Duck Fat Potatoes are the undisputed king of all roast potatoes! Roasting in duck fat creates an incredibly thick, golden brown crust that’s unbelievably crunchy in a way that you will never be able to replicate using oil.
No duck fat? No worries! Make my Truly Crunchy Roast Potatoes instead. After no-fuss roast potatoes? Make these instead!
Duck Fat Potatoes
You’ve heard of them, you might’ve even seen them on the menu of fine dining restaurants.
So – what’s the big deal with Duck Fat Potatoes? Here’s why they’re held as the best roast potatoes in the world!
Crispiest crust that’s thick and craggy, with a deep golden brown colour;
Stays crispy rather than going soggy within seconds of coming out of the oven like “normal” roast potatoes; and
The best flavour, a pure, clean flavour that doesn’t taste of duck but has a distinctly richer flavour than oil. It’s unique because other animal fats typically have an intense flavour of the animal – like pork fat, which tastes intensely porky.
Plus, it just sounds fancy to say that you’ve made potatoes roasted in duck fat, rather than everyday oil. Right? 🙂
Roasting potatoes in duck fat makes the thickest, craggiest, CRUNCHIEST roast potatoes, in a way that no oil can compare!
In actual fat, cooking with duck fat has been a staple in French cooking since the beginning of time. The French understand that duck fat is like bacon – it just makes everything taste better!
Duck Fat
Here’s what Duck Fat looks like. A decade ago, it was something that was only available in gourmet stores and was fairly pricey (>$10 from memory).
Nowadays, it’s sold in large grocery stores in Australia (Woolies, Coles, Harris Farms) for around $6 a jar full price – you need 1 x 200g/6.5oz jar for this recipe. Duck fat can be reused – just strain out potato bits, then store in the fridge. It keeps for months and months!
I tend to stock up when they’re on sale – they keep in the pantry and have a long shelf life (months, years!). Use it for Duck Confit!
What you need to roast potatoes in Duck Fat
Here’s what you need for Duck Fat Potatoes:
Duck Fat – see and read above;
Potatoes – starchy or all rounder potatoes.
Australia – Sebago (dirt brushed potatoes, pictured) and Dutch creams are ideal. Also Desiree, Golden Delight, Kennebec, King Edwards, Pontiac.
US – Russets are best, Yukon Gold also ideal.
UK – Maris Piper potatoes
Semolina – a little secret ingredient for subtle extra crunch, learnt from Nigella! Semolina is a coarse ground yellow wheat that’s used for making (amongst other things) pasta. It’s the perfect size to “meld” into the coating of the potatoes so you can’t taste it separately but you get the benefit of the extra crunch. If you can’t find it, leave it out. There’s really no substitute – even fine ground cornmeal is too coarse (I’ve tried). Don’t worry, it’s like that extra little finishing touch – but I’ve made duck potatoes plenty of times without (and 99% sure most restaurants do too!
More salt than you expect. Potatoes take a lot of salt!
No duck fat?
Use this recipe for super crunchy roasted potatoes using oil!
How to roast potatoes in duck fat
There’s a few specific steps to making the crispiest roast potatoes using duck fat. Not difficult, just different to the standard roast potatoes:
Heat duck fat until smoking hot – melt and preheat the duck fat in the oven until it’s very hot, so when the potatoes are placed in the hot oil, it sizzles as though it’s frying. This is a key step for crunchy potatoes! Duck fat has a pretty high smoke point of 190°C/375°F which is the temperature to which it can be heated before it starts smoking and all hell breaks loose with your smoke alarms!
Large pieces – cut the potatoes into large pieces so they can hold up to the par boiling + roasting time required. Small pieces tend to disintegrate before the crust forms;
Par boil – an essential step! This allows us to rough the potatoes up (step 6) and activates the starch on the surface which = crunchier potatoes. Also, par boiling is necessary to ensure the potatoes cook through in the 45 minutes roasting time required for a crunchy surface;
Steam off excess water – water is not a friend of crunchy potatoes! So after draining the potatoes well, return to the empty pot on the turned off stove and allow to “steam dry” for a few minutes;
Semolina for extra crunch! Terrific secret tip picked up from Nigella – try it once, and you’ll never look back!
Rough it up! Shake the pot with the lid on to rough up the surface of the potatoes. Roughed up surface = more surface area = more CRUNCH!
Place in HOT oil! The oil should be shimmering and the potatoes should sizzle when they hit the pan;
Roast 45 – 50 minutes until deep golden and SUPER crunchy!
