The ultimate crispy roasted potatoes make the perfect side dish to your favourite roast anytime of the year but extra special for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 35 minutes
Servings 8
Ingredients
4 tablespoons goose or duck fat
3 pounds Maris Piper potatoes or Yukon Gold
¼ cup polenta yellow cornmeal
1-2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
extra rosemary sprigs
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180C/350F if using the oven for other roasting or 200C/400F if just roasting potatoes on their own (see notes). Place the goose or duck fat into a large roasting tin and place it in the oven to heat up.
4 tablespoons goose or duck fat
Peel the potatoes and cut them into large, even pieces (2-3 inches). Rinse and drain the potatoes.
3 pounds Maris Piper potatoes
Add your prepared potatoes to a large saucepan and cover with freshly boiled water from the kettle. Season the water generously with salt. Parboil these potatoes for 8-12 minutes until a knife penetrates about ¼ inch into the potato. They will still be firm in the centre. Drain the potatoes and add back to the pan. Leave to steam for 3-4 minutes.
Rough up the potatoes by shaking them gently in the pan. The surface will start to fluff up. This is exactly what we want.
In a small bowl, combine the polenta, chopped rosemary, salt and pepper.
¼ cup polenta,1-2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary,1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt,¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Toss the shaken potatoes with the olive oil and the polenta mixture until well combined.
1 tablespoon olive oil
Remove the tray with the goose fat from the oven and add the prepared potatoes. Toss to gently coat the potatoes in the fat. Add some extra rosemary sprigs if desired.
extra rosemary sprigs
Roast in the oven for between 55-75 minutes depending on the temperature you are roasting at. (55-65 minutes for 200C/400F or 65-75 minutes for 180C/350F). Turn the potatoes and baste with any fat half way through. Serve immediately.
Notes
Par-boiling – Don’t overcook your potatoes, you want to fluff the outsides and the potatoes to still hold their shape. The fluffy exterior will give extra surface area to the potato as well as the polenta mix and will give you a super crispy roasted potato. I’ve found that a knife going into the potato by ¼ inch should be enough.
Roughing – You can either do this in the colander that you drain your potatoes through, or in the saucepan with the lid on and shake them up a bit. The KEY is to steam them dry in the pan or colander for 3-4 minutes before shaking them otherwise you’ll get a mess without them actually fluffing up that well.
Pre-heating the fat – Taking the time to put your tray in the oven with the fat to preheat is definitely a must, it gives the potatoes the best start and chance of getting nice and crispy. If it’s not hot enough they will sit and boil and absorb the fat and become greasy.
Temperature
Getting the temperature of the oven right is essential to creating a perfect crispy rosemary roasted potato. We’ve done the testing so you don’t have to. There are two ways to cook them:
180C/350F
Most of the time people are roasting the potatoes whilst their joint of meat or other centerpiece is roasting too. You can do this but just take into consideration that most roasts are being cooked at a lower temperature than crispy roasted potatoes would be best at. So you will need to roast the potatoes for longer to get the same level of crispyness. At 180C/350F you’ll need to roast these for 70-75 minutes. Also make sure your potatoes are higher up in the oven if you can.
200C/400F
If you are privileged enough to have a secondary oven to do a different temperature you can do the potatoes at a higher temperature in there. Or if you are just wanting a tray of rosemary roasted potatoes as a side dish, I recommend roasting them at 200C/400F in the centre of the oven for 55-65 minutes. Sometimes this is easier to do whilst, say for example a turkey is resting on the side and the oven is free to roast your potatoes.
