Super Crispy Crunchy Roast Potatoes. Crispy on the outside and fluffy inside! Great as a side with roast dinners. These are so good! I've been asked so many times "how do you get your roast potatoes so crispy and light?"
There are zillions of recipes you can get hold of, all claiming to promise you crispy roasties. Some of them work, and some of them don't. The recipe I am going to share with you all today is one which will work! If you don't want to take a risk on Christmas Day or on the day of a special family dinner to see if you are going to get super crispy roasties, have a little trial run this week.
What are the best potatoes for roasting?
First of all, you need to make sure you choose the correct potato. There are over 500 varieties of potatoes, all with different characteristics, flavors, textures, and price!
I acknowledge that your location could be absolutely anywhere in the world, and potatoes have different names, so here are a few names of the type of potato you need to hunt down for the best results;
Cara, Celine, Desiree, King Edward, Majestic, Maris Piper, Dunbar Standard, Golden Wonder, Kerrs Pink, Pentland Dell, Stemster, Valor.
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By far the most common and readily available in most supermarkets are the King Edwards and Maris Piper. If you can't find any of these potatoes, look on the bag and see if they are suitable for 'mashing', or if they say they are 'fluffy'.
To calculate how many potatoes you will need, I use roughly 2 medium sized (size of a clenched fist) potatoes per person.
If you are doing a roast dinner, that is, roasting meat, I would boil the potatoes first, leave them to cool on a plate until the meat is cooked, then roast the potatoes once the meat is out of the oven. (the meat can have it's 'resting' time whilst your potatoes are roasting)
You need to have a really hot oven, as hot as you can get it.
Cooking times will vary depending on what else you may have cooking in the oven. The fuller the oven, the longer it will take!
These super crispy crunchy roast potatoes are so fluffy on the inside and crisp on the outside.
You can also make our Crispy Roasted Parsnips together with these potatoes, the method is the same, and you use the same pan too! Take a look here for the recipe. It's really easy!
Let's get straight to the recipe and see how we make these delicious super crispy crunchy roast potatoes! Please enjoy!
Ingredients
8 medium sized potatoes (About 30cm x 5-6 cm in size or 200g each)
4-5 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
Salt and Pepper for seasoning
As you know, potatoes come in different sizes so choose potatoes roughly the size of your clenched fist or bigger.
Instructions
1. Peel the potatoes and cut into quarters or smaller. the smaller the potatoes, the higher the crispiness sensation you will have in each piece!
2. Place in a saucepan with cold water and a pinch of salt, and bring to the boil.
3. Keep an eye on the potatoes once the water starts to boil. After approximately 10 minutes, you will notice the sides of the potatoes start to 'flake'. When they look like the one in the photo, it's time to take them off the heat and drain them. Using the lid, to keep the potatoes in the pan, tip all the water out.
4. Once drained, holding the pan with one hand and the lid covering the pan with the other hand, give the potatoes a good toss and shake. Your potatoes should look like this.... all flaky and fluffy.
5. Turn the potatoes out onto a plate and let the steam evaporate from them. The idea here is to dry the potatoes out a bit before roasting. If they are a bit wet, they won't crisp up as well in the oven.
6. Whilst the potatoes are cooling, and once your meat is out of the oven resting, make sure your oven up to as high a temperature as possible. Pour the vegetable oil into a roasting tray. There should be about 1 cm deep of oil covering the tin.
Put the tray with the oil in the oven and let it heat up until it's sizzling. You will know if it's hot enough when you place your first potato in...if you don't see a sizzle, heat the tray up for longer.
7. When the oil is really hot, place the potatoes in the tray, taking care not to splash any oil on you. Using a spoon, pour/spoon some of the oil all over the tops of the potatoes, and spread them out in your tray. Sprinkle some salt (optional), and let the crispiness begin!
When the potatoes begin to brown, turn them and wait until they look like this....
And there you have the crispiest roast potatoes!
I hope you enjoy making them as much as you will enjoy the crisipilishiness of them.
The cooking time should be about 25 - 35 minutes, depending on how hot and efficient your oven is and also the size of your potatoes. As a guide, when your potatoes look like the ones in the photo below, they're ready!
We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our Super crispy crunchy roast potatoes. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!
Recipe Card
Super Crispy Crunchy Roast Potatoes
Super Crispy Crunchy Roast Potatoes. Crispy on the outside and fluffy inside!