Here’s a nice close look at Duck Fat Potatoes. That crazy crunchy crust!!!
And as for the insides?? Super soft and fluffy!
Stays crispy….and not greasy!
Two more unique characteristics of Duck Fat Potatoes are that:
They actually stay crispy – Ever notice how other promises of crispy roast potatoes might have crispy edges fresh from the oven, but they go soggy within minutes?? Not these! Potatoes roasted in duck fat stay crispy for far longer – 20 minutes or so; and
Not greasy – despite being roasted in a (thinnish!) layer of duck fat, they don’t come out greasy at all – which I think is captured quite well in the close up photos of the potatoes. They’re actually less greasy that potatoes roasted in far less oil the traditional way!
What to serve with Duck Fat Potatoes
The traditional way to serve Duck Fat Potatoes is on the side of roasts. The only thing you need to be mindful of is that you want to serve these potatoes fresh out of the oven to maximise the time they stay crunchy and crispy.
So assuming you’ve only got one oven like me, you need to choose roasts that hold up to resting for the 45 – 50 minutes the potatoes take to roast. My favourites include:
Slow Roast Leg of Lamb and classic Roast Lamb Leg
I avoid the following:
Pork Roast with Crispy Crackling – because the crackling will soften if covered for that length of time;
Roast Chicken – it’s smaller so optimum maximum rest time is around 20 minutes.
From a practical perspective, Duck Fat Potatoes are ideal to serve on the side of slow cooker roasts because then you don’t need to deal with the oven battle. Here are my favourites:
Hope you enjoy!
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Duck Fat Potatoes – the world’s crispiest, BEST Roast Potatoes!
Ingredients
Par boiling:
- 1.75-2kg/ 3.5-4lb potatoes , medium to large, Sebago or Dutch Creams (Aus), Yukon Gold or Russet (US), Maris Piper (UK) (Note 1)
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp semolina (Note 2)
- 1.5 tsp salt , kosher salt
Roasting:
- 200g/ 7oz Duck Fat (or Goose Fat, Note 3)
Serving, optional:
- 2 tsp rosemary , roughly chopped
- Sea salt flakes
Instructions
- Peel the potatoes, then cut into 7.5cm / 3" pieces (Note 4).
- Preheat oven to 230°C/450°F (230°C fan).
Par Boiling & Roughing up:
- Add 1 tbsp salt then potatoes in a large pot of boiling water. Boil 10 minutes.
- Drain potatoes well.
- Shake excess water out of pot, return turned off stove. Tip potatoes in then stand for 5 minutes to steam out excess water.
- Add 1.5 tsp salt and the semolina. Place lid on then shake the pot up and down vigorously 5 to 7 times to rough up the surface.
Roasting:
- Pour duck fat into heavy based metal roasting pan (not glass or ceramic, Note 5).
- Heat in oven for 5 to 7 minutes until it's shimmering and very hot with little wisps of smoke (Note 6)
- Working quickly and carefully, remove pan from oven.
- Transfer potato in (be CAREFUL!), turn to coat in fat then arrange cut face down.
- Roast for 25 minutes. Turn potatoes, roast 15 minutes. Turn again, then roast 10 to 15 minutes until deep golden and super crunchy.
- Transfer to warm serving bowl. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes and rosemary, serve immediately!
Recipe Notes:
- Roasting in duck fat creates a far thicker, superior crunchy crust that stays crunchy
- Par boiling then roughing up the surface creates more surface area which means a thicker, better crunchy crust
- Semolina is coarse enough to add a subtle extra crunch yet fine enough to “meld” into the crust of the potatoes so you can’t separately identify them
- Preheating the oil essential provides an effect like deep frying – instant contact of potatoes with hot oil = better crust!
Nutrition Information:
Best-ever potato recipes
Life of Dozer
Duck Fat Potatoes are too precious for Dozer. How about some potato peel instead?? 😈
Mal says
Truly the best and crispiest roast potatoes I’ve ever had! Make sure not to boil for longer than 10 mins or the potatoes turn mushy and dont roast well
Alexandra says
Divine recipe, Nagi! I was worried that the fingerlings that I had were waxy and not starchy but they ended up amazing, buttery soft on the inside and audibly crunchy on the outside. I will be dreaming of duck fat for a long time!
