If you want to learn how to make the best home fries I've got you! This easy side dish can be served at any meal.
Next time try Noodles Romanoff! It's another vintage recipe I bet your mom made.
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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- Fried potatoes are an ideal side dish for almost everything and just about everyone's favorite
- Simple ingredients
- They're a delicious side dish (with pork chops!), make a hearty breakfast (with scrambled eggs and breakfast sausage - yum!), or delicious lunch.
- Quick, easy recipe!
Southern fried potatoes and onions taste just like home - for most of us this is basic comfort food. This recipe works every time because of one easy extra step -
If you're using russet potatoes then start by soaking the raw potatoes in ice water to remove the starch. This step makes them extra crispy and delicious.
If you're using a thin skinned potato variety feel free to skip!
One reader, Edna, says, "THANK YOU! I have been digging through recipes looking for someone who makes these potatoes like my momma used to. I can't tell you how happy I am that I landed on yours. THEY'RE PERFECT."
📋 Ingredients
You don't need much for fried potatoes.
- The type of potatoes makes a difference. The best potatoes for frying are Yukon Gold or Russet potatoes. I've used red potatoes as well. If you use Russets you definitely want to soak them in water before frying because they have a high starch content but they will be crispier overall.
- Peanut oil or any light vegetable oil is necessary to make the best fried potatoes with the crispy crust you're looking for. I prefer peanut oil over olive oil because of its high smoke point but use what you have.
🔪 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below.
- Peel and slice (or cube) potatoes. Or don't peel - just wash really well.
- Let soak in ice water. Drain well and pat dry. If you are using thin skinned varieties you can skip this step.
- Heat the oil in a skillet on medium-high heat until it’s shimmering and almost smoking. Watch it carefully or you'll have a fire!
- Add the potato slices and pan fry potatoes until they start to get golden on the bottom. Cover the pan and reduce heat to medium. Allow to steam for about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove cover and turn the heat back up to medium high. Flip the potatoes. Fry for a minute or two, or until the bottom layer begins to get golden.
- Dump the pan into a colander over the sink to remove excess oil and moisture. Blot with a paper towel and return them to the pan on medium heat. Return to the pan.
- Add sweet yellow onion and peppers plus any seasonings you’d like. Fry, stirring occasionally, until tender and done. Do not cover at this stage of frying because they will get soggy!
- Add the butter at the very end of cooking.
- Cook just a few more minutes and then serve hot.
🥄 Equipment
You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
- Large skillet (best skillet is cast iron). A large frying pan will work as long as it's heavy.
- Vegetable peeler
- Knife, for cutting the potatoes
- 4 quart mixing bowl to soak the russet potatoes in
- Spatula
💭 Tips
It seems like people from my parents generation were just born knowing how to make crispy fried potatoes and other things like them. Here are their secrets!
Expert Tip: Fry in a cast-iron pan if you have one – try not to use a nonstick. The coating hampers the frying process because it doesn’t get hot enough.
- Slice potatoes or cube them but make sure they're the same size so that they all cook evenly. They shouldn’t be too thick or too thin — about ⅛ inch is right or 2-inch cubes.
- Use peanut oil unless someone has an allergy. It is the best oil I have found for frying.
- The amount of oil needed for good, crispy fried potatoes may vary from one time to the next. Use enough to keep them from sticking.
- Let the oil get really hot before adding ingredients. It won’t smoke but it will ripple in the pan.
- Add the a single layer.
- Don’t overcrowd the skillet.
- Be careful not to turn them too soon! Check the undersides after 2 or 3 minutes to judge how soon you'll need to flip them. Watch carefully, though. You don't want them to burn and stick to the bottom of the pan.
- You can put a cover on the skillet to help them cook for the first bit but take it off for the last part of cooking or your dish will be soggy.
- I use kosher salt. If you use regular table salt you'll need a little less.
- Toss in a few whole garlic cloves to roast.
