Fat Free Crispy Potatoes
Truly crispy potatoes without oil are possible using this simple cooking method. This is a great side for so many different meals!
It’s strange to see “fat free” and “crispy” so close together, isn’t it?
I certainly can’t blame you if you’re skeptical and think that potatoes can’t be fat free and crispy at the same time…but oh, they can! Trust me, they can.
So if there’s no oil, how do the potatoes get crispy?
I discovered the crispiness sort of by accident two years ago. I had seen a recipe for crispy potatoes from Nigella Lawson, and they looked so good…but the recipe called for two 11-ounce jars of goose fat for 5 lbs of potatoes!!! Can you imagine the fat and calories? I couldn’t. So I tried making them in a similar way, but without the fat. And they crisped nicely! It’s not the same crunch as a french fry of course, but I find that I still snack on them and am satisfied just the same.
Part of the crispy potato magic comes from a little bit of flour, and the other part of the magic comes from the way these are cooked.
You dice them up, just like you would with any regular old potato recipe:
Then you start by parboiling them (just partially cooking them) for 3-4 minutes at a rolling boil.
Then you drain the potatoes, put them back in the pan with a spoonful of flour, and shake the pan up real good.
This changes the shape of the potato pieces, makes the edges lighter, and coats the edges with the flour:
Then you throw the potatoes onto a sheet pan and put them in a really hot oven, and that’s when they develop their crisp brown edges.
I first posted a similar recipe when I started the blog a little over two years ago, but so many of you weren’t part of the Fifteen Spatulas family at the time, and these are just too great to snack on this time of year. Don’t be shy about getting creative with the seasoning. In addition to salt and pepper, you could do garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, chili powder, and all sorts of stuff that strikes your fancy. Have fun with it!
Fat Free Crispy Potatoes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- Fill up a big pot (I use my pasta pot) about 1/2 full with cool water. Peel the skin off the potatoes, and cut them into evenly sized bite-size chunks (you want them sized slightly larger than the dice you find in board games). Place the potatoes in the water and season the water with several tbsp of salt, the same amount that you would add to pasta water. It’s important for the water to be salty so the potatoes are seasoned inside.
- Bring the whole pot to a boil on high heat, with the lid on. Once the water is boiling, cook for an additional 4 minutes, with the lid off. Drain the potatoes, return the potato pieces to the pot (don’t put the pot back on the heat), and sprinkle over the flour. Put the lid back on the pan, and shake it up like crazy until the potato edges are banged up and the flour is nicely distributed.
- Dump the potatoes onto a sheet pan and make sure they are in a single layer (don’t crowd the potatoes, or the edges won’t get crispy). Give it a good sprinkling of sea salt and whatever other seasoning you like, and they are ready to go into the oven. Roast for 30-45 minutes at 450 degrees F, but watch them carefully because the roasting time will vary depending on the size of your chunks. Enjoy!
Such a great idea – I’ve got to try these!
A note of caution with these:
I took “shake the pan up real good” to mean “shake it like you want to kill it.”
I pretty much ended up with mashed potatoes. 🙁
Still cooked ’em and ate ’em though.
Love this site and the many yummy recipes. The crispy potato recipe calls for all purpose flour yet is listed in the gluten free section. Will it work with rice flour?
Hi Rolande, thank you for catching that. That category was incorrectly checked off, and it has been fixed. Regarding the rice flour, I have never tried it, but it might work since rice can also get brown and crispy. If you try it please let everyone know how it goes back here in the comment section.
These are brilliant!
I’ve made them twice in the past three days–that’s how popular they are.
I use unpeeled white potatoes and whole wheat flour (and I’ll try rice flour next time for my gluten-free guests). I mix the seasonings with the potatoes and flour in the pot, so the seasonings also nicely coat the potatoes. My favorite seasons: garlic sea salt, smoked paprika, and nutritional yeast.
Thank you for this recipe!
YAY! So happy to hear you’ve enjoyed them and have played with the seasonings. That’s wonderful!
Tried this tonight with brown rice flour and it turned out great!
So happy to hear that, Rachel!