Notes
This is one of my favorite ways to cook potatoes. Like the sweet potato recipe included here, this method makes use of two cooking techniques. First the potatoes are boiled to get them tender, then they’re smashed and pan-fried to get beautiful browning and crispiness.
I’ve found that this method works best if the potatoes are allowed to fully cool between the boiling and frying phase. Usually I’ll incorporate this into some meal prep. I boil the potatoes until tender, drain them, and then store them in the fridge overnight before smashing and frying.
These are great on their own, and there are so many ways you can experiment with different flavors, sauces, and seasonings to go with them. I love to serve these with a chile mayonnaise, yogurt sauce, or just on their own with some chile flakes and fresh herbs.
Ingredients
- 1 lb small whole potatoes
- beef tallow, olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil for frying
- salt
Process
Put the potatoes into a pot, cover them with cold water, and add in a big handful of salt.
Put the pot over medium heat and bring to a boil. Once they boil, turn down the heat and simmer until the potatoes can just be easily pierced with a knife.
Drain the potatoes and allow them to cool. If you plan to cook them right away, make sure you give them plenty of time to cool down. But again I’ll stress that the texture is much better here if you allow them to cool for a few hours in the fridge or overnight.
Once the potatoes are cooled, place them onto a cutting board and use a kitchen towel to press down and gently crush them to be mostly flat.
Heat a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat.
Add in a lot of oil (I prefer to cook these in beef tallow)— you should have about a half inch of oil for them to fry in. Once the oil is hot, add in the potatoes and salt them.
Fry on both sides until they are crispy and golden brown, which will be at least a few minutes per side.
Remove from the frying oil onto a paper towel lined plate. Try one of them, and salt more if needed.
Garnish and serve immediately.
