Potatoes Lyonnaise With Cheese

These ingredients were in my pantry and I was pondering what to do with them for a nice side dish for dinner. Let's go French and make use of what is here and make some Potatoes Lyonnaise!
And of course I just happen to still have a wedge of Gruyere cheese that will kick this up a notch by using the cheese as a topping.
There's some chicken broth and butter along with my usual spices - perhaps Herbs du Provence? So let's take a trip to France, to the region of Lyon and Provence and get cooking.
I chose to leave the skin on my potatoes as that is where the most nutrients are found. If you don't like that, peel the skin. Also I want to say that the "red" onion while in a raw state can have quite a bite to it, but when sauteed it becomes tender, juicy and more sweet.
Serve this dish with some baked chicken or a nice juicy steak and since we are talking France, a side of green beans almondine.

• 3-4 medium sized russet potatoes (scrub under cold water to remove any dirt)
• 3 large onions - cut in half moons and slice
• 1 stick butter approximately (1/2 for the onions and the other 1/2 for browning potato slices)
• olive oil
• 1 tsp. kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp. table salt)
• 1 tsp. coarse ground black pepper (or 1/2 tsp. table ground)
• 1/2 tsp. Herb du Provence
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• Gruyere cheese - or Swiss

1. Preheat a deep skillet over medium heat. Add in 1/2 stick of butter and melt down. Add in your sliced onions with the salt and black pepper. Stir and coat the onions in the butter. When they begin to wilt down some, turn the heat down to medium low. As they wilt down stir occasionally.  The natural juice from the onions will come out. Keep an eye on them and stir until you have caramelized the onions. This takes time - about 30-40 minutes at least for proper caramelization.
2. While the onions are caramelizing, slice your potatoes in even slices, or use your food processor blade for quick prepping of the potatoes. Keep the potatoes in cold water until the next step.
3. After the onions have caramelized remove from the pan and place in a large bowl.
4. In the same skillet you will be browning the potato slices. You will have to probably do this in batches. Be sure the potatoes have been drained and dried, otherwise they will not brown. Add 1 tbsp. of butter at a time to the skillet and over medium heat, add in the potatoes brown each side. Use a drizzle of olive oil if necessary so the butter does not burn.
5. As you brown the slices add them to the caramelized onions.
6. When you have browned all of the potatoes, caramelized the onions, stir in the Herbs du Provence.
7. Next, put all of the mixture back in the skillet with the 1/2 cup chicken broth. Cook over moderate heat until the broth has reduced by 1/2.
8. Sprinkle the top with some shredded cheese. I used Gruyere because I had it on hand. Use whatever cheese you have on hand. Swiss cheese is a good replacement for the Gruyere.
9. Put a lid on the skillet and cook over moderate heat on the stove top until the cheese has melted. If your skillet is oven proof, you could also place it in the oven under the broiler: that will melt the cheese and brown the cheese.

NOTE: I used salted butter and did not add additional salt. I think it was salted just perfect. However, use additional salt and pepper to taste.

PICTURED IS THE FINAL PRODUCT

How yummy does that look?

What outstanding flavor. Excuse the photograph - it is not one of my best! But the product tasted wonderful.