The most easy Crispy Roasted Potatoes Recipe you’ll ever make for your Sunday dinner! Learn the secret to the best crispiest roasted potatoes! You only need a few basic ingredients and a hot oven. Here, I used duck fat for the ultimate crunchy roast potatoes, but you can certainly use almost any kind of fat you prefer.
Crispy roasted potatoes remind me of that casual yet sophisticatedly dressed man you get a quick glimpse of in a busy subway car during rush hour. There is method and madness behind his sartorial elegance. Despite the rolled jeans, unshaven face, and messy hair, his carefully chosen outfit just works for him. Even the shoes. These crispy roast potatoes are like him. They’re like these waffles.
Perfectly made crispy roasted potatoes are unparalleled. They are beautifully bronzed, as if they’d been on a beach-side vacation. And most importantly, they’re crisp-coated and fluffy-bellied. When you bite down you get that nice “cronch” sound.
When it comes to crispy roasted potatoes, needs must be met. They must satisfy a hankering for thick (and crispy!) deeply golden wedges that conjure memories of autumn and winter roasts, and plates smudged with ketchup.
Crispy Roasted Potatoes Ingredients
My crispy roasted potatoes recipe is an indispensable starting point. The method is quite basic, and you can flavor them as you’d like. It’s perfect for any lunch or dinner occasion, or your Sunday roast!
The Secret Ingredients for The Best Roasted Potatoes:
- Russet Potatoes or Yukon Gold Potatoes– these are obviously the basis for this recipe. It’s important to use the right kind of potato for this, as all potatoes are not made equal. Some are waxier than others. Some are more firm than others when cooked. I find Russet potatoes to be a good all-purpose potato for making the most crispy roasted potatoes. However, Yukon Gold potatoes work well here too. If you’re in the United Kingdom: Maris Piper potatoes or Charlotte Potatoes will do the trick.
- Duck Fat or Oil– I like to make my roasted potatoes with duck fat. Duck fat is indulgent and it adds a beautiful savory flavor that using oil can’t recreate. However, I know not all of us have this expensive pantry ingredient on hand. Please feel free to useanyoilyou’d normally use for roasting vegetables (I like to use Sunflower Oil or Safflower Oil). Steer clear of extra-virgin olive oil or plain olive oil–you might want to use an olive oil blend, as you’ll be heating the fat to a high temperature. Goose fat or chicken fat would work wonderfully here too.
- All-Purpose Flour– along with the starchy bits that you get from the beat-up potatoes (more on this in the method for the recipe), all purpose flour helps achieve and maintain a crispy roasted outside on the potatoes. This is where you get some of your crunch factor from. Feel free to season your flour with some dried spices or simply add in some salt and pepper before dredging the potatoes.
How to Make The Best Crispy Roasted Potatoes
This crispy roasted potatoes recipe all starts off with a bit of fat, which is heated in a roasting pan in a preheating oven until it’s searing. I’ve used duck fat here, but I most often make it with sunflower oil or olive oil. Whether you’re using duck fat or goose fat, or simply a cooking oil with a high smoke point is up to you. Safflower, sunflower, grapeseed, peanut, canola, or olive oil– they should all work well here. Just avoid extra-virgin olive oil, which is best left for dressing salads (you don’t want that for this crispy roast potatoes recipe)
Now I know, not everyone is accustomed to cooking with duck fat. It’s definitely an indulgent (and admittedly bourgeois ingredient), to say the least, and perfect for a holiday roast. Duck fat, like goose fat or chicken fat, is an ingredient that transforms anything it touches– especially crispy roasted potatoes–into a gilded masterpiece.
Duck fat provides unbeatable richness and savory flavor that can’t be recreated by butter or oil, or a combination thereof. It can be used to make the flakiest biscuits, the most incredible pie or tart dough, a fantastic fried egg, the most luxurious grilled cheese sandwich, and in this case– the most crispy roast potatoes you will ever have.
Heating up the duck fat whilst the oven is preheating allows for searing temperatures that will immediately crisp up the exterior of each potato as soon as it hits the pan. This is one of the crucial steps in creating unparalleled crispy roast potatoes.
While the fat is heating up for these crispy roast potatoes, large potato wedges are put in some hot water with some salt, and allowed to boil for exactly five minutes (you’ll want to set your timer). Boiling the potatoes allows them to have unbelievably fluffy interiors after they’ve had their time in the oven.
