Roast potatoes may well be one of the most versatile side dishes in British cuisine and a hearty plate of these golden beauties can instantly elevate any dish. From Sunday Roasts, to roast chicken, steak, and fish and vegetable bakes — roast potatoes make for the perfect accompanying bite to heavy centrepiece dishes.
And if you’re a roast potato lover like me — you’d be more than happy to eat them as a complete dish all on their own. So, what are the key steps for the perfect plate of roast potatoes? Crispy crunchiness is definitely the most important, and a nice golden-brown colour doesn’t hurt either. It’s often the first part that trips up even the best of chefs.
Roast potatoes are one of the most versatile side dishes (Image: Getty)
When it comes to roast potatoes, achieving the perfect, crispy crunchiness can feel difficult, but by focusing on two key pre-cooking elements, home cooks can ensure their potatoes turn out crispy and perfect, every single time.
Two simple and basic steps taken before you even properly start cooking your roast potatoes can help you achieve your desired crispiness without compromising on flavour and quality.
First though, you must select the right type of potatoes to begin with. According to Kitchen Sanctuary, the best type of potatoes for roast potatoes are the ‘floury’ kind. The food experts explain: “You want to use a floury potato, rather than a waxy potato as these crisp up beautifully on the outside, while staying lovely and fluffy inside.”
The best floury potato varieties in the UK include Maris Piper, Rooster or King Edward. For the US, Russet, Idaho or Yukon Gold potatoes are ideal.
Step One
Award-winning food writer and author of nine cookbooks, Ivy Manning, spent time in Italy as a restaurant stage in Barbaresco and learned some of cooking’s most valuable lessons — including the secret to making the most ‘incredible rosemary roasted potatoes boasting a crispy brown exterior and creamy insides’.
With the technique Ivy learnt, the potatoes don’t stick to the pan, which most roast potato enthusiasts would agree is no small feat.
Pre-heating the baking tray is a game-changer (Image: Getty)
Sharing her learnings from Italy, often considered one of the food capitals of the world, Ivy writes for The Kitchn: “There are a million recipes for roasted potatoes out there, but they all fail for me in one important way: they tend to stick to the pan.”
Explaining how, no matter how much oil she used or how often she stirred her potatoes, she would always end up ‘jabbing at the spuds with a spatula’ in a bid to loosen them from the pan — which more often than not would leave behind the ‘crusty bits’ she was most excited for’ — Ivy shares that she finally came across the game-changing technique during her brief chef stint in Italy.
The food expert writes: “The trick I learned in Italy remedies this [problem of the crispy bits sticking to the pan] and produces the best roasted potatoes I’ve ever had. It’s so simple, I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before: Preheat the roasting pan.”
Cold metal is porous, which makes for a less smooth and more sticky cooking surface until heated. The same law of physics applies to a cold sheet pan, which, after it’s heated, makes it virtually nonstick.
Crispy roast potatoes that don’t stick to the sheet pan, here we come.
Step Two
Simply Recipes writer Stephanie A Ganz, spoke to six chefs to learn their secrets for making the perfect crispy roast potatoes — and they all gave her the exact same advice.
Chefs swear by this roast potato cooking hack (Image: Getty)
Speaking to Will McNeil, Director of Food & Beverage at Trillium; Derek Piva, Executive Chef of Tu Tu’ Tun Lodge; Kevin Tien, 2024 James Beard Finalist; Alex Pineiro, Chef de Cuisine at Winona’s; Peter Som, Culinary Creator and Lifestyle Expert; and Bryan Ogden, Executive Chef at Bourbon Steak New York — Stephanie asked the chefs for their top secret tips for the best roast potatoes.
According to all six chefs, the best way to roast crispy potatoes and achieve that perfect crispy crunch is to boil the potatoes before roasting them.
McNeil shared with Simply Recipes: “I start by boiling baby potatoes or fingerlings just shy of fork tender. After boiling, I immediately shock them in an ice bath to halt the cooking process, then dry them thoroughly.”
Som added that although boiling before roasting may feel like an unnecessary extra step, it’s more than essential. He recommends parboiling the potatoes in a ‘pot of well-salted water for five minutes’, explaining that doing so will not only soften the spuds, but speed up the roasting time as well as get rid of excess starch.
Piva explains it simply: the boiling process will create a ‘soft, fluffy interior’ — and who doesn’t love that in a roast potato?
Chef Pineiro has another expert roast potato cooking hack: adding a teaspoon of baking soda to salted water before boiling russet potatoes. This science-backed cooking tip will increase the alkalinity of the water and break down the outside edges of the potatoes even further, giving them a crispier texture when they’re roasted.
Chef Ogden likes to parboil his potatoes, then cool them fully, after which he places them in a covered bowl which he shakes up to create craggy bits that eventually get perfectly crisped when roasted in the oven.
Tien has one more genius cooking tip in addition to boiling the potatoes, and that is to smash them. He shares: “Smashing them [the potatoes] gives it more surface area and little nooks and crannies for it to be crispier.”
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