Definitely a cut above the usual roasted potatoes! The unique thing about Greek Lemon Potatoes is that they are cooked in a heavily flavoured lemon garlic broth so they suck up all that flavour before roasting to golden perfection. They’re utterly addictive!
Greek Lemon Potatoes
Welcome back to the final instalment of GREEK WEEK!!! We started the week with Greek Chicken marinated in the most incredible yogurt marinade, served up a big pan of homemade Greek Baklava on Wednesday and we’re finishing up the week with the much anticipated Greek Lemon Potatoes!
We’re serving all these with a side of fresh Greek Salad and Tzatziki for dolloping (in the Greek Chicken recipe) – and see here for more Greek recipes.
Plate smashing is optional – but loads of garlic in everything is not!
Let’s be clear about one thing up front:
These are not your usual roasted potatoes
Don’t get me wrong. Throw spuds in the oven drizzled with oil, salt and pepper, and I’ll happily munch my way through them.
Make the effort to follow a few extra steps to make the crunchiest roast potatoes you’ve ever had, and it’s like all my Christmases have come at once. Thick, craggy crusts, perfectly seasoned, fluffy insides.
But these roasted Greek Lemon Potatoes….
These are unlike any other roasted potato I’ve ever had because they’re flavoured all the way through. Flavoured with all THIS ↓↓↓
How I cut potatoes for this recipe
We want chunky pieces for this recipe so they hold up to the relatively long cooking time. I cut medium potatoes into 3 pieces, as pictured below, and large potatoes into quarters or thick wedges.
HALF BRAISED, HALF ROASTED
The idea behind Greek Lemon Potatoes is that they are braised in a lemon-garlic flavoured broth so they suck up all that flavour, then you continue roasting them until the liquid evaporates, leaving behind just the oil to roast the potatoes until golden.
The concept sounds easy enough, but actually, it’s quite tricky to do in one pan. I swear, it’s scientifically impossible to roast potatoes until golden without the garlic burning. It’s one or the other – golden garlic or golden potatoes (unless, like I do with my Herb Roasted Potatoes, you add the garlic midway through cooking).
Also, I kept ending up with burnt ridges on the potato from the lemon juice and broth that caramelises on the base of the pan, and a disappointing lack of golden crusts promised by recipes I used.
After two, three, five, seven attempts, I threw every recipe I read out the window (virtually) and settled on an easier, less risky way of making Greek Lemon Potatoes so they come out as golden as possible: Braise in one pan to suck up flavour, transfer to a tray to bake until golden, drizzled with the flavoured oil from Pan 1.
How to make Greek Lemon Potatoes (my safer way)
You can skip the transference step if you want. But just be mindful that you’ll need to keep a super close eye on the potatoes and they won’t be as golden as you see in these photos, you’ll likely end up with thin dark burnt ridges and the garlic with burn (gee, I’m really making this sound appetising! 😂)
In the interest of total transparency …
Because I hate recipes that lie, I want to be 100% clear about expectations: these are not the crispiest roast potatoes in the world. I truly think it’s scientifically impossible to get seriously crispy roast potatoes once they’ve been submerged in all that lemon and broth (believe me, I tried my heart out!).
So if seriously crunchy potatoes is what you are after – and I’m talking seriously thick crunchy crust and they stay crisp for ages – use this recipe: Duck Fat Potatoes or Truly Crunchy Roast Potatoes.
But these Greek Lemon Potatoes do have nice crispy edges and some crispy surfaces (see video and photos) and in any case, you won’t miss major crunch factor because these have so much more flavour than any other roasted potato.
It was actually scary how much of these I was able to consume in one sitting. I just couldn’t stop – they are so darn good!! – Nagi x
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Greek Lemon Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg / 2.5lb potatoes (Aus: Desiree, US: Yukon Gold, UK: Maris Piper) (Note 1)
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock/broth , low sodium (Note 2)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 5 garlic cloves , finely grated using microplane (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp salt (Note 4)
Garnish (optional)
- Lemon wedges, fresh oregano leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°Cfan).
- Cut potatoes: Peel potatoes and cut large ones into thick wedges – about 3cm / 1.2" thick – and medium ones into 3 (see photo in post).
- Coat potatoes: Place potatoes in a roasting pan with all the other ingredients. Toss well.
- Roast 45 minutes: Roast for 20 minutes. Turn potatoes, roast for a further 25 to 30 minutes until the liquid is mostly absorbed by potatoes/evaporated and you're left with mainly oil in the pan.
- To crisp the potatoes (optional): Transfer potatoes to a separate tray. (Note 3) Tilt the original roasting pan and scoop off as much of the oil as you can (some juices is ok), then drizzle over the potatoes.
- Roast 35 minutes: Transfer potatoes to oven and roast for 35 – 40 minutes, turning once or twice, until potatoes are golden and a bit crispy on the edges.
- Heat pan juices: Return pan #1 with the garlic juices to the oven for the last 5 – 10 minutes or so to reduce down and make the garlic golden. (Optional, Note 4)
- Plate up: Transfer potatoes to serving platter. Drizzle over the reduced garlic pan juices (or toss potatoes in the pan). Serve, garnished with lemon wedges and oregano if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
When Dozer stole a dog treat at the pet shop while I was trying to take cute photos of him eyeing off the treats…..
