About This Recipe
This country potatoes recipe should be your next breakfast side dish. It achieves the Holy Grail of any potato recipe: crispy on the outside and fork-tender on the inside. The bacon grease gives the potato a rich and crispy exterior, which complements well with the herb and spice coating.
The key to achieving that crispy crust is using a cast-iron skillet. The high heat retention of this kind of skillet means it can quickly crisp up the exterior of food with overcooking the inside. As for the deliciously moist and tender interior, pre-cooking the potato before pan-frying it helps with that.
FAQ
Why do you pre-cook the potatoes at the beginning of the recipe?
Pre-cooking the potatoes achieves two things. First, it ensures the potatoes partially cook, so there’s less risk of having potatoes seared on the outside but hard on the inside.
Second, it saves you a lot of time. You can even store the potatoes in the fridge after pre-cooking them. Then all it takes is 10 to 15 minutes of prep and cooking time.
If you’re not comfortable with using a microwave, a steamer basket is a fantastic alternative. Just sit it on top of a pot of boiling water and let steam for 6 to 10 minutes.
What other things can I add to this recipe?
A lot! You can experiment with different herbs and spices. The best time to add them is together with the butter and garlic. That short time surprisingly brings out a lot of the flavors and gives the dish a nice kick.
- 1.5 lbs Russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp bacon grease
- 1 pinch of cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp smoked paprika
- 1 clove garlic, smashed
- salt and pepper, to taste
- Place potatoes in a microwave and warm for around 4 minutes.
- Place butter, garlic, and bacon grease in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until butter is melted and garlic starts to sizzle. Discard the garlic.
- Add the potatoes, salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika and toss to coat evenly.
- Cook the potatoes for 8 to 10 minutes, flipping as necessary until golden brown on all sides. Season to taste and serve immediately.