Scalloped Potatoes is a very simple dish, with very simple ingredients, but it’s hard to get perfect! Why? Because potatoes are difficult to get all the way done when they are stacked in layers. Say goodbye to underdone potatoes! Problem solved.
I don’t know about you, but I love Scalloped Potatoes. Real Scalloped Potatoes. You know, the ones without cheese. Real Scalloped Potatoes!
Now, if you ask my husband, he would say, “cheese, please!” That’s him. I’m me.
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I don’t think there is anything better than layer after layer of thinly sliced potatoes smothered in a rich, spice & herb infused, cream sauce. Just thinking about it makes me smile.
I’m not knocking cheese. I love cheese. If you want to put cheese in or on top of your scalloped potatoes, please do it! Just don’t call them scalloped potatoes because they are now Potatoes Au Gratin and I love those, too!
What is the difference between Scalloped Potatoes and Au Gratin Potatoes?
Cheese. Cheese is the difference. Mostly.
Some will say that the potatoes in Scalloped Potatoes are cut thicker, some will say potatoes in Au Gratin Potatoes are cut thicker. Some will say that both have a bread or cracker topping.
Personally, I don’t put a bread or cracker topping on either. I can see how people would enjoy that, though.
From my limited research — and I say limited because not much is on the internet about this topic — I’ve concluded that I’m going to make up my own differences and call it a day.
So, the differences between scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin, besides cheese (that’s a given), is in the preparation of the dish; at least for me. Remember, these are just my personal opinions since no one on the internet seemed to be an authority on this topic.
When I make potatoes au gratin, I use a roux. So, my cream sauce starts with flour and butter and then I build a cream sauce also known as a Béchamel sauce. To the Béchamel sauce, I add cheese. 
Several different kinds of cheese and I turn the Béchamel sauce into a cheese sauce. If you used white cheeses, like Gruyère, Emmental cheese, or even white Cheddar, you would now have a Mornay sauce.
The next time you see a dish called Chicken Mornay or Vegetable Mornay on a menu, you’ll smile and say, cheese sauce. See, fancy isn’t so fancy is it?
So, I pour the cheese on the sliced potatoes and bake, then I put more cheese on top and bake some more. That is how I make my Au Gratin Potatoes. I have an easy and delicious recipe for Au Gratin Potatoes in my cookbook which you can take a look at if you are interested: Flavors of Fall ~ Ninja Foodi Cookbook
Scalloped Potatoes, on the other hand: different technique altogether. I thinly slice my potatoes even thinner than with my Au Gratin Potatoes. Now, I might have this mixed up and maybe Au Gratin Potatoes should be sliced thinner than scalloped, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. You cut your potatoes any which way you want and it will still be delicious!
The biggest difference besides no-cheese in my Scalloped Potatoes is that I don’t use a roux either. My potatoes are baked in an infused heavy cream and that is it. The starch from the potatoes helps to thicken the dish and the spice & herb infused cream flavors it. This brings me to the next topic: choosing the right potato.
Which type potato should I use for Scalloped Potatoes?
I use Russets and only Russets, but you can use Yukon Gold if you prefer. These both are starchy potatoes, but I do think the Russet has an edge on the Yukon Gold in the starch department, as well as the tenderness department.
Yukon Gold potatoes hold their shape better, but I like the texture of Russets in my Scalloped Potatoes.
I don’t recommend using red potatoes or any other type of small potato because they aren’t starchy enough to help thicken the cream sauce. However, if that is all you have, you can use red potatoes. You will want to make a roux and thicken your cream before pouring over the potatoes.
You can peel or not peel your potatoes, that is completely up to you. In this recipe, I peeled them because I wanted a uniform look of white potatoes with a white cream and hints of green from the leeks.
How to Make Scalloped Potatoes in the Ninja Foodi
The first thing we are going to do is infuse our cream with spices and herbs. This is important and I really hope you don’t skip this step. Of course, you can season your hot cream and just pour it over the potatoes, but it won’t be the same.
I can’t explain it, but by taking the time to infuse the cream, you are only giving little hints of the spices and herbs, none are overwhelming and it just creates the best sauce for scalloped potatoes, in my opinion. A little nutmeg is also wonderful in scalloped potatoes. I left it out of this recipe, but feel free to add a pinch or two to your cream. It is a delicious addition for sure!
Add 3 cups of heavy whipping cream to the inner pot of the Ninja Foodi and turn the sear/sauté on high.
Cut the ends off of each garlic clove and smash them with the side of your knife blade.
