The Best Crunchy Roast Potatoes You'll Ever Have

By cindyandmojo

Ingredients

• 8 large russet potatoes, peeled
• fine sale
• 1/3 cup canola or sunflower oil
• 2 springs rosemary, leaves picked
• sea salt

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from joannagoddard.blogspot.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 475F.

Cut the potatoes in half lengthways, then again crosswise. Half-fill a large deep saucepan with cold water, add a pinch of salt and the potato pieces. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn the heat down to medium and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until a knife can be inserted easily into the potatoes but there's just a little resistance in the center. You want to just par-boil the potatoes; if you overcook them at this stage, they will become too mushy.

Drain the potatoes in a colander, then return them to the saucepan. Cover with the lid and give the pan a really good shake to fluff up the potatoes; these soft, loose edges will become really crispy during roasting. If you want, you can scrape the edges and tops of the potatoes with a fork to create even more fluffy bits.

Add the oil to a deep roasting tin and place in the oven for 10 minutes until smoking hot. Remove the roasting tin and turn the oven temperature down to 425F. Carefully add the potatoes to the hot oil, then sprinkle over the rosemary leaves and crumble a bit of sea salt on top.

Yum! This looks delicious. I'm wondering what size potatoes she used as I usually use little ones and boiling them for 15-20 minutes would ensure they were mush. I'll experiment and see what works for smaller taters!

sounds delicious and opposed to regular deep-frying, it might not make your entire tiny apartment smell like a deep fryer for days ;)

i make these almost the exact same way about once a week and eeeeveryone always loves them!

An easier way is just to roast them in chicken or duck fat - that way you can dispense with the parboiling.

I find it odd how you always start out with how your mom used to make whatever recipe it is when you were growing up...then you share someone else's or someone else's mom's recipe. How about your mom's recipe?! That would make these "the best _________ you'll ever have" posts much more personal and awesome.

They look delicious. Glad they don't ask for too much oil. It's hard to make potatoes crunchy without adding too much oil. Will def. try them!

This is exactly how we make potatoes! A lot of people use this method, it makes for the best roast potatoes every time. I love all the extra crunchy bits left in the pan.

my biggest frustration in the kitchen is never getting my potatoes crunchy enough. I never even thought of par-boiling them before. ah! (and I'm making a roast chicken tonight... this is perfect!)

I love the idea of fluffing my potatoes with a fork. Even before I read the details and understood what that meant, it just sounded indecently decadent.

YES! I love roasties and learned how to make them over in England visiting friends. They are one of my most favorite foods :-)

That meal (roast chicken, crunchy potatoes, and a salad) would probably be the last meal I'd choose to have on earth! A good roast chicken in something everyone should learn to make. I like mine stuffed with lemon, garlic, and herbs.

I make almost the exact potatoes, although I never thought if par-boiling, roughing them up, or making sure the pan was metal for that extra crisp. I planned on making these Sunday so ill try it.

these look amazing. I always try to take the lazy way out and bake potatoes the whole way, but this recipe's convinced me to parboil first :)

but. the extra step of parboiling might be worth it. soft edges getting crispy? that's like doubling up on the crisp. mm.

just looking at them and reading the description makes me feel like I already made them : )

I will definitely try this. I love potatoes every way but my husband will only eat them if they're "crunchy and crispy". I only wish this didn't take 1 hr 20 minutes to make! That's a long time for your average weeknight dinner!!

Love that you have English roasties on here, being English they are just about my favourite thing! I have recently come to appreciate the goodness of a biiig roastie- cut a big potato into 2 or at most 3. They take a bit more par boiling but then you can really enjoy the difference between crispy outer and super soft inner.

I also like to leave my par boiled potatoes to steam just a bit before I shake them (Jamie Oliver terminology: 'chuff them'!).

A great tip is to parboil the potatoes in advance, shake them a bit to rough up the edges, and then put them in a bowl, uncovered in the fridge for a few hours. The very dry atmosphere in the fridge removes all moisture from the potatoes which means that once you roast them in really hot oil (or goose fat / beef dripping as we do in the UK!), the outsides go really crispy and the insides are really fluffy. Om nom nom...

Yum-o, made these last night and they are kid and diet approved! Used russet potatoes but dieced them smaller and par boiled untill fork tender. Almost as soft as you would use for a potato salad. "Fluffed" them in the collandar (hubby says we should "fluff" them more next time)and put them in a 500 degree oven; a bit hotter then called for but it really dryed them out perfect. Crunchy on the outside and soft and perfect on the inside! I didn't use as much oil either, just two or so glugs of olive oil and stired those babies up! So yummy and easy to make, although a bit more time consuming since I don't normally boil the potatoes first, but I will from now on.

I just made these for dinner tonight and they turned out great! Fluffy on the inside and nice a crispy on the outside. Huge hit with the kids, too.

Omg, just made these..... Blew my mind! And the kids love them too! Love the fluffing trick. I used the colander to fluff them, worked lie a charm.

These are excellent! Love the parboiling step; makes a huge difference. I had to bump up the temp slightly and leave in a bit longer to get them crispy but would absolutely make these again.

I didn't read the directions was in advance. I didn't realize these potatoes would take 1 1/5 hours (minimum) until they were ready to eat. Now it's time for guest to start arriving and I just FINALLY got the potatoes in the oven. Hope they turn out okay since I over boiled --- maybe my temp was too hot since I only par-boiled for 8 minutes.