Ingredients
- 8 cm medium sized potatoes, About 30cm x 5-6 in size or 200g each
- 4-5 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
- Salt and Pepper for seasoning
- As you know, potatoes come different sizes so choose potatoes roughly the size of your clenched fist or bigger.
Instructions
- Peel the potatoes and cut into quarters or smaller. the smaller the potatoes, the higher crispiness sensation you will have in each piece!
- Place in a saucepan with cold water and a pinch of salt, and bring to the boil.
- Keep an eye on the potatoes once the water starts to boil. After approximately 10 minutes, you will notice the sides of the potatoes start to 'flake'. When they look like the one in the photo, it's time to take them off the heat and drain them. Using the lid, to keep the potatoes in the pan, tip all the water out.
- Once drained, holding the pan with one hand and the lid covering the pan with the other hand, give the potatoes a good toss and shake. Your potatoes should look like this.... all flaky and fluffy.
- Turn the potatoes out onto a plate and let the steam evaporate from them. The idea here is to dry the potatoes out a bit before roasting. If they are a bit wet, they won't crisp up as well in the oven.
- Whilst the potatoes are cooling, and once your meat is out of the oven resting, make sure your oven up to as high a temperature as possible. Pour the vegetable oil into a roasting tray. There should be about 1 cm deep of oil covering the tin.
- Put the tray with the oil in the oven and let it heat up until it's sizzling. You will know if it's hot enough when you place your first potato in...if you don't see a sizzle, heat the tray up for longer.
- When the oil is really hot, place the potatoes in the tray, taking care not to splash any oil on you. Using a spoon, pour / spoon some of the oil all over the tops of the potatoes, and spread them out in your tray. Sprinkle some salt (optional), and let the crispiness begin!
- When the potatoes begin to brown, turn them and wait until they look like this....
- And there you have the crispiest roast potatoes!
- I hope you enjoy making them as much as you will enjoy the crisipilishiness of them.
- The cooking time should be about 25 - 35 minutes, depending on how hot and efficient your oven is and also the size of your potatoes. As a guide, when your potatoes look like the ones in the photo, they're ready!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 277Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 15gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 183mgCarbohydrates: 29gFiber: 3gSugar: 2gProtein: 3g
Nutrition information isn’t always accurate
Delicious Roast Dinner Ideas
Here's a selection of delicious Roast Dinners for you to enjoy!
Sunday Roast Chicken Dinner, a very easy to follow recipe with cook times and instructions for the chicken, gravy, roast potatoes and vegetable side dishes
Roast Beef Dinner with cook times for rare, medium and well done. Juicy tender beef served with all the sides!
Chinese Roast Chicken is a nice aromatic tasting dish with Chinese flavors, serve as a dinner or appetizer using some lovely pastry wraps. Delicious!
How to Cook Prime Rib Roast. Full of flavor, tender and juicy, this will not disappoint your diners!
How to make Slow Cooker Roast. Use Beef, pork etc, leaves your meat full of flavour and of course super tender! Easy Instructions.
Best Pork Roast Ever! A lovely marinade which will give great flavor and keep your pork juicy. Great for the oven of grill.
Honey Glazed Ham. Super easy recipe and guaranteed to be packed full of flavour and very moist. Perfect served warm or cold, or both!
Char Sui Pork, Chinese Barbecue Pork is a delicious recipe, full of flavor. It's sticky, sweet and slightly caramelised and goes perfect with a bowl of ramen, fried rice or simply eaten on it's own as an appetizer!
Yorkshire Pudding, a.k.a. popovers are so delicious! Serve as part of a main meal with lots of gravy, or as an appetizer and fill them with goodies. You can also serve these as a dessert, adding some nice fruits or pie filling and ice cream! You decide. They are so yummy! Make in one pan or mini muffins.
Super Crispy Crunchy Roast Parsnips are the perfect accompaniment to a Roast dinner. Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside!
Roasted Flattened Chicken. A quick and easy way to roast chicken and keep it moist. Way better than rotisserie! Serve as part of a hot dinner or have cold cuts!
Hawaiian Chicken - A great dinner idea with wonderful caramelised pineapples on top and cooked it a delicious sauce! Serve with cous cous, rice, mashed potatoes, whatever you enjoy!
