I love potatoes. Seriously, I have to be careful and not make too many or I will eat them all. That’s any kind of potato, mashed, fried, roasted… whatever. So to me there is nothing sadder than the ubiquitous restaurant roated potato. They are not crispy. I’m not sure what they are actually. A boiled potato might even be better. They are almost always underseasoned, they don’t have enough salt, and while you can see the rosemary you ususally can’t taste it.I never order them, they are never worth it. If they do come on my plate, I usually don’t eat them. You can tell by looking at them, they won’t we worth the effort it takes to eat them. Which is sad because good roasted potatoes come down to two things. Time and salt. You need a nice hot oven, patience and good salt. A humble restaurant with nothing fancy to offer could really set themselves apart by putting some time and attention to their roasted potatoes.

So secret number one to a good roasted potato is to boil them. I know, its a second step, but the results are worth it, and it does not take any longer. You can spend your cook time in the pot or in the oven, either way its gonna take the same amount of time. So boil your potatoes all the way…. I mean it, all the way. One time I forgot all about my potatoes and boiled all the water away and caught the potatoes just before they burned in the dry pan, and they still made GREAT roasted potatoes. When you boil them in generously salted water you give them a ton more flavor then you can by roasting them with salt on them. They also come out much creamier than they would if you just roasted them. If you are a busy person, who does not have a ton of time to cook. You can boil these potatoes ahead of time and just roast them when you are ready. A great time saver for a busy weeknight meal.

Let’s talk about your salt. You might be tempted to ignore me and use table salt… don’t. Your potatoes will be terrible. They will be too salty and you won’t want to eat them. If you can’t find the Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, use Morton’s Kosher salt. It’ll be fine. Just DO NOT USE table salt. As a matter of fact, throw away your table salt. I promise you won’t be sorry. That stuff tastes terrible.

My final bit of advice here is don’t take your potatoes out of the oven too soon. You might get impatient, but they are just so much better if you wait until they are golden brown and crispy. If you think they might need some more time… wait. You are right, they need more time.

If your local grocer does not have Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt you can get it on Amazon 😀

I will earn a small commision on some of the products on this page if you purchase through my link. I have only recommended products I know and love. I have not recieved anything from these companies for free.