Bacon Parmesan Scalloped Potatoes

I recently learned about Campbell's Cream of Bacon soup and had to pick up a couple of cans.  They are only at Walmart and Dollar General as far as I know.  After they were safely home, I started to look for recipes to use them.

Campbell's does have several recipes up to the task.  This one stood out above the rest, then I cut it in half because that's a lot of potatoes.  And added half a pound of bacon because, you know, bacon.

This isn't a last-minute recipe, despite the cheat of using a can.  It takes a while to cook bacon in general, and almost as long to slice the potatoes.  Then the whole casserole takes about an hour to bake and cool to a sliceable consistency.  But you can also do it as a prep-ahead in the morning and bake it later, saving half an hour in the evening.  The leftovers also make a pretty good breakfast.

*1 can Cream of Bacon soup
1/2 C milk
*1/3 C grated parmesan
*1 green onion, finely chopped
*3 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes (about 3)
*1/2 lb thick-cut bacon

1.  Cook bacon in a skillet until crispy enough to chop.  Drain, cool, and cut into bite-sized pieces.

2. While the bacon is going, thinly slice potatoes.  Peeling is optional.  I used the V-slicer on thin to get beautiful slices.

3.  In a large bowl, combine soup, milk, half the parmesan, half the green onions, and the garlic.  The original recipe adds salt, but there's a ton in the soup and I was adding bacon, so I skipped that.  Oh yeah, stir the bacon into the sauce too.

4.  Add the potato slices to the sauce and coat all of them in the sauce.  That part and arranging them neatly in the casserole might have been the most time-consuming part of all of this.

5.  Start preheating oven to 425º.  Arrange saucy slices in an 8"x8" or 9"x 7" casserole.  The slices should overlap in an orderly manner so you don't end up with any areas that are too dense.  Top with any remaining sauce.  Cover casserole with foil.  At this point, you could also refrigerate to bake later.

6.  Bake at 425º for 35 minutes, until potatoes are fork-tender.  Remove foil and top with remaining cheese.  Change oven setting to broil and cook an additional 10 minutes to set the top crust.  Sprinkle with remaining green onions and allow to cool until no longer bubbling.  Serve hot.

Difficulty rating  :)