The Perfect Crispy Potatoes

Crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside perfect crispy potatoes! A great side dish or base for veggie bowls and even salads. I will go over a low to no oil option below as well.

I remember just learning to cook from scratch. Pouring over countless recipes and cooking videos.

Everything seemed so complicated! Every meal seemed to be such a daunting process!

Once you get started though, once you get into the habit of actually cooking your food, its not complicated at all. When you’re used to microwaving most of your meals, of course cooking from scratch looks complicated!

Real food takes time. Real food takes love.

And practice haha.

Potatoes are my absolute favorite. Mashed, fried, french fries, for breakfast, lunch or dinner! They are so filling and warm. Ugh. I love potatoes with a passion.

It wasn’t until our family went plant based that I learned how to hone my potato cooking skills.

When you go plant based, low oil AND minimal grains you really learn how to cook with what you’ve got. It was tricky. But I would say that I’ve got it down pretty well at this point.

It took lots of fails and undercooked potatoes to finally figure out how to get truly perfect crispy potatoes!

Now, we are no longer a 100% plant based family but there is no way I would abandon all of the tips and tricks I learned during that part of our health journey.

So, here is one of my favorite go to way to make the perfect crispy potatoes.

The secret? Boil them first.

No really, that is the trick to getting that fluffy pillowy inside with a crisp outside. And if you heat up your water while peeling and chopping the potatoes, it doesn’t add much cook time at all.

And if you’re going low fat or oil free- boiling these potatoes will help you achieve a nice outer texture without getting an overly dry and crunchy result.

PIN THIS FOR LATER!

Let’s get cooking!

First, fill a large pot with water and set it on high heat to boil.

While the water is heating up, chop and peel those potatoes! If you have an old enough child, let them have a go at peeling. A great fine motor and life skills practice moment!

I like to half them length wise and then take that piece and cut it length wise again before cutting it into thirds.

You should end up with 12 pieces per potato half if you cut this way. Feel free to cut into any size though, just remember that the bigger you cut, the longer the cook time!

Add the potatoes to the pot of water.

Let them cook for around 10 minutes. This is an estimate. I am checking for doneness throughout that entire time, looking for them to be just fork tender.

While the potatoes boil, preheat your oven to 400 degrees OR if you have the setting for convection (my favorite for this type of potato) to 375.

Once the potatoes have reached desired doneness, pour them out into a strainer and drain that water.

After draining the water, dump the potatoes onto a towel and pat dry. This step can be skipped if you aren’t adding oil, but I find that if using oil, drying the potatoes a bit helps the oil adhere.

Next, throw those potatoes back into the pot you used for boiling (save some minutes on dishes!). Then add oil and seasonings. I love a mix of salt, pepper, paprika, dill and garlic powder. Sometimes I’ll use parsley in place of dill. To each their own!

Give that bowl a good thorough mixing.

Put a silicone baking mat or parchment paper down on a baking sheet and add the potatoes on top, spread them out in an even layer.

Cook them for 15-25 minutes. Its going to depend on the size of your potatoes. Because you already cooked the insides of them, you’re just looking to get that degree of crispness to your liking. You really can’t go wrong here as long as you check them occasionally. That’s the beauty of these perfectly roasted potatoes!

If I remember, sometimes I will broil for the last two minutes of cooking too for some extra extra crispness.

Once done, take out the potatoes and serve warm!

My favorite way to serve these perfect crispy potatoes are as a side dish with burgers, as a bed for salads (anyone else love warm wilty lettuce?) or with eggs and sausage in breakfast burritos! Yum.