Good but next time cut the salt by 1/4 or use low-sodium broth, especially if serving with tzatiki. Topped off the lemon juice with an extra half lemon.
Hi MJ – The recipe does specify to use low sodium broth – N x
Made these with Greek chicken and a Greek salad. SO DELICIOUS! I served breadsticks with this to sop up the garlic sauce. I’ll definitely be making this again.
Best potatoes ever. Served them with Chicken Shawarma pitas. Thank you
I’m so glad you love them Danina, they are dangerously addictive!
Do you think the braising step could be done in the instant pot to cut down on time and then transfer to a baking sheet?
Hi Tricia, I haven’t tried to be honest – but it sounds like more work transferring them back and forth!
These are wonderful! My potatoes came out flavorful and crispy! I love that you included how much salt to use. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
You’re so welcome Dawn, I’m so happy you loved it!
Thanks for the great recipe. There was one single potato left in the serving dish – in fact no matter how many I cooked, I’m pretty sure they’d all have got eaten!
I love hearing this! You can never have enough potatoes 😂
These were amazing! Whole family loves them and they’re a fussy bunch,
Mine came out so crispy on the outside, even though I hadn’t expected them to, but were just so soft and perfect on the inside.
Definitely the best potatoes/wedges I’ve ever made!
Woah what a compliment, I’m so happy you loved them Sacha!
Thanks, Nagi! Made these yesterday for part of our Superbowl feast…delicious!
If I could eat potatoes everyday, these would be my go to. But will make again or my carb-reward. Thanks again!
I’m so glad you loved them Vanessa!
Oh wow, these potatoes are ridiculously good. I made them to go with your honey butter slow cooker pork and your garlic spinach and for the first time EVER my family praised my cooking! I felt really proud that I made an entire meal that was so so so tasty and just wanted to say thanks for making me look good. It seemed less of a chore too because I loved what I made and that never usually happens – I’m usually so tired it’s hard to enjoy eating dinner. I am going to be using your recipes religiously from now on!!
My sister and I made these to bring to a Greek themed potluck. One of the guests has family in Greece and has been there often. His comment on tasting these potatoes was “they taste like home”. The ultimate compliment! Dinner guests were asking to take some of the leftovers home with them. This recipe will be one of our “go to’s” from now on!
My family always picks a theme for Christmas Eve Dinner. This year it was Greek. These Greek Lemon Potatoes were a huge hit! Will be making these more often instead of regular roasted. Thanks for this recipe!!
these potatoes my kids said were the “Bomb” fabulous lemon garlic taste … never knew about the braising…
Thank you for the recipe. But your description prior to the recipe is too long. Please get to the point quicker. And some of your notes (ex: note 3) is not useful, if we follow your recipe, we trust the salt quantity), just makes for lots of going back and forth. Making succinct recipes is a must in the blogosphere these days, when some people just want the recipe.
There is a recipe link under the title that takes you right to the recipe if you don’t want to read the description. Most of us, however, enjoy reading her descriptions.
And you are? Do you see all those huge brands and endorsements down below in the page. Why don’t you go follow your own advice and start a mega successful food blog, and if you try to say you have one, go put your energy towards that.
I appreciated the extra information. It helps me understand better what kind of dish this recipe will produce, and it also helps me know up-front that these are different from strictly traditional Greek potatoes and how they’re different.
Absolutely delicious 😋. Made these tonight and I’m very happy with them. Thanks Nagi
Great!!! x
Heavenly taters, will be my go to recipe. Just made them, under broiler for last 15 mins. luscious and amazing!
Glad you enjoyed it Johnny! N x
Hi Nagi,
These are the most amazing potatoes I’ve made; Even my picky fiance loved them! I did not do the transference stage – just left the potatoes in the pan and turned the oven onto grill/broil for 10 minutes after the potatoes became soft and there was still a tiny bit of liquid left. They turned out brown and lovely! Not super crispy but very very delicious.
Will be making this again and again.
I made these! On the first try I followed the recipe but the potatoes ended up with a sore after taste.
I made them the next day, I used dill instead of oregano, used an olive oil basting oil and added extra lemon juice. The results were amazing!
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Nagi, I want to try these potatoes but I have limes instead of lemons. Can I sub it but use less lime juice? I am usually a risk taker but I don’t want to spoil the taste and have rejected potatoes.
Your comments will greatly assist
Thanks
Leisel
Hi Leisel! I’m afraid limes will give it a completely different flavour 🙂 It will still be tasty! But it just won’t be lemon potatoes, it will be lime potatoes! N x
Yummy, yummy!
Wow! I made these tonight alongside your Greek Chicken. What a flavour bomb!! A regular favourite from now on. A perfect match for a zingy citrussy Marlborough Chardonnay 😉
From Carol in Auckland
I tried these potatoes after trying lots of different lemon potato recipes online and WOW. Just WOW. I don’t want to have potatoes any other way! Thank you so much. It is a bit of work but definitely worth every second of it. Cheers to a lovely dish!! X