I love crispy roast potatoes, but I’ve had days where they’ve turned out hard, or chewy, or greasy instead of crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle. It’s so disappointing when you’re really looking forward to eating them!
I’ve spent some time figuring out what’s going on when they go wrong and how to do it right! Here are my tips:
1) Preheat the oil
Preheat your oven to 200°C, then pour some oil into your roasting tin (don’t be stingy) and put that into the oven to heat up while the potatoes boil. There should be enough oil so that when you lift up one side you can spoon it over (baste) the potatoes during the roasting time. If the oil isn’t hot when you put the potatoes in, they will soak it up and they’ll be greasy!
2) Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes
A lot of recipes describing how to make roast potatoes say to boil them for much less time than this, but you won’t get the fluffy middle or the right crispness on the outside. They should be in largish chunks, and they should be starting to go fluffy/break up on the outside, but not yet quite cooked all the way through when you drain them. Don’t be afraid to give them a little poke to see how they’re doing!
3) Let them dry, but not for too long, then shake
Give the potatoes a minute or so in the strainer for the water to evaporate off (or the edges will be water-logged), then give them a gentle toss or a shake to rough up the edges a bit. Don’t let them sit around for much longer than a minute or two before roughing them up, because the outside will start to make a skin, which will be chewy. If you roast them for longer to try to crisp them up, they’ll just go hard; not what you want!
4) Roast them for an hour
Carefully take your hot tray out of the oven, and gently put your potatoes into the oil. They will sizzle and spit, so be careful. Lift up one side of the tray slightly so the oil pools on the other side (don’t spill it!), then spoon the oil over the tops of the potatoes. Put the tray in the oven and roast for an hour, taking the tray out and turning and basting the potatoes every 20 minutes or so.
When you’re happy with how golden they are, take them out and put them on paper towels for a couple of minutes to soak up any excess oil. And there you go!
Let me know in the comments if you give this a try!