No-Fail (3 Ingredient) Roasted Potatoes - The Recipe Rebel (2024)

FAQs

Why can't I get my roast potatoes crispy? ›

You want the fat to be spitting hot. Drain the potatoes, put lid back on the saucepan and shake gently, which roughens the surface a little which makes them even more crispy. Add to tray, baste and turn at regular intervals and you should end up with crispy roast potatoes.

Also, be mindful of the oil. Potatoes can react like sponges; too much oil can make your potatoes appear to be soggy. Try placing oil in a spray bottle or using an aerosol to apply the oil to the potatoes. Lastly, ensure that the potatoes are dry before you add the oil.

If you want to make this roast potatoes day before recipe and keep the potatoes crispy, ensure you put them in hot oil before baking them. This will help the potatoes stay crispy. If you're preparing roast potatoes in advance and find they have gone soggy in the fridge.

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.

This sure sounds a lot like potatoes that have been stored too long, in too cold of an environment before cooking. When potatoes are held below 41°F for too long a period, the starches convert to sugar and it changes the cooking chemistry.

Here's a few tricks to try to make them even more delicious. Sprinkle your parboiled potatoes with flour. This gives potatoes extra crunch. A tablespoon is all you need!

Vegetable oil is the ideal choice for those who like a subtle, or blander flavour from their roast potatoes, because it cooks best at a medium heat and so the potatoes won't take on too much flavour from the oil. This also means the potatoes won't overpower other dishes.

Neutral, low-cost oil such as vegetable oil, canola oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, corn oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, etc., work well for roasting. These oils have a high smoke point, allowing the potatoes to get very hot to achieve maximum crispiness.

Goose fat is ideal for roast potatoes as it has a high smoke point, so the potatoes can be cooked at high temperature to make sure that the outsides are golden and crisp. Goose fat also gives the potatoes a good flavour. Goose fat is often sold in jars or cans can be bought in larger supermarkets and on-line.

The best potato for the job will change throughout the year, as the level of sugar fluctuates with each variety during storage. Dry matter – the non-water part of the potato – also varies. Too much and the potatoes will fall apart when they are cooked, too little and they will be soggy.

Why are my roasted potatoes mushy? ›

Parboiling the potatoes is a good start, but if they're not getting crispy during roasting your temperature isn't high enough or there's too much moisture.

If you know you are going to be pushed on Christmas Day, then it is possible to half-roast the potatoes the day before (see Preparing Ahead, below). On Christmas Day the potatoes just need to be re-roasted in a hot oven for about 20 minutes.

The potatoes cook on the inside when you parboil, so the baking time is basically crisping them up to perfection, which we do at a high oven temperature. If the potatoes are raw, when you use a high temperature, the outside of the potatoes will burn before the inside cooks.

If you're roasting potatoes start-to-finish in the oven, you should always salt them after cooking. This is to avoid drawing out moisture while they cook and making the outer layer leathery.

You should store peeled and cut potatoes in water for 24 hours to ensure the quality of your final product. "If you drain the potatoes and notice they are turning brown, that they've started getting soft, or if they are slimy you should discard them," says Brigman.

Parboiling the potatoes in alkaline water breaks down their surfaces, creating tons of starchy slurry for added surface area and crunch. Offering you the choice of oil, duck fat, goose fat, or beef fat means you can get whichever flavor you want.

Simply tossing raw potatoes into the pan before roasting will guarantee tough results because the high water content will steam out over the course of a long cooking time. "You feel more like you're eating the skin, because the structure just collapses inside," says Hanson. "It also gets too hard.

They just need to be coated with oil. The oily coat is needed to actually roast the potato. If you would put them into a hot oven without any oil, they would dry out rather than roast because the temperature of the outside of the potato would be limited to 100C/212F until all water had evaporated.

Soaking the sliced potatoes in water helps to draw out some of the starch from the middle of the potato, resulting in a sturdier, crispier French fry.