Potato Kielbasa Bake

Have you ever made a dish that you love, but you are surprised how good it tastes every time you make it? This is the case for us with Rachael Ray's Potato Kielbasa Bake. I'm not quite sure how I even convinced Mrblocko that this dish would taste good. He's not a big fan of sauerkraut. I'm not either, but there was just something about this recipe.


As you can tell, the Potato Kielbasa Bake won't even qualify for runner up in any beauty pageants. She does win Miss Congeniality though. That's just as good, if not better, in my book. I know we eat with our eyes just as much as our tongues, but if given the choice, I'd rather eat a plate of something that makes you close your eyes and smile versus shiny plastic showroom food.

I've made a few changes here and there. The main change I've made is reducing kraut by about half. Feel free to look at the original recipe on the hyperlink at the top of the page if you are a big fan of sourkraut. Here is the version I make:

Potato Kielbasa Bake
2 T olive oil, divided
1 lb Kielbasa, cut on angle in 1" pieces
1 lb frozen hash brown potatoes
2 cloves minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste
3 T flour
2 c chicken stock
1 c milk
3 T prepared yellow mustard
1 14 oz can sauerkraut
1 T butter
1/2-1 c shredded Swiss cheese

Preheat your oven to 400 F. Heat a large skillet on med-high with 1 T oil. Cook kielbasa until brown and crispy. (we cook ours until they are black. If yours get black, don't worry. They most likely aren't burnt. The sugars are just caramelized, and this is a good thing.) Remove sausage from the pan and set aside.

Cook the hashbrowns in the sausage drippings per the package directions. (I always need to use more oil to cook the hashbrowns.) Remove hashbrowns from pan, set aside.

In the same pan, add 1 T oil and crank the heat up to high. Add onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook the onions until they are brown and caramelized. (You could speed up the cooking time by using a different pan to simultaneously cook the sausage, hashbrowns, and onions. I hate washing dishes so I just use the same pan to cook everything.) Once the onions are browned to your liking, add the butter. Once the butter is melted, stir in the flour to coat the onions. Cook for 30 seconds. Whisk in stock, milk and mustard. Bring the gravy to a bubble. Reduce the heat and then add the kraut. Cook until the gravy begins to thicken and the sourkraut is heated through, about 3-4 min.

Stir in the sausage. (At this point you can transfer the kraut/sausage mix to a 9x13 pan, but my largest pan has oven safe handles so in the name of not doing more dishes I just bake it in the skillet.) Spread the hashbrowns over the top of the kraut and kielbasa. Sprinkle Swiss cheese over the hashbrowns. Bake until the cheese melts and begins to brown, about 15-20 min. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 min to give the gravy a chance to set.