Scattered, Smothered and Covered Hash Browns, Inspired by Waffle House
Thin, crisp shredded hash browns scattered across a hot buttered pan, smothered with soft sautéed onions and covered with melted American cheese. Inspired by, not official.
Inspired by Waffle House. Not an official Waffle House recipe, and nothing here claims to reproduce theirs. Garden & Gun reports that the Norcross, Georgia, chain has been around since 1955, but that its famous hash brown ordering words came later: for years you could order them scattered on the grill and smothered with onions, and on February 9, 1984, menus debuted "covered" (cheese) and "chunked" (ham); cooks had been adding toppings for themselves and friends before that (CJ Lotz Diego, February 9, 2015:). Later came tomatoes, jalapeños, chili and gravy. This home version uses America's Test Kitchen's hash brown method, spread thin instead of pressed into a cake.
🇺🇸 This one is American
Thin, crisp shredded hash browns scattered across a hot buttered pan, smothered with soft sautéed onions and covered with melted American cheese. Inspired by, not official.
🕎 The original
The Eastern European original is grated potato and onion, squeezed dry, bound with egg and a little matzo meal or flour, and fried in oil for Hanukkah. See the Classic Potato Latkes recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Scattered, not packed
A thin, loose layer gives every shred contact with the hot pan, so you get more crisp edges and less soft middle than a pressed cake.
Toppings cooked apart
Onions cooked separately soften and sweeten without steaming the potatoes, and the cheese goes on at the very end so the crust stays crisp under it.
Step by step
- Step 1
Melt 1 tbsp butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion, stirring now and then, 6 to 8 minutes, until soft and golden. Scrape into a bowl and wipe out the pan.
- Step 2
Squeeze the grated potatoes dry again in a clean towel and toss with the salt and pepper.
- Step 3
Heat the remaining 1 tbsp butter and the oil in the skillet over medium-high heat until the butter just begins to brown.
- Step 4
Scatter the potatoes in a thin, even layer over the whole pan. Press lightly, but don't pack them into a cake. Cook 6 to 8 minutes, until the bottom is deep golden and crisp.
- Step 5
Cut the layer into halves with a spatula and flip each half. Cook 4 to 5 minutes more, until the second side is golden.
- Step 6
Spread the onions over the potatoes, lay the cheese on top, cover the pan and cook 1 minute, until the cheese melts. Slide onto two plates and serve right away.
Scattered, Smothered and Covered Hash Browns, Inspired by Waffle House
Serves 2 · 2 plates · 35 min total
Smothered
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
Scattered
- 1 lb russet potatoes, peeled, washed, grated coarse and squeezed very dry
- 1/4 tsp salt and black pepper
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Covered
- 2 slices American cheese
Method
- Melt 1 tbsp butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion, stirring now and then, 6 to 8 minutes, until soft and golden. Scrape into a bowl and wipe out the pan.
- Squeeze the grated potatoes dry again in a clean towel and toss with the salt and pepper.
- Heat the remaining 1 tbsp butter and the oil in the skillet over medium-high heat until the butter just begins to brown.
- Scatter the potatoes in a thin, even layer over the whole pan. Press lightly, but don't pack them into a cake. Cook 6 to 8 minutes, until the bottom is deep golden and crisp.
- Cut the layer into halves with a spatula and flip each half. Cook 4 to 5 minutes more, until the second side is golden.
- Spread the onions over the potatoes, lay the cheese on top, cover the pan and cook 1 minute, until the cheese melts. Slide onto two plates and serve right away.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen, "Classic Hash Browns" (November 19, 2012), as the hash brown method. Our changes: the shreds are spread thin across a 12-inch skillet and not pressed into a cake (the "scattered" style), half the butter is replaced with oil for a hotter pan, and the onion and cheese toppings, amounts and times are ours, following the menu words as Garden & Gun describes them. Waffle House's own recipe, potatoes and cheese are not public. Inspired by, not official. America's Test Kitchen. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (2)
Tips
- Keep going down the menu: diced ham is "chunked", and Garden & Gun lists tomatoes, jalapeños, chili and gravy among the later toppings.
- A large griddle works even better than a skillet for scattering.
- Any good melting cheese works; American melts the smoothest.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- "Scattered, smothered and covered" all date to 1984. Disputed: Garden & Gun says scattered and smothered came first and covered and chunked debuted February 9, 1984; Waffle House is quoted in search results as saying "Scattered, Smothered & Covered" first appeared on its menu in February 1984.
- Waffle House was founded in 1955. Documented (Garden & Gun).
- Waffle House uses dehydrated potatoes. Folklore: repeated by copycat recipe sites; we found no official confirmation.
- This is the real recipe. Folklore: it is a copycat, inspired by, not official.
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