To me, the perfect roast potato has a thick, golden, super crunchy crust, it is fluffy and moist on the inside and perfectly seasoned. How many times have you gone to the effort of making a spectacular roast dinner, only to be let down by less than perfect roast potatoes?
Here’s why this recipe makes Truly Crunchy Roast Potatoes:
1) par boiling the potatoes and roughing up the potatoes creates more “suction” for the surface to absorb fat which is how you make potatoes crunchy and creates the extra thick crust;
2) the potatoes are lightly coated with semolina which creates extra crunch;
3) the potatoes are poured into a pan preheated with hot oil; and
4) the oil used is a high smoke point oil (peanut, safflower, rice bran, sunflower oil)- the hotter the oil when the potatoes go in, the better the crust.
Above all else, the 3rd and 4th points are the key. It makes all the difference and doesn’t take any extra time because the oil is heated in the pan while the oven is preheating. If you don’t have time to par boil, then cut the potatoes up smaller and dust with semolina (but it doesn’t stay on well as when you do this after par boiling), use the preheated hot oil method and you’ll notice the potatoes are a lot crunchier.
This recipe for roast potatoes came after I watched Nigella on a Christmas Special a number of years ago making her perfect roast potatoes. It changed the way I made potatoes forever, and I have never looked back.
Nigella’s recipe is rather indulgent. It is made using goose fat – A LOT of it, around 2 cups (640g/1 1/4lb). I remember reading in the news that the first year her Christmas Special aired, goose fat sold out all over the UK!!
We didn’t have that problem here in Australia because goose fat is expensive – it’s around $15 to $20 per can and you need TWO of them. So basically, making Nigella’s roast potatoes would cost close to $40! Duck fat is the closest substitute, but it is expensive as well, around $12 to $15 per can.
I have made this with both goose fat and duck fat, and it is sensational. I used fat rendered from roasting goose and duck, not store bought fat – I don’t think I could ever justify such a cost, not even for potatoes!
There is a distinct flavour using goose or duck fat that can’t be replaced with any bottled oil. BUT you can still achieve the same level of crunchiness, using the same method as Nigella does but with specific types of cooking oils instead of goose fat. And using a lot LESS oil too.
I call this Perfect Roast Potatoes for Normal People. Nigella’s Perfect Roast Potatoes is for wealthy people who can afford $40 roast potatoes! (Or if you live in the UK, where goose fat is MUCH cheaper!).
I’ve provided directions for Nigella’s recipe in the notes. Just in case you are one of “those” people!
I made these roast potatoes to go with a Slow Roasted Rosemary Garlic Lamb Shoulder. You can’t bake them at the same time because of the different oven temperatures required, but lamb shoulder can be set aside to rest for up to a couple of hours before having to reheat it. So the timing works very well!
Oh, the other thing worth noting is that the potatoes will be crunchy when they are a golden colour with only a few bits of dark brown parts. Standard roast potato recipes are typically darker brown.
Love to hear what you think if you try it! Shout out if you have any questions at all. 🙂
– Nagi
- 2/3 cup / 165 ml oil - it must be one of the following: Safflower Oil , Rice Bran Oil, Peanut Oil, Corn Oil, Sunflower Oil. I used peanut oil. (Note 1)
- 3 lb / 1.5 kg potatoes (Note 2)
- 2 tbsp semolina (best substitute is polenta)
- 2 tsp salt (increase to 3 tsp if you have a salty palette) (Note 3)
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Pour the oil in a metal or cast iron baking dish and place in the oven. Crank up your oven to as high as it will go (mine is 250C/480F fan forced).
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Boil a large pot of water. Peel and cut the potatoes into large pieces, about 6cm/2.2" wide. (Note 4)
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Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes. Drain then return to the pot.
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Scatter over the semolina and salt. Clamp the lid on and give the pot 5 good shakes to rough up the potatoes. Leave the lid on and set aside.
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The oil should be hot enough by the time the oven comes to temperature. Test it by tossing in a pinch of potato - it should sizzle straight away.
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Pour the potatoes in (be careful of oil splashing). Working quickly, use an egg flip to toss the potatoes in the oil, spread them out as best you can then put the pan to the oven.
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Turn the oven down to 220C/425F. Roast for around 50 minutes, possibly up to 1 hr 15 minutes (Note 5), turning once during baking. They are ready when they are a golden brown with some browned edges and they are crunchy. (Note 6)
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Serve immediately! They will stay crunchy for around 30 minutes, but the faster you get them on the table, the better! They also crisp up pretty well when reheated - reheat @220C/425F for around 15 minutes (from room temp, add 5 min from fridge).
