How do you make crispy roast potatoes?

[JamesAndTheGiantBanana]

I'm making roast potatoes but I've tried to make them once or twice before and it didn't work, they were soggy and greasy and falling apart, not crispy.

How do you do them? I have king edwards spuds and crisp and dry vegetable oil. I'm also roasting a chicken so I could put the spuds round the meat. Help please!

nooooo - seperate tray for tatties

heat veg oil until v hot

throw in cut up potatoes and i always add an onion - shake them around in the tray so they are covered in oil

roast for at least one hour in a hot oven (180 or so)

par boil the potatoes, then shake around the pan/colander so they get bashed up a bit

get the oil really hot, then put the pots in

some people put semolina flour on teh pots after bashing them

putting them round the chicken will make them soft not crisp

i never par boil and mine are always crispy

When you boil the spuds do it till they're almost ready.

Then drain off the water, put spuds back in the pan and back on heat covered by kitchen paper or tea towel. Shake vigorously whilst on the heat to get rid of any leftover water. This is the step most people miss.

Put them into smoking goose fat and make sure there is space between each spud (i.e. not touching). This is what allows them to go crispy as opposed to just sweating if they're all on top of each other.

Make sure your oven is good and hot.

Voila!

Ah thank you, that must have been where I was going wrong before, putting them round the chicken (useless vegetarian here!)

Right then. Parboil - shake a bit - seperate tray with hot oil - baste every ten mins, roast for an hour. Got it.

I don't have any semolina flour or I'd do that too.

DUCK FAT!!!!

And have at them with a masher (gently) in the roasting tin (gives a good crispy bottom)

Par boil and bash up in colander.

Heat oil up in tray in oven. (ceramic one best I find as this keeps the oil hot while you baste. Thin metal one tends to cool very quickly)

Quickly baste them with the oil, the quicker you do this the quicker they 'seal' which I find gives better results.

Might get them out 2 or 3 times to re-coat if I can be arsed/remember/feel like it.

Sorted.

you are all very violent to these poor potatoes

no shaking, bashing or mashing chez Ruby

Par boil nice floury potatoes, drain and give them a shake, let them dry in their own steam.
heat a roasting pan until its smoking then add potatoes, cook on 200 until nice and crisp, voila!!
I am by the way the master of roast dinners, in particular roasties.

controversial indeed, ruby

i find not shaking definitely makes a difference to crispiness though...

lol at all the roastie controversy. I can't use goose or duck fat because I don't have any, will have to stick to vegetable oil. I'll let you know how they turn out.

I have at last done this successfully.
Firstly you need a floury potato such as a Maris. If you can buy a better quality spud that also helps ie Waitrose or a locally produced ones.

Once you have par boiled give them a good shake to fluff up. Leave in colanda to cool and even better over night. Your Spuds must not contain any water. This deffo works receipes never say this but it does work.

Secondly you need a proper quality tin such as Mermaid. Tin is the best for conducting heat.

GOOSE FAT is essential and I mix a bit of olive oil or Mellow Yellow rapeseed oil. Once again better the quality the better tasting spud. Pop in tin and put in oven to heat also addding seasalt.
I successful cook at gas 4 and turn up later on or cook on high around 200c on high shelve both work well.
Pop you hot tin on the hob and when hot drop your spuds in remembering you need a good gap between each one - overloading is no good. Make sure everyspud has a good coating. Cook for around 45 - 1hr and shake or gently turn over with spoon.
Never fails!

For years I followed Delia's method - tis foolproof but longwinded then one day I was running short of time so parboiled them and chucked them in the deep fat fryer - perfection

I did mine with semolina today after parboiling - brilliant!

If vegetarian, use something like sunflower oil or CHEAP olive oil - the good stuff doesn't actually like high temps.

My secret is to parboil them after lunch (snack lunch followed by dinner about 6pm in our house). Then drain - I don't bother with the chuffing - & stick in fridge.

An hour & a bit before you want to eat, stick oven on full, put tray in with oil & salt. Let it get red hot.

Remove from oven, & quickly but carefully, because it'll spit, tip in the potatoes & shake them about a bit. Return to oven & turn it down to 200C.

After half an hour, turn them over & turn oven down a bit more.

Cold potatoes + very hot fat = extra crispy roasties!

This is actually quite compatible with roast meat, in a separate tray - if doing Quorn things just give them a bit longer than it says because the oven temp will be on the low side.

It's all in the bashing ime. And very hot oil.

I do the semolina thing too, foolproof

You should always use olive oil or goose fat etc. Never use veg oil or sunflower oil as it does nothing for the flavour and makes them taste greasy.

I don't parboil or shake, and I use very little oil.
I cut them in half and score them on both sides, they've had lemon juice on them to stop them going brown when I peeled them and I drizzle with (olive or vegetable) oil. I also sprinkle a bit of cinnamon to them on the scores so it looks nice and put in the oven for an hour and a half (180C). I turn them round after about 45/50 minutes.
They always come out delicious and cripsy.
Agree with them being spaced out and not on top of eachother.

I boil them in salted water first and let them go cold, then put them into a metal roasting dish with a mix of hot sunflower oil and butter (should be sizzling) with plenty of salt and pepper. Give them a good mix so they're all coated in fat and turn them a couple of times while they're in the oven. Gas mark 6 for about 45 mins.

I know you should watch your salt intake, but they won't crisp up properly without it...

We always prepare and parboil a big batch of potatoes to save effort next time we are cooking.

The extra parboiled potatoes are frozen until we need them. They make the best, crispiest roasties ever. Just bung the frozen potatoes in a tin of hot oil - no need to faff about defrosting them.