Start with parboiled potatoes
If my southern fried potatoes recipe still isn't what you’ve been looking for try this -
- Boil the potatoes until almost done the night before or use leftover potatoes.
- Drain and refrigerate.
- Next day pat them dry and fry.
- You can also use leftover baked potatoes sliced or cubed for crispy pan fried potatoes.
👩🏻🍳 FAQs
Here are the questions I am most frequently asked about this recipe.
Cook without moving them around until they begin to brown around the edges...that will take about 5 to 10 minutes. Then maybe 5 more minutes on the other side.
You need a cooking oil with a high smoking point - I prefer peanut oil but if you have allergy concerns any light vegetable oil is fine. Adding in a little bacon grease will add a ton of flavor!
You can but you won't be able to use high heat. If you're set on using butter I'd recommend using cold, boiled potatoes that have been patted dry. Slice them and cook in butter until golden brown.
Soaking in cold water helps to remove excess starch. This allows them to fry up crispier, without burning or sticking.
Actually, if you use a low starch variety like Yukon Gold you don't have to soak them.
The secret is removing the starch AND using a light oil and high heat.
➡️ Why aren't my fried potatoes crispy?
If your fried potatoes are soggy rather than the crispy potatoes you crave, or raw rather than tender, or even burnt rather than golden brown you are probably doing (or not doing) one of the following:
- You’re using the wrong oil
- You’re using very starchy potatoes and not soaking to remove some of the starch
- You’re putting them in the pan wet
- You are overcrowding the pan and they are steaming
- You are leaving to cover on the pan too long
When all else fails check your skillet. A cast iron skillet is definitely THE BEST pan for fried foods.
🧂 Variations
I love this tasty side dish because there are so many possible variations. You can even make it into a main course by adding cooked sliced smoked sausage or other meat.
- Onions - slice sweet onion and add when the potatoes begin to get translucent. Or for caramelized onions slow cook in butter until they are deep golden brown and then mix in with the potatoes just before removing from the stove.
- For skillet breakfast potatoes cook up some bulk sausage then remove it from the pan. Add the potatoes and a little extra oil and fry them as directed. Stir the sausage back in to the finished potatoes. YUM!
- Add a little chili powder and cilantro for some southwestern flavor
- Fresh garlic, garlic salt, or garlic powder to taste
- Poblano
- Bell peppers
- Jalapeno
- Stir in crispy bacon before serving
- Sprinkle with fresh herbs; dill weed, rosemary, or whatever you like
You can also cut them any way you like -wedges, slices, or cubes!
📚 Related recipes
Here are more delicious side dishes to compliment any meal.
Give my mom's crispy skillet potatoes recipe a try and see if they aren't a big bite of home.
What’s new? Check out my Restless Chipotle & Co. Store on Amazon where you'll find all kinds of nostalgic goodness! Thanks so much for being a part of Restless Chipotle!
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it a 5 star rating. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
Crispy Fried Potatoes
Equipment Needed
Ingredients
- 6 - 8 large potatoes, peeled (or not) and sliced about ¼-inch thick
- 1 sweet onion, optional
- 1 clove garlic, optional
- 1 bell pepper, optional - green, red, poblano, jalapeno, all of them - you decide
- salt to taste, I prefer kosher salt
- black pepper to taste, I prefer coarse ground pepper
- ¼ cup peanut oil, light vegetable oil will work if there are allergy issues
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
Step one
- Peel and slice (or cube) potatoes.
- Let soak for 5-10 minutes in ice water in a large mixing bowl. You may skip this step if you like.
- Drain well and pat dry - make sure they are VERY dry!
Step two
- Heat ¼ cup peanut oil in a large skillet on medium high heat until it's shimmering and almost smoking.
- Add potatoes and let fry for about 2 minutes or until they start to get golden on the bottom.