1. One of the reasons that Nigella's recipe works is because the smoke point of duck and goose fat is so high. Coating the potatoes in the hot oil when they go into the oven helps immensely in creating a crunchy crust. The hotter the oil, the better the crust.
The oils I have listed have high smoke points i.e. they can be heated to a high temperature in the oven without smoking.
2. Perfect roast potatoes start with the right potato. It has to be a potato with a high starch content so it will bake with a fluffy inside and will soak up the oil to form a crusty exterior.
Australia - the common dirt brushed potatoes (Sebago) work great with this, it's a great all rounder. Otherwise, any of these are great all rounder potatoes for this: Desiree, Golden Delight, Kennebec, King Edwards, Pontiac, Red Rascal, Royal Blue, Spunta.
US - russet is ideal. Yukon Gold is not suitable.
UK - Maris Piper is a good all rounder which is suitable and readily available in all the supermarkets. King Edwards and Desiree are also great.
3. This might seem like alot of salt but you lose some of it in the roughing up.
4. Size matters. If the potato is too small, they will overcook before the outside becomes crunchy.
5. The roasting time depends on the strength of your oven, oil, how much you preheated the oil, and how heavy based the roasting pan is.
6. These potatoes do not roast to a dark golden brown that you may be used to with ordinary roast potatoes. They will be crunchy when they are a golden brown colour with only some browned edges.
7. Nigella's recipe has the same steps except she uses goose fat instead of normal oil. Her recipe calls for 1lb 5oz / 640g of goose fat which is 2 cans. Also she uses 5lb/2.5kg of potatoes which doesn't fit into any of my pans so I reduced the amount of potatoes.
Nutrition assumes 8 servings.
Hi Nagi,
I’m planning on doing these to accompany a Mediterranean style banquet I am having.
In terms of doing as much preparation prior to the event. Would these potatoes re-heat ok or would I be better to boil and rough up then roast an hour prior to main meal?
Thanks, they sound delicious
Heather
Hi Heather! They do reheat pretty well, I do 180C fan / 200C standard for about 15 minutes, but fresh is definitely best! What I did over Easter is to rough up the potatoes with the semolina, then leave them in the pot with the lid off on the turned off stove to steam dry. Then I left them for an hour or so until I was ready to cook. 🙂 N x
Thanks so much Nagi, that’s really helpful!
I’ve done a trial run of the slow cooked lamb and the potatoes today – looking forward to dinner! The aromas are amazing 🙂
Thanks Heather
Hi Nagi – wanting to make these potatoes for Easter Sunday lunch – you mentioned “size does matter” and I’m wondering if you could give a rough idea of how big the potatoes should be???
I feel like I’m a fairly competent cook but the perfect Roast spud eludes me.
Btw will be making your slow roasted lamb for the second time. I’m still having dreams of the last time I made it and the gravy was extraordinary too.
Hi Lisa! It’s in Step 2 – “about 6cm/2.2″ wide” ie once cut 🙂 Is that what you mean? You will LOVE these!! They are so incredibly crunchy, everyone goes nuts over these! I’m making them this weekend too! N xx
Hi Nagi.
The size is also perplexing me a little. Do we cut it in half or quarters then 6cm lengths? Sorry I’m one for numbers with zero imagination so I can’t picture things easily!
Hi Jack! I think the easiest way to explain is with shape descriptions so let me try! Imagine a tennis ball shaped potato. If that was cut in half, then that would be fine because the longest part would roughly be 6 cm. If it was an oval shaped giant one, I cut about 1/3 off, the set the other part in half the other way. That way they are all roughly the same size with 6cm being the longest part of the potato. Hope that helps! I’ll try to remember to add diagrams 🙂 N xx
Tasty! Very oily, I had to use paper towels to get rid of excess oil, which is fine, but the end result was a crunchy potato. I would most likely use 1/3 cup oil next time. I think because I’m getting older (33 lol) I’m trying to be more health conscious with my diet. But I would definitely make these again just tweak oil amount.
Thanks for another great recipe Nagi x
Hi Nagi
I have cooked a few of your recipes now. All have been relatively easy and delicious. BUT these potatoes were on another level ( did burn them a bit … did make them too small..did use rice bran and polenta )and still they were amazing. I gobbled down all the leftovers before bedtime so now for it is Kung Pao Chicken for dinner as the left overs are all gone.
