Preheat the oven to 375°F. Rub the softened butter around the inside of a medium ceramic baking dish — I use a 2½-quart oval, the one with the chipped lid. You want the bottom and sides coated so the potatoes don’t bond to the dish like they’re trying to stay.
Slice your potatoes. Try to keep them even so they cook at the same rate, though if a few are thicker, don’t spiral about it. Layer them in the dish, overlapping like you’re shingling a roof — I always think of that comparison and then feel a little silly, but it’s accurate. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the top if you’re using it.
Open your cans of beans. Give them a quick stir in the can because the sauce sometimes settles. Then just pour them right over the potatoes — both cans, all the sauce — and spread them out gently with a spoon so they cover most of the surface. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Nothing about this recipe requires perfection.
Cover the dish tightly with foil. The steam is what cooks the potatoes through, so don’t skip this step. I learned that the hard way the first time I made it myself — I was impatient, didn’t cover it properly, and ended up with crunchy potatoes under a slightly dried-out bean situation. Not inedible, but not right either.
Bake on the middle rack for 45 to 55 minutes. Start checking around 45 — you want the potatoes just tender when you poke them with a knife. The beans should be bubbling at the edges and smelling absolutely wonderful by this point, which is the part where someone will inevitably wander into the kitchen to ask when it’ll be ready.
Pull off the foil carefully — there’s a lot of steam and it means business. Scatter the cheese over the top. Return the dish to the oven uncovered for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and starting to brown in spots and the whole thing is bubbling gently. Let it rest for about five minutes before you serve it. This is not optional. The sauce tightens up a little as it cools and it’s much easier to scoop.
Variations
My daughter uses Yukon Golds when she makes this, which I’ve mentioned I think works fine even if it’s not what I do. She also adds a little smoked paprika to the beans before pouring them — just a teaspoon, stirred in — and I’ll admit it’s a nice touch. I haven’t fully adopted it but I’ve stopped pretending I don’t notice the difference.
One winter I tried adding a layer of caramelized onions between the potatoes and the beans. It was good! Really good, actually. But it added about twenty-five minutes to the prep and the whole appeal of this recipe is that it doesn’t ask that of you, so I’ve never done it again. Just mentioning it in case you’re someone who has energy I don’t.
Storage & Reheating
It keeps in the fridge for three or four days. I cover the dish with plastic wrap and it reheats beautifully in the microwave — two or three minutes, stir once, done. You can also reheat it in the oven at 350°F covered with foil for about twenty minutes if you want the top to crisp back up slightly.
I will say: I once left it out on the counter overnight — just forgot, it was one of those evenings — and I threw it out in the morning without regret. Don’t do that. Put it away.
You can make the whole thing ahead, which is useful if you know tomorrow is going to be difficult. Just layer the potatoes and beans, cover the dish, and refrigerate it for up to eight hours. Add a few extra minutes to the covered bake time to account for it starting cold. The cheese still goes on at the end.
Serve it with a green Salad or some sliced cucumbers — something with a little acid to cut through the richness. Cornbread alongside is never wrong. I usually just pull whatever bread I have, honestly. Sometimes there’s nothing and we eat it as is and that’s fine too.