Susan says
The first recipe I made after discovering this hidden gem…Recipetineats! I used peanut oil since I didn’t have any duck fat kicking around and the potatoes were phenomenal!!! Thank-you, Nagi!… And, poor Dozer, looking rather grim… Toss that silly ole potato peel…Dozer needs sustenance. He is after all the official taste tester for recipetineats, and a mighty fine one at that!!! 🙂
Karen Commisso says
Made these for Christmas dinner, they were amazing. Thank you Nagi – and Dozer – for your fabulous recipes and keeping us going down here in Vic during our lockdown. Hope you had a great Christmas xx
Veronica McKerrow says
These were absolutely delicious!! I served them for Christmas lunch and wish I had made more! Not one piece was left. I didn’t do the semolina and found they needed to cook an extra 10 minutes but they were soooooo crunchy and tasty
Caitlin Young says
Hi Nagi,
Is there a gluten free substitute for semolina, or should I omit it completely?
Nagi says
Hi Caitlin, unfortunately no, but you can just leave it out 🙂 N x
Caitlin Young says
Thanks for your reply. I made these (minus the semolina) for my completely GF Christmas lunch and WOW were they a hit!!
Stuart Shaw says
Hi Nagi, I’m your latest and very keen fan. I was going to make the roast potatoes but in goose fat tonight for guests and I was convinced I’d read you recommended 190c as the smoking point of the fat was 190. So really, I’m just trying reassure myself the temp is fine @ 230C.
Stuart
Nagi says
Hi Stuart, you’re correct. The oven is at 230 but the oil won’t reach that temp – you’ll nail it! N x
Michelle says
Hello! The recipe says to cook at 230 fan-forced. I assume that conventional this is 250 then? Thanks Michelle
Terry says
Can I blast it for the first 30 mins with a Standing rib roast, then pull it out for the 2 hours that the rib roast is cooking on lower heat, then put back in the oven whilst the rib roast is resting to finish off the two 15 min sessions
Mike says
How long are we par booking the potatoes for???
Nagi says
Sorry Michelle, that should be 210 fan! I’ll update this now. N x
Lynn says
Just about to make these- got the duck fat, wondering with convection range if I should still heat as high? Thank you
Ps..the pictures and videos are fabulous
D Stewart says
Could you clarify #3 in the “PAR BOILING & ROUGHING UP” section? Not sure what you mean, thanks!
Nagi says
Hi D, the video should clear it up for you here – you’ll see all the steps 🙂 N x
Jacki Moore says
I love these! So crispy and delicious, my only problem is that I struggle with timing when I am also cooking roast meat. Do you have any tips for making ahead and reheating when you need them?
Jane F says
Ground rice works well too (COVID shortages related discovery).
Nagi says
Hi Jacki, these are best served fresh, however if you need to reheat, blast in a super hot oven to crisp them up again after storing. N x
Angelina says
Omg, they were so crispy! I left them in there too long bc it didnt look brown enough,next time will go with the time indicated.
Pippa Hyde says
So now I’m one of those people that skips straight to Dozer before checking out recipe.
I remember reading when I 1st became a regular on your site that others were doing exactly that and I’m like really… and now I’m one of them too-he is extremely gorgeous, and I love love your site- keep up the great work.
Pippa Hyde says
Oh and the potatoes were fabulous…
Nina says
These were next level! Perfectly crispy crunchy on the outside and pillowy soft on the inside. Thank you for the recipe!
Isra Imroz says
I a really exited to try this recipe , but i would like to know of the duck fat substitues
eagerly waiting for your reply
Nagi says
Here’s the version of this recipe without using duck fat! -> https://www.recipetineats.com/truly-crunchy-roast-potatoes/
Deanna says
I’ve just spent the last half hour looking at your “sides” videos. They are so lovely I could rewatch all day! If this is what they call food porn bring it on! And then dear DOZER too ☺️…you make people very happy.
Nagi says
Thanks so much Deanna!! N x
John Casasanta says
Making tonight, but i dont have a metal roaster anymore. Would you suggest Le Creuset round or cast iron skillet?
Nagi says
Hi John, they should work in either John! N x
Diane says
I’ve made these potatoes along with your dry brine turkey. I cooked the potatoes in turkey juices, and these are probably going to be my favorite potato recipe. Your recipes are amazing, Nagi. Thank you a lot 🙂
Nagi says
Sounds perfect Diane!
Debbie says
Wow! These were amazing. Paired with some seared and roasted duck. Gloriously crispy and delicious. Can’t wait to enjoy again. Thank you!
Kat says
I just made a pre-Christmas test batch of these and HOLY MOLY… Amazing recipe as always!
Nagi says
Wahoo! That’s great to hear Kat!