Once they’ve been boiled, the potatoes are strained of any water and shaken about until their sharply cut edges are frilled. The frilled edges and bits of pulverized potato are what turn into a crisp coat on the roasted potatoes once they’re out of the oven (this step helps make for the ultimate crispy roast potatoes)
The frilled potatoes are then dredged in a little bit of flour. This is where you can go ahead and season the flour with a bit of salt and pepper or use your favorite spice combination, or completely hold off until your crispy roast potatoes are out of the oven… Whatever floats your boat.
After the potatoes are dredged– this is where a bit of precaution should be taken– the pan of hot duck fat is removed from the oven and the potatoes are carefully tossed around in the liquid gold. Now, this is where the magic happens in this crispy roasted potatoes tale… The bubbling duck fat will hiss the moment the coated potatoes hit the pan, and they’ll get a bit of color; it’s a gloriously magical moment, but there’s more magic to come.
The pan is placed back into the hot oven. A couple times into roasting, the potatoes are casually tossed about, and they’re left to crisp until deeply golden– almost like toast that’s been left a couple seconds too long in the toaster.
How to Serve Roasted Potatoes
Traditionally, these would be perfect for a Sunday Roast or any kind of roast dinner–literally so perfect with my Lemon and Herb Roasted Chicken.
No matter how you decide to serve these, out of the oven, the roasted potatoes should be crisp and crackly on the outside. Some with deeply caramelized edges, and the inside of each potato will be fluffy. All of these traits are the markings of fantastically crispy roasted potatoes– one of mankind’s greatest creations, if you ask me. A little Maldon sea salt on top, and everything is complete.
Other Delicious Recipes You’ll Enjoy:
- Lemon and Herb Roasted Chicken
- Roasted Tomato Sauce
- Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe
Yield: Serves 4
Crispy Roasted Potatoes
The secret to crispy roasted potatoes is good potatoes, plenty of hot fat, and a bit of love. Despite the very few ingredients called for in this crispy roast potatoes recipe– this recipe does need some loving in terms of setting a timer the moment the water begins to boil for the potatoes, and tossing the potatoes a couple times when they’re in the oven.
I’ve used duck fat here– it adds a nice savory and indulgent flavor that oil can’t recreate, but feel free to use any oil you’d normally use for roasting vegetables. Goose fat or chicken fat would work wonderfully here too.
I like to use Yukon Gold potatoes here (British friends, I’ve provided alternatives in the ingredients list)– they make for nice fluffy insides and crispy outsides, but for even crispier potatoes, stick with good ol’ Russet potatoes.
If you want more flavor, aside from just salt and pepper, add your favorite seasoning combination to the flour before dredging the potatoes– I find this works best.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Ingredients
- 2 lbs / 1 kg Russet Potatoes (Brits: Maris Piper or Charlotte Potatoes work as well)
- 1/2 cup / 112 g duck fat, or an oil of your choice (I like sunflower oil)
- 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- Sea salt, for seasoning
- Pepper, for seasoning, optional
Instructions
- Pour the duck fat or oil into a large roasting pan or large cast-iron skillet (one that allows for all of the potatoes to sit in a single layer). Place the pan in the middle rack of the oven, and preheat the oven to 425ºF / 210ºC.
- While the oven is preheating, peel the potatoes and cut them into large wedges (about 4 pieces if they’re medium-sized, and 3 pieces if they’re small).
- Place the potatoes in a large saucepan (preferably one that has a lid), and fill with enough hot water to barely cover them. Add a few healthy pinches of salt, and wait for the water to boil.
- Once the water starts boiling, allow the potatoes to boil, uncovered for exactly 5 minutes. Once 5 minutes is up, drain the potatoes in a colander, and place back in the saucepan. Place the lid on the saucepan, and rattle the pan for a couple seconds. If you haven’t a lid for the pan, shake the pan from side-to-side until you see that the edges of the potatoes are frilled.
- After the potatoes have been roughed-up, sprinkle the flour over the top of the potatoes, and stir to evenly coat the potatoes in the flour.
- Now, carefully remove the hot pan from the oven and place the potatoes inside the hot duck fat (or oil).The fat will hiss and the potatoes will immediately get a tiny bit of color. Turn the potatoes in the hot fat, and place the pan into the hot oven.
- Roast the potatoes in the oven for 15 minutes, then remove them from the oven and casually toss them with a spatula. Return the potatoes to the oven for another 15 minutes, and toss them again. After this, return the potatoes to the oven for another 15- 20 minutes until they’re deeply bronzed around the edges and audibly crispy on the outside.
- Season with sea salt and a bit of pepper, and serve right away, allowing any excess fat to drip off the potatoes back into the pan.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
10 pieces
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 525Total Fat: 16gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 28mgSodium: 370mgCarbohydrates: 55gFiber: 6gSugar: 3gProtein: 7g
