Chilli Salt Dirty Potato Gems with Bacon and Melted Cheddar

Difficulty: Easy | Prep: 10 min | Cook: 30 min | Total: 40 min | Serves: 6 | Dietary: Contains gluten and dairy

Finals footy means people on the lounge and nobody wanting to cook. Potato gems out of the freezer, crisped hard, then hit with Chooki's Chilli Chicken Salt while they are still steaming. Bacon, cheddar, sour cream over the top and the tray goes straight on the coffee table.

Step 1: Crisp

Heat the oven to 220C fan-forced. Tip the gems onto a large tray and spread them into one single layer, not a pile. Bake 25 minutes, shaking the tray at the 15 minute mark. Crowding them is the only way to ruin this: they steam instead of crisping and the seasoning slides off later.

Step 2: Fry the bacon

While the gems are in, put the bacon in a cold frying pan and turn it to medium. Cook 8 to 10 minutes until the edges go dark and crunchy. Lift it out onto paper towel and leave the fat in the pan.

Step 3: Season and load

Pull the tray out and spoon over a tablespoon of the bacon fat, then scatter the Chooki's Chilli Chicken Salt over the top and shake the tray so it coats everything. Do this while they are still steaming. The steam helps the salt stick. Push the gems together into a rough single layer, scatter the cheddar and bacon over, and put the tray back in for 5 minutes until the cheese has melted and gone patchy gold at the edges.

Step 4: Drizzle

Stir the milk through the sour cream so it runs off a spoon, drizzle it over in loose lines, then scatter the spring onions. Serve it in the tray with forks.

Tip: If you want them properly dirty, save two tablespoons of the melted cheddar and stir it through the hot bacon fat in the pan, then pour that over before the sour cream.