish you could feed even more people. Sometimes, like at the holidays, I’ll make it as a side and leave out the meat.
Great recipe! I added some cream cheese to the sauce and dried onion (didn’t have any fresh ones). My husband LOVED it! Thanks for sharing ?
Rebecca… You had me at cream cheese!
This is the second time I have made this sooooo good. This is my daughter’s favorite dish thanks for the recipe
That makes me so happy! Do you think your daughter could talk my daughter into trying it? 🙂
Delicious! I’ve made this so many times! But, I cheated and used Betty Crocker Scalloped Potatoes and added my sausage. This recipe really was awesome! I had tons of potatoes left over, so I could have put more in the dish than I did. I’ll know next time because I will definitely make this again! Thanks for the recipe, Kerry!
What a great shortcut! There are days when you just can’t (or just don’t want to) thin slice potatoes. I love the tip!
That’s how I tried it myself. Forgot the onion I planned on putting in but I will try it all again soon as I believe it will be a hit.. going to find out right now.. thank you
We had this for dinner tonight, everyone loved it. My 11 year olds granddaughter had three helpings.
So glad to hear it!
This was delicious! I didn’t have cheddar so I used some sliced meunster I had in the fridge. Came out great! I also forgot to put in the chopped onion. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to make it again! Thanks for sharing a great recipe.
Meunster has become my new favorite cheese for quesadillas, so I’m sure that it would be delicious in this!
I am making this for the first time for my family. I added sauted onions and Green Chile’s. I am waiting for it now. So excited!
I love the idea of green chiles! I bet it’d be nice to add the chiles with a spicier sausage sometime.
I have this in the oven. Added corn, fresh parsley and crushed red/garlic for flavor. Smells yummy. Thanks for the recipe.
I’ll have to add corn next time… our daughter has fallen in love with corn. I really hope you like it!
Well this all started with me saying ive never made anything with polish sausage. Found this recipe and made it tonight. Thx so much it was a hit with everyone and will definitely be making it again.
Awesome!
Awesome. My husband is picky he liked it. Thank you
I’m trying this tonight. It sounds so amazing.. hopefully, the kiddos like it ?. I made two pans and added sliced jalapeno to one of them. Some of us adults like spicy. Thank you so much for recipe.
Finger crossed they like it, and the jalapenos sound awesome!
This is going to be our dinner tonight. Thank you for the great idea!
Awesome!
This is delicious– comfort food at its best. This is a great base recipe to start with and use whatever you’ve got on hand… You could change up the type of sausage or cheese and add just about any veggie to this recipe. I cooked as written with the addition of peppers and onions. Huge hit and we’ve got a great warm lunch to look forward to tomorrow!
Exactly Erin! This is one of those recipes that is just a baseline to get altered/played around with!
This is a great recipe! I changed it by browning onions in the rendered sausage fat and turned that into an onion gravy. I added Worcestershire sauce to browned onions and then fresh thyme to the finished cream sauce. Huge hit with the family.
Ok, so I’ve officially decided that you should be running the blog. This sounds SO good! I love love love fresh thyme and am totally stealing all of this. All. Of. This.
I’m a cook/baker who just throws ingredients in by hand. I substituted 1/2 portion of cheddar for colby-jack and 1/2 pepper jack cheeses and always use my fave go-to beef smoked sausage made by Schweigert. THE BEST!! I added frozen peas and a mix of Panko and French-Fried Onions for some crunch and extra zip. SO good!! 🙂 Will be making again.
Lori this sounds great! I love the idea of the panko/fried onion mix! Consider this filed away for next time.