My husband and I are so happy and impressed with your recipes. Have just joined your mailing list so I will keep you updated on my improved cooking skills . Cheers
That’s so great to hear Gail! Thanks for sharing your feedback – N x
These are like a hug for your stomach. Perfectly comforting on a cold dark winters night.
I didn’t have semolina, so I used bread flour. Still came out crunchy on the outside and soft creamy goodness on the inside.
Just made these, best roast potatoes I’ve ever made! Used semolina and peanut oil. I live in Australia, thank you for such an awesome recipe.
I’m in Australia too! So glad you enjoyed them! N xx
Hi Nagi, Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! We just hosted our best Christmas lunch ever using your recipes! We made this potato (which was super awesome and I can vouch that it was truely crispy! FYI, we used polenta.) as well as your slow cooker lamb leg recipe. I have to say they are keepers!
Our family loved them and they all asked me for the recipe. (So I told them that they should visit your website.) Anyway, keep up the good work as always! Your website is my first stop for all non-Korean recipes. 😉
I want to serve these with a beef roast, but don’t think it can sit long enough for an hour bake of the potatoes. ideas?
Hi Pat, what I would do is bake them first then blast in hot oven for 10 minutes while the beef is roasting, I’ve done that before and it works great!
Hi Nagi! I’m making these and the slow roasted lamb shoulder tmrw night for a dinner party. Just wondering if you think a foil tray would work for the potatoes or are they too thin?
Thanks for your help!! Love your recipes
Angie x
I’m about to try these for Christmas. Just wondering what oil all the people who successfully made these used?
I can’t speak on behalf of readers, sorry Kelly! The oil I use is listed in the ingredients 🙂
Hi Kelly, I’m doing a test run now using rice bran oil, I’ll let you know how it goes!!
Angie x
Thank you x
Hi Kelly, I used rice bran oil, a tin foil tray and the oil was about half a centimetre thick. Best potatoes I have ever made. My potatoes weren’t huge, about 7cm long, then halved and they were done in 30mins, so keep an eye on them. I turned them every 10 minutes and tested with a knife when I thought they looked ready. The semolina is a must. They were absolutely perfect!! 👏🏻
Great! Thank you! 🙂
I roughed mine up too much! After cooking for ten minutes my potatoes were soft and I ended up potato fragments.
Tasted great, but not what I invisaged serving to the family.
Hi Nagi! I made these last week and they were so good, I didn’t want to share!!
I will definitely be making these again for Christmas when my family flies over (and probably a few times before then!). Just a quick question, if I want to use my oven’s large dripping pan to make these potatoes, do I need to increase the amount of oil? Is the oil just supposed to barely cover the surface of the pan or should the oil be a few millimeters thick? Thank you so much for your advice and all the amazing recipes!!
Hi Elodie, so glad you love these too! Yes you will need to use more oil if you use a super large pan, I make it an ordinary roasting pan 🙂 You need about 3 mm in the pan 🙂 N x
Would this also work with sweet potato?
Now I’m wondering myself! N x
Yum! Yum! Yum!!! Can I keep the oil to reuse next time? Thanks 🙂
Hi Virginia! Yes you sure can, as long as it’s clean and clear 🙂
Nearly identical to my own technique but I must try the semolina. I pat dry the potatoes after par-boiling. Also I sprinkle the potatoes with lashings of fresh rosemary when they go into the hot oil – yummy with Greek-style lamb.
Ooooh YUM! Love the fresh rosemary idea!
Yum! Best roast potatoes, loved the semolina addition. This is how I usually make my potatoes but I’ve never come across the semolina trick before. They turned out just perfectly. Next time I would probably use 2 tsp salt tops, I think I went a bit heavy for this first time around. But gosh they were delicious that night sliced up as a pizza topping as well!
Fantastic to hear Beck! thank you for the tip on the salt, I meant to put 2 tsp as the base option with 3 tsp for those with a saltier palette. 🙂
Your par boiling time is twice as long as Nigellas is this correct. John
Hi John! It’s partly to get a fluffier exterior which creates more surface area to make it even crispier and compensate for not using goose fat 🙂
Hi Nagi,
What can I use instead of semolina to make it gluten free?
Going to try the roast and the potatoes this week!
Use corn meal or polenta as suggested of course. I am trying the lamb roast and spuds tonight too.
Tried these for the Christmas lunch with my family… these things are deadly. SO DAMN GOOD. I couldn’t tear myself away. Using semolina/polenta made a huge difference, what a clever idea! Thanks Nagi!!
OMG I actually shorted with laughter when I read this!!! Glad you’re as addicted as I am to these! 🙂 N xx