- Cover the pan and reduce heat to medium. Allow to steam for about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove cover and turn the heat back up to medium high. Flip the potatoes. Fry for a minute or two, or until the bottom layer begins to get golden.
Step three
- Dump the pan of potatoes into a colander over the sink to remove excess oil and moisture. Blot with a paper towel and return them to the pan on medium heat.
- Add the onion and peppers plus any seasonings you'd like on your potatoes.
- Saute, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender and done. Do not cover at this stage of frying because they will get soggy!
- Add the butter at the very end of cooking.
- Taste for seasoning and serve hot with plenty of cracked pepper.
Notes
- Slice or cube potatoes the same size so that they all cook evenly. They shouldn’t be too thick or too thin — about ⅛ inch is right.
- Slice them into salted ice water and let them soak for five minutes or so. Drain, rinse and pat dry before frying. Do not try to fry them when they are wet. You can skip this step if you want, especially if you're using thin skinned potatoes like Yukon Gold.
- Use peanut oil unless someone has an allergy. It is the best oil I have found for frying.
- The amount of oil needed may vary from one time to the next. Use enough to keep them from sticking.
- Fry potatoes in an iron skillet if you have one – try not to fry them in nonstick. The nonstick coating hampers the frying process because it doesn’t get hot enough.
- Let the oil get really hot before adding potatoes. It won’t smoke but it will ripple in the pan.
- Don’t overcrowd the skillet.
- You can put a cover on the skillet to help them cook for the first bit but take it off for the last part of cooking or your potatoes will be soggy.
- If these potatoes still aren’t the recipe that you’ve been looking for try this. Boil the potatoes until almost done the night before. Drain and refrigerate. Next day pat them dry and fry. You can also bake potatoes (or use leftover baked potatoes) and use them for pan fried potatoes.
Nutrition Facts
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We'll never share your email or send you spam. Pinkie swear.First published September 2011. Last updated July 4, 2021 to add more & clearer information.
Pam Eurto
These look great.and need to be on the menu this week. Unfortunate for you there will always be someone gripping at you. This is usually due to their inability to.follow directions. Or changing the ingedients.. I did love you comment to him, well done.
Dianne
I have a glass topped stove, so I can't use my iron skillet and you say not to use nonstick. What is the best alternative?
Marye
The glass topped stove doesn't allow pans to get hot enough to really get a good caramelization which is the same problem with the non-stick pans... so in that case you can use the nonstick pan because it won't make a difference.
Squirrel Butler
Thanks, Marye, I am trying these out today!
Squirrel Butler
Man, I REALLY want to make these!!
But the instructions are contradictory, at least to me! It says to fry for 2-3 minutes, check bottoms, but it doesn't say to flip them at that point; it says to check them, and then cover the pan and reduce heat. It doesn't say to flip them until after the steaming. Is that correct?
Also, in the helpful notes above the recipe (and they really are helpful, so thank you!), it says to fry for 10 minutes without touching them, until they're browned at the edges, and then flip and fry the other side for 5 more minutes, which is totally different from what the recipe card says to do.
I am not trying to be critical, i really am not. These look delicious, and other reviewers have raved about them, but I suspect they have more 'kitchen intuition' than I do, and know how to make sense of the differing instructions.
Help! Thanks!
Marye
You flip them after steaming. In the notes it did say to fry 10 minutes but it should have said 5-10 minutes because a lot depends on the exact heat of your pan, the oil you use, the type of potatoes you use and so on. Thank you for your questions - I try to think of how the instructions should read but I don't always get it right. 🙂
Deborah
The round fried ones are what I grew up calling pan fried potatoes. I learned how to do them from my grandmother. She’d put a lid on the pan for a bit and cook them on a lower temperature, then take the lid off and turn up the heat some to brown and crisp them. Of course she added the onion and black pepper. We ate these with pinto beans or purple hull peas, onion and cornbread. And in season, sliced tomatoes. Makes me so hungry!