Home fries. Cottage fries. Whatever you call them the meaning is the same - comfort food at its simplest. This recipe works because of one easy extra step - soaking the raw potatoes in water to remove the starch makes them extra crispy and delicious.
You can also roast these - just follow my oven roasted sweet potatoes recipe.
📋 Ingredients
You really only need potatoes, salt, and oil for fried potatoes. Everything else is just extra goodness.
- Potatoes do make a difference. The best variety for frying are Yukon Gold or Russets. If you use Russets you definitely want to soak them in water before frying but they will be crispier overall.
- Peanut oil or any light vegetable oil is necessary for the crispy crust you're looking for.
- Salt will vary. Use less if you are using regular table salt and more if you're using kosher salt.
- Pepper to taste - I like the coarse ground black pepper for this recipe.
- Butter adds flavor to fried potatoes but if you tried to fry in just butter at a high heat you'd have a smoky kitchen. Add a little right at the end.
🔪 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the 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.
- Heat the oil in a skillet on high heat until it’s shimmering and almost smoking. Watch it carefully or you'll have a fire!
- Add the potatoes and let fry 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 of fried 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. Return to the pan.
- Add the 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.
💭 Tips
Expert Tip: Fry potatoes in a cast iron skillet if you have one – try not to use a nonstick. The coating hampers the frying process because it doesn’t get hot enough.
It seems like people from my parents generation were just born knowing how to make fried potatoes and other things like them. Here are their secrets!
- Slice or cube the potatoes making sure they're the same size so that they all cook evenly. They shouldn’t be too thick or too thin — about 1/8 inch is right.
- Add them into salted ice water and let soak for five minutes or so. Drain, rinse and pat dry before frying. Do not try to fry them when they are wet.
- Use peanut oil unless someone has an allergy. It is the best oil I have found for frying.
- The amount of oil needed for 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 potatoes in 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.
- 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.
If this fried potatoes recipe still isn't what 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 use leftover baked potatoes sliced or cubed for 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 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 pan fries are soggy rather than crispy, 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 easy side dish because there are so many possible variations. You can even make it into a main course by adding cooked sliced sausage or other meat.
- Onions
- Fresh garlic
- Poblano
- Bell pepper
- Jalapeno
You can also cut them any way you like -wedges, slices, or cubes!
Side dishes make the meal, don't you think? Give my mom's perfect fried 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 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
Crispy Fried Potatoes
Equipment Needed
Ingredients
- 6 - 8 large potatoes, peeled (or not) and sliced about 1/4-inch thick
- 1 large onion, optional
- 1 clove garlic, optional
- 1 pepper optional, green, red, poblano, jalapeno, all of them - you decide
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup Peanut Oil, light vegetable oil will work if there are allergy issues
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- Peel and slice (or cube) potatoes.
- Let soak for 5-10 minutes in ice water.
- Drain well and pat dry - make sure they are VERY dry!
- Heat 1/4 cup peanut oil in a skillet on 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.
- 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 1/8 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.
- 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
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We'll never share your email or send you spam. Pinkie swear.First published September 2011. Last updated June 13, 2020 to add ingredient images, step by step images, and better reader experience.
Polly
Marye, thank you for sharing this! I have made this so many times. Everyone that tries it, loves it!
Mariya
These look so delicious! I bet my family would love for me to make these sometime.
Alina
Thanks! I just love fried potates. I actually have never tried making it on my own. I really should!
Andrina Mathew
nice and superb.
Stephen
This came out perfect!! I served this with some corned beef and cabbage that I cooked separately (normally I also add potatos and onions and bell peppers to my corned beef and cabbage during various stages of cooking -- but not this time). It was so much better this way and allowed me to get the veggies cooked and yet still crisp where I wanted without the problems I typically encounter. This will be my go to method from now on and thank you for sharing.
Kathryn Anderson
So I followed the recipe to a T. Well, I started too. I put the oil on high like I was supposed too. I got the potato ready, frequently checking the oil. Not long after I put it on high the thing bursted into flames and scared me to death. A lesson I learned today, fact check recipes when it comes to heat and never ever ever put oil on high no matter what the recipe says.
Marye Audet
Oil will combust if you leave it on high with nothing in it.
Caleb
I’ve tried making cubed country fried potatoes a dozen times before and they always came out tasting undercooked or, when I tried boiling them before cooking, came out like fried mashed potatoes.. I saw this recipe and was skeptical, but thought I’d try it. The whole time they were cooking, I didn’t think they were getting soft because they were hard to the touch with the spatula. I finally got tired of stirring them in the skillet and dropped them on a plate. For some reason, they immediately got soft after they cooled down a bit. Also, they were pretty delicious! I’ll be using this cold water process when I fry my potatoes from now on.
Jerry Smith
It worked! Lol, I am a total novice to cooking. Case in point, I googled how to fry potatoes. I could have sworn I use to fry them in water with peppers, but I couldn't remember the specifics from over a decade ago. I was also concerned at first, because after the first 5 minutes frying in oil, the potatoes were clearly not done yet, but after putting them back in the pan and finishing, they turned out great! Even my picky 9 year old loved them!
Edna
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.
Roger
You had me dreaming there for a while. Then I tried the recipe. It just doesn't work. I followed it to a T and ended up with half-cooked potatoes and charred onions and peppers. Even after I ran them through the microwave on high for 3 minutes they were still "dead in the water," so to speak. I ended up with the usual batch of half-baked (no pun intended) potatoes thrown in the trash. Too bad. Time to move on to someone else who knows how to cook.
Marye Audet
Awww... way to stay classy! Sorry they didn't work for you - but.. you know what they say... it's a poor workman that blames his tools.
bo
That's awesome!!!!! Don't take that shit girl!