Add about ¼ cup or 6-8 fresh thyme stems, ½ Tbsp black peppercorns (whole), 2 bay leaves, 6-8 cloves of smashed garlic, and ¼ teaspoon of sea salt. Stir and bring to a simmer. You don’t want the cream to boil, so, when you start to see steam and little bubbles breaking through the surface, turn the heat off and give it a stir. Then, just let it sit and steep.
Butter your baking dish & slice your leek or onion into thin slices.
In this recipe, I used my All Purpose Baking Dish. It measures about 8.75″ x 2.75″ and is the perfect size for this quantity of scalloped potatoes. You can use any dish as long as it is pressure safe and oven safe, but if your dish is smaller, you may have to decrease the amount of potatoes.
Peel and slice the potatoes very thinly. The ideal thickness will be between 1/16″ and 1/8″ thick. Using a mandoline will product the most consistent results, but you can do this with a sharp knife. If your potatoes are thicker, increase the pressure cook time to 15 minutes.
Here is a quick video on how to slice the potatoes with a knife and a mandoline.
Begin layering your potatoes by lining the bottom of the baking dish with the potato slices overlapping about ½” until the bottom is covered. It usually takes about 1 potato to make a layer. Sprinkle with salt. Add a thin layer of leeks or onions.
Repeat this layering until you have used all of your potatoes. Reserve some leeks or onion slices for the top. You will end up with 7-9 layers of potatoes.
Strain the cream through a strainer. I like to use a fine sieve strainer, but a colander will work as well. Wash the inner pot and put 1 cup of water into the inner pot.
Cover the potatoes with a Silicone Cover or aluminum foil. Set on the rack in the low position in the inner pot. Put the pressure lid on and turn the valve to seal. Set the pressure for 10 minutes on high. Remember, if your potatoes are a little thicker or not cut with a mandoline, increase the time to between 12-15 minutes. If you aren’t sure, set the pressure time for 12 minutes. When the pressure time is done, immediately release the pressure. 
Remove the potatoes and check for doneness by inserting a butter knife through the center of the potatoes. If you meet any resistance, they are not done and will need to be pressure cooked longer. This is very important because, in the short time we bake the potatoes, they will not have time to soften up. So, make sure they are soft at this point. I would recommend pressure cooking for just 1-2 minutes because the short time it takes the pot to come up to pressure will also help cook them.
Pour the cream over the potatoes just until they are covered. You don’t have to use all of the cream. Gently push the potatoes down under the cream as much as possible.
Cover the potatoes with the silicone cover or foil and place the pan on the rack in the low position. Bake at 325° F for 20 minutes.
Uncover and continue to bake at 325° F for another 15 minutes or until the top is brown and bubbly. Press down to allow the thin cream to come up to the top. Do not worry that your cream is still really liquidy, the next step takes care of that.
Add the remaining leek slices/onion slices, press down on the potatoes to allow the thin cream to come to the top and continue to bake at 325° F for another 5 minutes or until brown and bubbly. Remove the rack from the Ninja Foodi and let the potatoes cool for about 15 minutes. This will allow the cream to thicken.
SERVE & ENJOY! I hope you love this recipe!
ABOUT THE RECIPE AUTHOR, LOUISE LONG
Louise is a full-time recipe creator and food blogger @ The Salted Pepper. She has over 30 years of 
experience with cooking and recipe development. She owned a restaurant for several years and was a full-time RN until retiring to blog full-time.
Louise has several very active Facebook groups that help people with the basics of cooking and getting the most out of the Ninja Foodi.
Ninja Foodi Fresh & Healthy Meals
Seeing the need for easy, delicious, and high quality recipes, she is focusing all of her efforts creating recipes specifically for the Ninja Foodi. Her recipes are easy for the home cook to follow and provide step-by-step instructions.
Louise is also a YouTube creator and you can find most of her recipes in video format on The Salted Pepper YouTube channel.
She is very responsive to messages and eager to help in any way she can.
I WOULD LOVE TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE COOKING UP IN YOUR NINJA FOODI! TAG ME @THESALTEDPEPPER ON YOUR FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM WHEN YOU MAKE A DISH!
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Scalloped Potatoes in the Ninja Foodi
Ingredients
- 3 cups heavy cream
- ¼ cup thyme leaves on stem, about 6-8 stems
- ½ Tbsp peppercorns whole
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1-2 tsps sea salt find grind, divided
- 3 lbs Russet potatoes
- 1 leek or 1 sweet onion
Instructions
- Cut the ends off of each garlic clove and smash them with the side of your knife blade.
