This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.

This creamy potato gratin feels special, but it’s surprisingly easy to make — no mandoline or careful layering. Just sliced potatoes baked in a garlic cream with herbs and Parmesan until golden and bubbling.

A baked casserole dish filled with golden-brown, cheesy scalloped potatoes, topped with herbs, and a serving spoon scooping out a portion. — Crisp, golden edges and creamy, tender potatoes baked in herb-infused cream — no layering needed.

This is my take on potato gratin, using the simplified approach I bring to all of my vegetable recipes. I skip the fussy, paper-thin slicing and picture-perfect shingling. Instead, the potatoes are combined with an herb-infused cream, topped with Parmesan, and baked until gorgeously golden. The trick is briefly cooking the potatoes in the cream before baking — it gives you a richer, more cohesive texture with a lot less effort.

A gratin is simply anything baked with a golden, creamy top, and potatoes are the version most of us know best (my cauliflower gratin is another example). Somewhere along the way, the phrase “au gratin” slipped into American kitchens and cookbooks and stuck.

A baking dish with six whole Russet potatoes is surrounded by a bowl of cream, grated cheese, halved onion, garlic cloves, salt, pepper, and a plate of fresh rosemary sprigs on a light-colored surface.

Karen’s ingredient notes

Potatoes: Russet (Idaho) potatoes are my go-to variety for this gratin because their high starch content melds with the cream and cheese to give you an ethereally tender texture. Skip waxy potatoes like Yukon Gold because they won’t break down the same way.
Cream: Buy heavy cream or whipping cream (not half and half, which does not contain enough fat). I don’t use flour or any thickeners in this potato gratin. Instead, the potatoes briefly simmer in heavy cream until they release their natural starch. The cream continues to thicken and reduce as it bubbles in the oven.
Herbs: I use two types of woody fresh herbs to season the cream and the potatoes — a few sprigs of thyme that steep and release flavor into the cream, and chopped fresh rosemary leaves that bake with the creamy sauce and potatoes.

Step-by-step, with my tips

Slicing tip: Peel potatoes, then cut in half lengthwise. Slice them crosswise to make half-moon shapes.
Soften chopped onions and garlic in a saucepan — they add another aromatic flavor to the cream sauce.

Pour in heavy cream, add fresh thyme sprigs, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer.
Add the potatoes and cook about 10 minutes.

Transfer the potatoes and cream to a baking dish and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Bake about 50 minutes total, until the top is browned and the cream is reduced.