Bacon, Cheddar & Potato Tart

One of our favorite things to do is comb social media for new ideas to try on the grill. Last week we discovered another brilliant concoction - the bacon, potato & cheddar tart.  For our first attempt it came out pretty darn good! We certainly learned some things to make it better next time, but all in all this is an awesome dish. Make no mistake, with almost 2 pounds of bacon and almost as much cheese, this is not a dish for the health conscious. Don't worry, we're a little health conscious ourselves, so I probably can't convince the wife to let me make one every weekend.   

We' re working on doing some videos on preparing these dishes, but for now I'll just spell it out and add some photos to give you an idea of how it looks going together.

What you'll need:

2 pounds thin sliced bacon
2 pounds cheese shredded ( we used sharp cheddar, but we're going with a more gooey cheese next time)
3-4 large russet potatoes
9 inch cake pan ( or pie tin or oven ready saute pan)
Parchment paper
Non-stick cooking spray

First things first, fire up the grill. You'll want to cook this at 225-275 for a couple of hours. The original ideo we watched suggested 2 hours at 350 degrees. in the oven, but our experience has been that bacon cooked long, low and slow will shrink less and make a much better final product.

While the fire is come up to temperature you'll need to shred your cheese and slice your potatoes. You'll want to use a sharp knife and slice the potatoes thin. In our tart we used about 3 baking potatoes and about 1 pound of cheese.

Next step is to prepare the baking dish. We learned a really cool little trick with parchment paper from the original video. The idea is to fold the paper onto itself from a single point. Check out this little video to see what I mean ( I promise the videos will get better!)

Now that you have the parchment paper cut to size, spray down the pan with cooking spray. Then place your parchment paper in the pan and smooth it out so it fits nicely.

With the parchment paper laid in place, it's time to build the bacon shell. You'll lay slices of bacon from the center of the pan to the edge and leave about 1/2 of each slice laying outside the pan.

In order to avoid a big pile of bacon in the center, it works best if you stagger the slices. In other words, lay your first slice starting at the center of the pan, then lay your next slice about 1/2 inch back from the center, then the next slice back to the center and so on and so on. You'll want to be sure the slices overlap. Basically you want the potato & cheese completely covered. No one wants cheese oozing out all over the place!

Now that your shell is mostly built, it's time to start layering potatoes & cheese. Start with a layer of sliced potatoes, covering the bottom of the pan. Next, sprinkle on some salt, pepper, garlic, seasoned salt, etc (we used seasoned salt & black pepper). After seasoning the first layer of potatoes, go ahead and spread a generous layer of shredded cheese over the potatoes.

Continue on with a layer of potatoes, seasoning and a layer of cheese and so on. Because the bacon and potatoes will shrink a bit while cooking, you will want to continue the layers over the top of the pan.

Once you've created several layers of potato & cheese you can now close up the tart. You will want to lay the bacon back over the tart the same way you did the bottom: overlap each piece and stagger them at the center (to avoid another large "pile" of bacon right in the middle. Again, be sure there are no spaces and the potatoes & cheese are completely covered by the bacon.

Once the tart is all sealed up we tossed it on the grill at around 250 degrees until the top was completely browned. You want to cook this low and slow to allow the bacon to render slowly. This will prevent the bacon from curling. Another tip to keep the bacon from curling is to place a small plate or saucer on top during the cooking process. Once the bacon turns brown you can remove it.

Once the top is browned to your liking (should take an hour or so), you'll find the pan needs to be drained. We used a cookie sheet and cooling rack and simply flipped the tart over onto the cooling rack and put it back on the grill to brown the bottom. We added the plate to it again, but that didn't work so well. I'm pretty sure the problem was we ramped up the grill temp (it looked really good and we were hungry!!). Once again, I am reminded that bacon really needs to be cooked slowly.

After another hour or so the bottom should be browning nicely. At this point you'll want to start checking the potatoes for done-ness. We used a wooden skewer, but a toothpick should work just fine.
Leave the tart on until the potatoes are fully cooked.

Once the potatoes are fully cooked and the bacon is browned to your liking, simply remove it from the grill and let it stand for 15-30 minutes. Then slice it like a pie and enjoy!!

As you can see, the top (or bottom?) shrunk away from the center a bit, but I beleive that was because of the higher heat cooking the bacon faster & rendering the fat out too quickly. We'll go slower next time.

Both Leslie and I loved this dish! It is definitely not for those on a health kick, but if you like bacon (or cheese or potatoes!) you'll love it!

This recipie is highly customizable too. You can substitute your favorite cheese (I think you'll be happy with cheeses that like to be melted.). You could add onions or jalapenos for another layer of flavor and/or heat. The possibilities are endless!.

Try it yourself and let us know what you think!