BBQ Bacon Stuffed Chicken. A wonderful flavored piece of chicken, stuffed with bacon and other goodies, and coated in a homemade rub. Perfect for Grilling / BBQ or oven. You choose!
Spicy Tandoori Chicken Drumsticks is a wonderful baked or grilled recipe using a homemade spice mix. Full of flavor and great for a dinner or to serve at a party!
Herb Crusted Stuffed Chicken, a delicious juicy baked chicken breast stuffed with cream cheese and spinach and coated in crispy breadcrumbs.
Flattened Moist BBQ Garlic and Lemon Chicken with a delicious marinade to give you juicy chicken every time. Easy instructions of how to cut a whole chicken into portions.
Roast Pork and Crackling - Let me show you the easy trick to getting a nice crispy crackling PLUS tender juicy meat!
Brown Sugar Roasted Pork Loin with Cream Cheese Stuffing. This is a lovely recipe using tender pork loin, stuffed with peppers, cream cheese, spinach and garlic then rolled with a delicious Brown sugared spice rub. Oven roasted, this joint of meat comes out nice and juicy and full of flavor
Cauliflower Cheese. Ideal if you need to make ahead. Simply put it in the oven when you're ready! This is great as a main meal or served as a side, with a nice roast dinner, or ham.
Cowboy Chuck Roast A super easy and great tasting dinner! Slow cooker too!
Terry
says:Just wondering if I can finish these off in a Weber grill? I have chicken fat from rendering a chook and would like to use that, but would like the flavour of the fire. Excellent site, btw! Oh, and we have nearly the same haircut– except I dye the top-centre third brown, the top L/R thirds blue & leave the side natural (grey/white). Also use a bit of wax to keep it standing up to the middle (a short mohawk). xx
Lovefoodies
says:Hey Terry! Thanks for your kind words! Your hair sounds amazing! As for the potatoes, I haven’t tried cooking them on a grill. You do need the heat to be very high to get the crispy crust, so if you can achieve that without burning (and still have the flavor of the smoke) then give it a go! let us know how it turns out as I’d like to know… and I may just try it myself!
Have a great week!
Karen Kennedy
says:I did these but instead of draining them in the pan, (was too heavy for me to hold and keep the lid on) I put them into a colander, then shook them around in that, then transferred them to a plate to dry out. I used goose fat, and put them in at 180c with the meat (beef brisket joint) for half an hour when the meat was finishing off, then when I took the meat out to rest for half an hour, bumped the temperature up to 220c until they were crispy and golden. Did them along with your crispy parsnips, and both came out perfectly. Will definitely use these recipes again, and am going to try your roast pork recipe this Sunday with pork belly. Muchas gracias desde España
Len
says:Fantastic crunchy roast potatoes, best ive ever tasted!! Thank you soooooo much
Stevie
says:My mouth was watering at the pics..I could almost smell them. Can u tell me, you advise, as hot as your oven can go, when I did this before, the oil smoked and filled the house with a “not so nice” smell and have since been doing them at a lower temp for longer with good results, am I doing something wrong? Should the roasting tray be covered?
Lovefoodies
says:Hi Stevie, oil can often smell burnt if you use ‘old’ oil or an oil which burns at a lower temperature or a baking pan which may have residue on from a previous meal. I suggest using a vegetable or sunflower oil which can be heated to a much higher temperature than say olive oil, and to make sure it’s not left in the oven too long before you add the potatoes. I usually give it around 5 minutes if your oven has reached the right temperature before I add the potatoes. Every oven is different and will take a different time to reach the set temperature so try that and your oil shouldn’t burn. Enjoy the crispy spuds!
Christina
says:These are great! You can also add mustard powder and or tumeric to the salt and pepper to season before roasting. They crisp up well and taste great.
Melanie
says:My best friend from childhood’s mother is from Scotland and makes these every Christmas. They are SO good! Hope I can pull this off and make them for a party. Thanks for the recipe.
lovefoodies
says:Hi Melanie, Glad you like them!
You will be absolutely fine, just follow the instructions and make sure your oven is really hot so as to get the crispy outer :)
Have fun and let me know how they turn out!
Stacey Hamilton
says:This looks delicious and would go perfect with my roasted pork butt. I have a very hectic day…If I boil them, Can they sit out for an hour or two before I roast them?
lovefoodies
says:Yes Stacey! Even better! If you half boil them (so they are half cooked) drain then shake them in the pan just like the instructions, place them on a plate and leave them. I usually put a piece of kitchen paper over them, but dont cover them with foil etc as you want them to be dry. The drier they are the crispier they will be. I often make them a few hrs in advance like that when I do a roast dinner so I don;t have everything happening all at once. They will be perfect! Happy cooking!
