Roasted Parmesan Potatoes Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my potatoes not getting crispy in the oven? ›

An overcrowded pan will turn a sauna into a steam bath; Your potatoes will cook, but they'll be soft, moist, and bland like steamed potatoes. Even if you're tempted to save dishes by throwing a mound of potatoes onto one baking sheet, parsing them out over two will give them the space they need to crisp up.

These tips are completely doable, actually pretty much fail-proof. SOAK your potato chunks in cold water. This removes some of the starch and helps get them super duper crispy. Soak them at least one hour.

Potatoes. Did you know that you can overcook potatoes? Depending on the potato used, you will get different results. Potatoes heavy in starch, like Russet and Baking potatoes, will get dry and crumbly if you overcook them but will be fine if you just mash them.

Neutral, low-cost oil such as vegetable oil, canola oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, corn oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, etc., work well for roasting. These oils have a high smoke point, allowing the potatoes to get hotter without imparting off flavors.

Boil chunks of potato until they're just tender, toss them none-too-gently with fat (ideally beef drippings) to rough up their surface, then roast them until they're crisp and crackling. The boiling and roughing-up steps are the real keys.

Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes. Cold water is used because hot water would react with the starch activating it, making it harder to separate from the potatoes.

"Placing [peeled and cut] potatoes in water helps prevent oxidation, which turns their exposed flesh brown," says Ronna Welsh, the author of The Nimble Cook and the owner and chef instructor at Purple Kale Kitchenworks in Brooklyn, N.Y. While oxidation won't make the potatoes unsafe to eat, it does change their flavor.

Roasting potatoes:

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and spread potatoes in one even layer, being careful not to overcrowd them. (Note: parchment paper is better to prevent sticking and aluminum foil yields crispier results but it does need to be lightly greased and may still stick.)

Also, be mindful of the oil. Potatoes can react like sponges; too much oil can make your potatoes appear to be soggy. Try placing oil in a spray bottle or using an aerosol to apply the oil to the potatoes. Lastly, ensure that the potatoes are dry before you add the oil.

Why put flour on roast potatoes? ›

Roast for 1hr until golden and crisp, and don't forget to turn them occasionally to ensure they cook evenly. Here's a few tricks to try to make them even more delicious. Sprinkle your parboiled potatoes with flour. This gives potatoes extra crunch.

Parboiling the potatoes is a good start, but if they're not getting crispy during roasting your temperature isn't high enough or there's too much moisture.

Potato baking temperatures range from 350˚ to 450˚F. The sweet spot seems to be at 400˚F, a temperature that cooks the potato all the way through and crisps the skin without singeing it.

If you're cooking the potatoes after they've been in the fridge, the cooking time may be a little longer than normal as the potatoes will be cold. If you are cooking a whole roast dinner and are in and out of the oven you may find your roasties take a little longer.

When roasting meat and poultry, set the oven temperature to 325°F (163°C) or higher. Explore the charts below to learn how to get great results every time you cook. Note: The information on this page does not include foods containing ground meat and poultry, including meatloaf and sausage.

We suspect that the pan may have dried out a little too quickly, meaning that there was not enough liquid for the potatoes to cook in and this may have caused them to become hard. Pan dimensions and materials vary a lot and a larger pan, or one with a very shallow lip, could cause the liquid to evaporate more quickly.

You don't check the temperature

A temperature between 205F to 212F inside the potatoes mean that they are cooked. If the temperature is below that, the potato may be too hard still inside, and if you go above it, they may become gummy.

Roasted potatoes can become soggy if the water content in the potato isn't fully cooked. Different potatoes have different water content percentages. Also, be mindful of the oil. Potatoes can react like sponges; too much oil can make your potatoes appear to be soggy.

Acidic ingredients can slow down the softening process of potatoes. Overcooking: It's also possible that the potatoes were overcooked, which can lead to a somewhat grainy or mealy texture. Potatoes tend to break down and become mushy if they're cooked for an extended period beyond their ideal doneness.