Bacon Hashbrown Pie

This combination of bacon and potatoes at first seems an unlikely pairing until you realize that both of the components have great flavors in their own rights. I served this at a gathering and immediately wished I had made 2 or maybe even 3 times the quantity I brought. Even though I cut the pie into smallish pieces they were gone in minutes. So here’s the (deceptively simple) recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of bacon
• 1 pound of frozen hash brown potatoes

Assembly:

1. Criss-cross the bacon on the bottom of an 8 inch pan. I’m not sure the crisscross is mandatory but it did seem to hold things together once I cut the pie into pieces.
2. Spread the potatoes on top of the layer of bacon
3. Criss-cross a second layer of bacon on top of the potatoes.
4. Bake at 350 degrees till done

Tips:

I don’t recall the exact cooking time but I did have to cook it longer than the original recipe called for. I think it came out to close to an hour. Along the way you WILL need to drain the bacon fat. Don’t worry, there’s enough fat permeating the potatoes that you won’t lose any of the flavor. But if you don’t drain the fat the whole pie will be float, and that’s not really a good thing.

Once the top and edges are crispy the pie is cooked. Take it out of the oven and let it cool. Then cut it into bite sized pieces. I cut them into about 1 inch each. This is very rich so small pieces are good.