- Pour 3 cups of heavy cream into the inner pot of the Ninja Foodi. Add thyme leaves, peppercorns, bay leaves, smashed garlic cloves, ¼-½ tsp of sea salt to the cream and stir. Turn on the sear/saute on high and bring the cream to a simmer. When you start to see bubbles, turn the Ninja Foodi off and let the cream sit so the spices infuse into the cream.
- Butter your baking dish.
- Peel and slice the potatoes very thinly. The ideal thickness will be between 1/16 and 1/8" thick. Using a mandoline will product the most consistent results, but you can do this with a sharp knife. If your potatoes are thicker, increase the pressure cook time to 15 minutes.
- Thinly slice your leek or onion.
- Begin layering your potatoes by lining the bottom of the baking dish with the potato slices overlapping about ½" until the bottom is covered. It usually takes about 1 potato to make a layer. Sprinkle with salt.
- Add a thin layer of sliced leeks or onion.
- Repeat this layering until you have used all of your potatoes. Reserve some leeks or onion slices for the top. You will end up with 7-9 layers of potatoes.
- Pour the cream through a strainer to remove the spices and let sit until ready to use. Wash out the inner pot.
- Cover your baking pan with foil or a silicone cover. Add 1 cup of water to the inner pot and place the baking pan on the rack in the low position. Put the rack into the Ninja Foodi and put on the pressure lid. Turn the valve to seal and set on high pressure for 10 minutes. *if your potatoes are thicker, increase the time to 12-15 minutes to ensure they are cooked through. When the time is up, immediate release the pressure.
- Check for doneness by inserting a knife into the potatoes. The knife should easily go through the potatoes. If you meet any resistance, your potatoes are not done and you will want to pressure cook another 1-2 minutes.
- Pour the cream over the potatoes just until the potatoes are covered. You may not use all of the cream. I push the potatoes down some to make sure most of them are covered. Cover the potatoes and place the pan on the rack in the low position. Bake at 325° F for 20 minutes.
- Uncover and continue to bake at 325° F for another 15 minutes or until the top is brown and bubbly. Press down to allow the thin cream to come up to the top.
- Add the remaining leek slices/onion slices and continue to bake at 325° F for another 5 minutes or until brown and bubbly. Remove the rack from the Ninja Foodi and let the potatoes cool for about 15 minutes. This will allow the cream to thicken.
- Serve and Enjoy!
Renee’ Jenks
Louise I absolutely love this recipe. Only I needed to PC my potatoes for 17 minutes to get the desired texture at the end result. Other than that it’s awesome. I used a mandolin and the potatoes were thin but I added more onion I think. Maybe that’s why they needed to cook longer? You rock. Thank you fit all you do.
Louise
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Potatoes are so funny, I’ve had to cook them longer sometimes too. No rhyme or reason either. I might go ahead and increase the PC time in the recipe.
Virgie
I absolutely love the scalloped potatoes. I have been used to box scalloped potatoes for convenience, but really don’t care for them. It was just a change from mashed or baked. The ingredients for the cream, I thought was different the first time I made them, but WOW, the garlic and thyme gave the cream mixture, so much flavor. They are fantastic. I love the steps you go to in explaining the recipe. They are in so much detail. Some of us need those extra steps. It is just me and my husband, so we had leftovers. Enjoyed them, also. I am thinking about trying to freeze some. Have you had any experience freezing them. Thanks and LOVE your Ninja Foodi recipes.
Louise
I think they will freeze okay. Sometimes potatoes get mealy like in texture when frozen, but these are enveloped with all that cream and I think they would do okay. I’m so glad you enjoyed them and were willing to try something new! That makes my day!
F Griffith
I made this during the self isolation and had to use ingredients on hand. I didn’t have the preferred type of potato. I didn’t have heavy cream. I DID have cheese, white potatoes and half and half. Because this effectively ended up not being Louise’s tried and true recipe I am not rating it, as truthfully I think I had to change enough that wouldn’t be fair. I DID, however, want to provide some suggestions if someone else finds themselves in a similar place.
Because I only had regular white bulk potatoes, and because I only had half and half, I had to make some adjustments in order to come out with an edible/successful dish.
1) I had to cook for 40 -45 minutes under pressure, so much longer (3 or 4x longer) than the original recipe. It was a little unclear from instructions, and I don’t know if it would have made a difference or not…I covered the pan tightly with the foil. I “sealed” it.