Stacey Hamilton
says:Thank you…I bet they are amazing!
lovefoodies
says:oh yessssss!
Alicia-OneMotherHen
says:Thanks for this, I’m having people over for roast lamb on the weekend and I needed a fail safe method for perfect spuds ;)
lovefoodies
says:Oh ALicia! I’m so jealous!!! Lamb is my favourite! i am sure your guests will enjoy your dinner very much! Did you already decide on the veggies? I have a great Garlic Cabbage, unbelievably easy and will also keep warm nicely if you want to make it a little in advance with your roast dinner. It’s such a great side maybe you would like to check it out https://lovefoodies.com/garlic-cabbage.html
Good luck with your lovely meal and have fun!
Christina Conte
says:Oh dear God, those pics look incredible, especially the roast pork with crackling! We don’t get the range of potatoes here in the US like in the UK (unfortunately!) I miss all the amazing British things we don’t get here :(
lovefoodies
says:Hi Christina, try to look for a name of potato that is ‘fluffy’ or suitable for mashing. I tried to give a list on the recipe in the hope our US friends could recognise one or two types. Good luck and I hope you get to find them!!! (so you can have with your roast pork & cracking..that’s a must!!!)
Christina Conte
says:Oh, thank you, but I already know which ones are best to use here in the US (I actually have my own post on how to make roast potatoes on my own blog: Christina’s Cucina). It’s just that being from Scotland, I KNOW exactly how delicious YOURS taste!! And it’s hard to find a nice pork roast with the skin on, here, too! :( So I will just salivate at your pictures! ;) Thanks again! CC
Yates Scott
says:OMG I made this with my favorite potato, Betty Crocker Jumbo Bakers………..they are like the size of three giant oranges end to end, they are fantastic potatoes, one of them made 12-16 little potato balls for this recipe so i only had to use two potatos for five people. And they came out Fantastic,………….i used olive oil in the oven and sprinkled the potatoes with my own mix of seasoning salt, onion salt, celery salt, garlic powder onion powder, ground white pepper, paprika, lemon pepper and fresh ground pink peppercorns all in equal parts mixed together , its fantastic!!!
lovefoodies
says:So glad you liked it Yates! I know you are a good cook so I am very complimented indeed! Thank you for letting me know, and also those flavours you added sound wonderful!
Christina Conte
says:FYI, pink peppercorns are related to cashews, so if there are any nut allergy sufferers that you’re cooking for, it’s important to know. My daughter found out the hard way :(
lovefoodies
says:Thanks so much for the information re pink peppercorns. I didn’t know that! I’ve added the advice just under the spice mix, as it is important for sure!
And now I know you are originally from Scotland that will explain the drooling!!! I was visiting your FB page yesterday and saw some wonderful dishes there, I too was drooling!
Julie Guntharp
says:This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try it. I love the step by step instructions. Fellow foody, mamajules
lovefoodies
says:Glad you like the recipe mamajules!
Christine
says:WOW!! That looks sooo good!
Thanks so much for sharing this at The DIY Dreamer… From Dream To Reality last week!
lovefoodies
says:Thanks Janice, and thank you for hosting your party!
Linda Nortje
says:Good grief! I never knew there were so many different kinds of potatoes :-) Love your technique! Thank you for sharing at our ALL MY BLOGGY FRIENDS party :-)
lovefoodies
says:Thanks Linda, and yes, it’s amazing how many spuds there are!
Debi Bolocofsky
says:these look so good. I’m pinning and printing the recipe for Easter dinner. We have a link party called Wednesdays Adorned From Above Blog Hop and would love to have you share this and any other posts with everyone. It runs from Tuesday night through midnight Sunday. We also have a $50.00 Visa Gift Card Giveaway. Here is the link to the party.
http://www.adornedfromabove.com/2013/03/wednesdays-adorned-from-above-blog-hop_26.html
We hope to see you there.
Debi and Charly @ Adorned From Above
lovefoodies
says:Hi, thanks Debi for your lovely comments! I hope you enjoy the recipe at Easter :) I will pop over and say hello now!