Perfect Roast Potatoes

Perfect roast potatoes are the holy grail of all who like to cook a Sunday roast. After years of tryinig, I think I’m pretty close to perfecting the humble roast potato. I have searched long and hard to achieve this and have read many many theories on how to make crispy roast potatoes that are light and fluffy on the inside.

In this post I will share with you my perfect roast potato method which can be followed by pretty much anyone. If you have any additional roast potato tips, please share using the comment section below.

Perfect Roast Potato Method

1. Wash your peeled potatoes under running water – this will wash away excess starch.

2. Put potatoes in cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for exactly 9 minutes.

3. Drain the par-boiled potatoes and whilst holding a lid on the pan give the potatoes a damn good shake. This should roughen up the potatoes and give them an irregular, fluffy surface. This surface will become beautifully crisp and brown when roasted.

4. Heat a lump of lard (yes lard! It’s seriously not as bad as you might think…Google it :-)) in the oven until it’s very hot – this will stop the potatoes sticking to the pan (It might be best to this just before step 2).

5. Put the potatoes into the hot oil and coat them with the hot melted lard.

6. Put the potatoes in the oven with your meat around 50 to 60 minutes before you’re ready to serve.

7. Serve perfect your perfect roast potatoes!

Some other tips that may help make perfect roast potatoes:-

1. Jamie Oliver says that if you squish the roast potatoes slightly with a potato masher about half way through cooking – the theory is that the more potato that’s touching the pan, the crispier the potato will me. I gave this a go and didn’t find it made a massive difference.

2. My friend Sarah used to use a fork to fluff the outside’s up before putting in the oven.

3. Using lard or dripping (which isn’t actually as bad for you as we have been led to believe – but that’s another story!) will give you a crisper roast potato. Goose fat is the ultimate as it introduces an amazing flavour to the roast potato.

Don’t forget, if you’ve got any roast potatoes left after dinner – don’t throw them away, take a look at my suggestions about what to do with leftover roast potatoes.