2) I had to make part of the infused half and half as a slurry (added cornstarch) to get the thickening I needed. I did an initial bake per the instructions, with the infused liquid as is, but I held back about a 1 cup and then added cornstarch to the remaining liquid, to create the slurry, poured over and continued to bake. I only made 2.5 cups of half and half mixture to begin with, so overall I used less than the recipe called for to begin with. I had layered cheese along with the potatoes and onion from the beginning.
Loved the super thin layered onions…I purchased a mandoline and it made making this dish a breeze. I will definitely make this again, and plan to follow Louise’s intended recipe. But I did want to share some thoughts on how to “make it work” in case someone else thinks they’d like to try this and don’t have an exact match on the ingredients.
Louise
That’s great that you used what you had on hand! I’ll have a look at my instructions because I want them to be clear for sure. I’m surprised that it took that long to PC the potatoes, do you mind telling me how thick you made them with the mandoline? If you find yourself needing to thicken with a cornstarch slurry next time, heat it up before you pour it over because I’m not sure if it’s going to get hot enough during the bake to really activate the cornstarch. The heavy cream thickens on its own and that is why I didn’t have to use any cornstarch. My suggestion would be to infuse the liquid you are using and then thicken in the inner pot and pour over the PC’d potatoes. I appreciate all of your suggestions for people who don’t have the ingredients called for in this recipe.
GAIL DOWNING
MY FAMILY HAS LOVED EVERYTHING i HAVE COOKED IN THE fOODI USING YOUR RECIPES. I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR WEBSITE AND YOU TUBE VIDEOS. THANK YOU LOUISE
Louise
Thank you so much!
Lincoln
I want to make the scalloped potato’s recipe but I don’t have the bake function on my foodi so would the Roast function work for it? Have to say that watching your videos have been so helpful because I do t know what to cook sometimes.
Oh Do you think you your going to get to making the enchiladas soon that I requested in the past?
Louise
I’m confused because I thought all of the Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker & Air Crispers have the bake/roast function. They are combined in one button. I’m hesitant to answer your question until I know which Ninja Foodi you have. I am actually testing the enchilada recipe now.
Jeff
👍
Barbara
Louise, I am a new Foodi but if you feel your scalloped potato’s are easier in the Foodi, I would wager your are so wrong. You have 15, count them, 15 steps to get through before the “enjoy”. Not my idea of easy!
Louise
Barbara, so you are going to rate a recipe a 2, which makes it looks like you didn’t enjoy it, when in fact you haven’t made it? That is completely unfair to me as a recipe developer. I have 14 steps in this recipe because I break them down so that any level of cook can replicate my recipe EASILY. These Scalloped potatoes are VERY EASY to make and taste delicious! They are also fool proof if you make sure the potatoes are tender before you pour the sauce on and bake. If a recipe is not your idea of easy and you don’t want to make it, that is perfectly fine, but, to give it a low rating is extremely rude and uncalled for. I want you to know that ratings do affect the blogger and I hope you think twice before doing this again to me or any blogger. WE work extremely hard to provide these recipes to you for FREE, the least you can do is be fair and don’t rate a recipe you haven’t tried. I could delete both your rating and your comment, but I won’t. Hopefully, at the very least you or someone else will think twice before rating a recipe they never made. All My Best, Louise
Shirley Roaden
I love watching your videos. I just received my Ninja and trying to learn how to use it. Do you have a time and how to cook Steaks in the Ninja. I like my steaks medium to medium rare. Also do you have any recipes for a Keto diet? Thanks.
Louise
You can broil or air fry the steaks. Timing depends on thickness. I recommend using a thermometer for best accuracy on cook times.
Victoria Pearman
My ninja didnt come with an extra pan yours shows. Can I just put in the big one with out the rack?
Louise
I haven’t tested the recipe that way, but I think you would PC your potato slices, covered in liquid, for about 2-3 minutes if they are directly in the pot. Then make sure they are as soft as you like them. If they aren’t, use sear/sauté to finish them. Add more water/broth if needed. Drain any excess liquid. Pour over your infused cream and bake. Just keep an eye on them and if the tops are getting too brown, decrease the heat. Let me know if you try it!
Marie
I can’t wait to try this since your video got me salivating for this dish! But Louise, please tell me…. is there any reason why we shouldn’t just use a food processor with slicing blade for potatoes???
Louise
I don’t think there is any reason why you can’t use a slicing blade on your food processor. Just make sure to increase the PC time if they thicker slices. The most important part of this recipe is making sure your potatoes are cooked during the PC time so you don’t end up with undercooked potatoes at the end.
Lori
WOW! Former Restaurant owner and RN. No wonder you are an amazing cook. God bless you!
Louise
Thank you! I love to cook!