Crispy Oven Roasted Potatoes
Use simple kitchen equipment to make the most crispy roasted potatoes ever! All you need is olive oil, salt and pepper.
Potatoes are so ubiqitious that sometimes I think we can forget how GREAT they can be.
I mean, we’ve all eaten our share of limp fries and undersalted hash browns, have we not? Some form of potato seems to come with almost every meal we eat, and I know that I often don’t give that a second thought.
It wasn’t until I started perfecting my method for making the best crispy potatoes at home that I started to appreciate how much better GREAT potatoes are versus the average ones we eat all the time.
These roasted potatoes are coated in a generous amount of olive oil, seasoned to perfection, and roasted on a rack in the oven so that every inch of their outsides get super crispy, while their insides remain perfectly creamy and luscious.
Why you’ll love this Crispy Potato Recipe
- They’re the crispiest potatoes you can get without deep frying. You can cut some fat from your potato side dish, but you don’t have to skip the crispiness!
- The potatoes will bake about 45 minutes, but you only have to stir them once. Almost all of the cooking is completely hands off.
Ingredients for Crispy Roast Potatoes
- baby Yukon Gold potatoes – I love these because they get super crisp on the outside but stay creamy on the inside.
- olive oil – while we aren’t using as much oil as deep frying, we’ll still need some good glugs of olive oil to crisp up the potatoes.
- salt – because a bland roasted potato is kind of terrible, right?
- ground black pepper – just for a little extra seasoning.
How to make Crispy Potatoes
- PREP. Place a wire rack inside a rimmed baking pan. Toss the potatoes with the oil, salt and pepper then spread them on the rack, cut side up.
- ROAST. Transfer the potatoes to the oven and roast until they are very crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, turning them over once halfway through cooking.
How long to roast potatoes
Timing is crucial for perfectly roasted potatoes, and it can depend a little bit on the size of your potatoes. But most baby Yukon Golds, that have been cut in half, should take about 40 to 45 minutes to roast to perfection at 400 degrees F.
Home Chef Tips
- Aim for uniformity in your potato size. If there are a few extra large potatoes in the bag, they may need to be cut into thirds or quarters to match the halved size of the other potatoes.
- Don’t skimp on the olive oil – all of it is needed. Make sure each potato is well-coated, as the oil plays a crucial role in getting the crispy exterior.
What to serve with Crispy Oven Roasted Potatoes
I like to serve crispy roast potatoes with a dipping sauce. I’ve included a simple recipe for a shallot and rosemary Greek yogurt dipping sauce in the recipe card below.
Garlic dip is another great idea for a dipping sauce for crispy potatoes.
How to store leftover Crispy Potatoes
Any leftover crispy potatoes can be cooled to room temperature, then stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Reheating Crispy Roasted Potatoes
Reheat crispy potatoes in the oven or air fryer until warmed through and crispy again!
Crispy Potato Recipe FAQ’s
If potatoes turn out less-than-crispy, there could be a few reasons: not enough oil (make sure each piece is well coated), too low of an oven temperature (aim for at least 400 degrees F), or overcrowding the pan (use two pans if your sheet pan isn’t large enough to give each piece of potato space around it for air to circulate).
Boiling potatoes before roasting isn’t necessary. Cutting your potatoes into small pieces is enough to ensure they cook through in the oven.
While soaking potatoes first can help the outsides crisp up, you do NOT need to spend the extra time and effort on this step unless you want to. This recipe includes plenty of olive oil that will allow the potatoes to get nice and crispy.
Crispy Roasted Potatoes
Ingredients
For the Potatoes:
- 1 ½ pounds baby Yukon gold potatoes halved lengthwise
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
For the Shallot-Rosemary Yogurt:
- ¾ cup Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon minced shallot
- ½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
Instructions
Make the Potatoes:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place a wire rack inside a rimmed baking pan. In large bowl, toss potatoes, oil, salt and pepper until well combined. Spread potatoes on rack, cut side up.
- Transfer to oven and bake 40 to 45 minutes or until potatoes are very crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, turning once (so that cut sides of potatoes face down) halfway through.
Make the Shallot-Rosemary Yogurt:
- In small bowl, stir together yogurt, shallot and rosemary. Serve potatoes with yogurt.
Notes
- Aim for uniformity in your potato size. If there are a few extra large potatoes in the bag, they may need to be cut into thirds or quarters to match the halved size of the other potatoes.
- Don’t skimp on the olive oil – all of it is needed. Make sure each potato is well-coated, as the oil plays a crucial role in getting the crispy exterior.
This is the holy grail of potato recipes. I adore crispy potatoes but I”m so impatient when I make them on the stove top. Totally trying this method next time.
Thanks Courtney! I hope you do give it a try. You’ll never go back to roasted potatoes any other way!
Love that your motivation for these was kicking your husband’s trash! I’m all about a little competition. Haha!
These look amaaaaaazing, by the way!
Haha, heck yes! Thanks so much, Karly!
Thanks for the potato compliment! I pride myself on my ability to make delicious breakfast – crispy potatoes in particular. I learned to cook good potatoes from my mom. See, my parents loved making breakfast on the weekends. My dad would always grill something (loves it), whether that be bacon, sausage, ham, etc. Well, if you grill a lot, you know that is a big ordeal. It takes time to prep the meat, preheat the grill, cook the delicate breakfast meats low and slow, and then let them cool. My mom managed this by letting her hashbrowns sit on a flattop for the entire time – barely touching them. They’d be perfectly browned and caramelized because they sat there for what seemed like an eternity. Haha.
Ahhhh…THAT explains why you’re so good at it.
My husband also has more patience than me when it comes to roasting potatoes (and making omelettes). Perhaps I too shall give this a try;) I only wish I could get some fresh rosemary…
Awww, I wish I could figure out a way to mail you some fresh rosemary and have it still be fresh! I think just a smidge of finely chopped dried rosemary would be OK here 🙂
I have learned in cooking technique can be EVERYTHING! I have cooked a roast on a rack, gotta try potatoes! I heard that baking breaded chicken like this makes it super crispy as well!
Yeah, I am a total convert to this rack roasting method now! I imagine it would work great for anything that you want crispy on the outside!
And Jeff’s verdict? They sound wonderful to me.
He said they were great, but didn’t go as far to say they were better than his 😉
i think I’m going to try this with sweet potatoes!
Good luck! Let me know how they turn out!
These look wonderful! I especially love that yogurt sauce, what a great idea!
Thanks so much, Mary!
So no stirring at all required? Really? I mean I like to think I make a mean crispy breakfast potato and I only stir/flip them once but it still means to happen because at least half will burn if I don’t. I have to try this, I need my crispy potatoes on the weekend. With the dipping sauce of course.
Well, I did flip these once, halfway through. But really, you don’t *have* to flip them, because I think since they’re on the rack, they would cook pretty evenly anyway. But yeah, before, I would stir my potatoes ALL the time, because I was so paranoid they would stick to the baking pan. And they turned out terrible.