Don’t settle for soggy potatoes. Learn how to make crispy roasted potatoes – it’s SO easy! They’re irresistibly delicious.
Why you’ll love it: These crispy potatoes go well with everything and are easy to make.
How long it takes: 35 minutes in the oven, plus an hour for soakingEquipment you’ll need: sheet pan, bowl, clean towelServings: 5
Creamy red skin potatoes, cubed and roasted simply with olive oil, salt, and pepper, are delightfully crispy and so, so tasty. They are easy to make in your oven and are a classic side dish for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Crispy roasted potatoes vs. soggy roasted potatoes: one is a clear winner and one just isn’t worth the calories. You could liken it to a fight between good and evil but that’s probably a bit overdramatic.
Ben is a huge fan of these little roasted guys. He always picks out the crispiest ones. So do I. That’s why it’s imperative that maximum crispiness is achieved. This is serious business, folks.
I might even venture to say they are better than fries (!) especially with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of fresh chives or a drizzle of healthy ranch dressing. I also love them with tzatziki! I could eat an entire sheet pan of these in one sitting. You’ll get what I’m talking about when you try these potatoes.
Did you know that potatoes are good for you? While they are high in carbs (mostly starch), they also contain important vitamins and minerals, particularly potassium. The skin has additional benefits, including fiber and polyphenols (an antioxidant). Red potatoes are one of the healthiest choices (Healthline).
Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes. Cold water is used because hot water would react with the starch activating it, making it harder to separate from the potatoes.
How To Make The Crispiest Potatoes
I have four important tips for achieving the best crispy roasted potatoes. You don’t want soggy loners left on the pan. These tips are completely doable, actually pretty much fail-proof.
- SOAK your potato chunks in cold water. This removes some of the starch and helps get them super duper crispy. Soak them at least one hour.
- Preheat the oven with your pan in the oven. That way the pan is nice and hot when you add the potatoes and the crisping action starts immediately.
- DRY the potatoes after draining them. And then dry them a little more. Water = Steam = Soggy = BAD BAD BAD. I use a lint-free cotton kitchen towel. Paper towels are fine, too. Toss the potatoes with oil and seasonings once they’re dry.
- DO NOT OVERCROWD your pan. Just don’t do it. DON’T DO IT. If you do, they’ll steam instead of getting crispy. How many times have I said “crispy?” Crispy. Crispy. Crispy.
So there you have it. Easy steps to take but they yield a huge result. You’ll be happy you went the extra mile!
A sheet pan is a kitchen work horse. I use mine nearly every day. Look for a shallow rimmed pan, 18 x 13 inches. Aluminum pans are popular because they heat up quickly. Some come with nonstick surfaces.
Some cooks like to parboil the potatoes first. The potatoes are partially cooked (soft on the outside, raw on the inside) so that they roast more quickly. Parboiling is great if you are roasting whole potatoes or large chunks. Since the potatoes in this recipe are cut quite small, there’s no need to parboil them.
Yes! Soak the potatoes in cold water to remove the excess starch from the outside of the potato. There are a few reasons why you want to remove that starch (it makes the potatoes burn, it keeps them from crisping up, it turns to sugar) but all you really need to remember is to soak them at least one hour.
Most oils are fine. Choose an oil with a fairly high smoke point but that adds flavor, like extra virgin olive oil or ghee (butter with milk solids removed). Don’t choose an oil with a low smoke point such as flaxseed, walnut, or wheat germ oil. Those are best used in salad dressings.
There are four essential steps to attain crispy roasted potatoes: soak, dry, preheat, don’t overcrowd. Follow the directions on the recipe card below!
About Crispy Roasted Potatoes
This recipe is a basic how-to technique. Once you learn the easy steps, crispy roasted potatoes will be a side dish that you’ll turn to again and again. These potatoes go with nearly everything and are “fancy” enough to serve to company. Pretty much everyone I’ve ever met likes these potatoes.
Serve them for breakfast. Consider making oven roasted potatoes for instead of hash browns or American fries. They are a healthier choice and you don’t have stand over the stove. Add a sheet pan of baked bacon to the oven and all you’ll have to do is scramble the eggs.
Roasted potatoes are great on a salad or a meal bowl. Add crispy roasted potatoes to fresh green lettuce or spinach, toss on a few radish slices, thinly sliced red onion, and tomatoes, and top with homemade red wine vinaigrette or honey mustard dressing. So good!
They make a great side dish. Serve roasted potatoes with baked salmon or parmesan baked cod. They go great with grilled steak or chicken, too. I often make them as a side with sautéed pork tenderloin with apples and onions.
- Red Skin Potatoes: You’ll need about a pound and a half of these tender skinned potatoes. Yukon gold potatoes are another variety that works really well or those really cool purple potatoes. Try a colorful mixture! There’s no need to peel the potatoes first. Just give them a light scrubbing. Size isn’t really important as long as you cut them into evenly sized cubes.
- Olive Oil: A little oil is necessary to crisp the potatoes up. This heart-healthy oil adds a good flavor to the potatoes, too.
- Kosher Salt: Coarse salt is great for roasting because it gives nice little pops of flavor. Fine salt is okay but you’ll want to use a bit less.
- Coarse Ground Black Pepper: Same as the salt, coarse pepper gives you a nice bite of flavor. Visually, it’s a bit more attractive.
Tips for Frying Potatoes⎢Martha Stewart’s Cooking School
FAQ
What happens if you don’t soak potatoes before baking?
How long should you soak potatoes in water before baking?
How long do I soak potatoes to get the starch out?
Why do chefs soak potatoes?
Why do potatoes need to be soaked before cooking?
In addition, this simple step will help potatoes cook more evenly. This is because soaking potatoes removes excess starch, which can build up and create a gummy and uneven texture. You can achieve the best results if you soak your potatoes, strain them, and then soak them again in fresh water.
Why boil sweet potatoes instead of baking them?
Baked sweet potatoes have a higher glycemic index than boil sweet potatoes. This is because the type of cooking affects the structure of the potato starch, making it more or less digestible. That is, the starch in the baked potato is digested more quickly than the starch in the boil sweet potato, thus raising the blood glucose rate more quickly and in greater amounts than when we boil the potato. Roasted sweet potatoes have a glycemic index of 94, while baked potatoes have a 46.
Do you soak potatoes in water before baking?
Ok, here is the secret…. soak your potatoes in room temperature water for 2 hours before you bake them. Yep! It really does make a difference. While resting in the water bath, the potatoes will soak up some of the water and this, in turn, will help make them fluffy inside when you bake them.
Why do potatoes need to soak in cold water?
The additional step of allowing the peeled, washed and cut potatoes to soak in cold water removes excess potato starch from the outside. This will help with the crisping up of the potatoes when they bake or roast. Soaking the potatoes in cold water also prevents the potatoes from browning too fast when cooking.