Garlic Smashed Potatoes

Garlic Smashed Potatoes are the ultimate side dish -- with just a few ingredients, they're easy to make, go with almost everything, and are incredibly delicious. Packed with aromatic herbs, they're rich, creamy and crispy -- all at once.

Do you love crispy French fries and creamy mashed potatoes?

I'm hearing a yes. 😉 And that means you will really love Smashed Potatoes, which are a combination of both of them.

Typically made with smaller potatoes, like baby Dutch yellow potatoes, new potatoes or fingerlings, the key to smashed potatoes is keeping them soft inside, while achieving a super crispy outside.

With garlic, butter and fresh herbs, the potatoes are absolutely irresistible!

About the Ingredients

• Baby Dutch Yellow Potatoes - Smashed potatoes are usually made with smaller potatoes and Baby Dutch are perfect. Substitutions: pee wee potatoes, new potatoes or fingerlings.
• unsalted butter - Unsalted butter is best so you can control the level of salt in the recipe. If you do use salted butter, don't add additional salt to the recipe. Substitution: You can use half olive oil and half butter, or just the olive oil. They'll still be delicious and crispy, but without the butter flavor.
• mixed fresh herbs - I use sage, oregano and thyme. You can use any or all of these.
• garlic - Raw, freshly grated garlic is best for this recipe.

How to Make Smashed Potatoes

Smashed Potatoes are made in essentially three simple steps: Softening, smashing and browning.

- Preheat the oven to 400°F and drizzle the bottom of a sheet pan with olive oil. Place the potatoes on the pan and once the oven is ready, roast them until they're tender, about 25 minutes. (A fork should easily slide in and out, and the skin should be beginning to wrinkle.) When you remove them from the oven, turn the heat up to 425°F.

- While the potatoes are roasting, in a small bowl, mix the butter with the herbs, garlic, salt and pepper. Set aside.

- Once the potatoes come out of the oven, use a smooth meat mallet or the bottom of your smallest sauté pan to gently press down on the potatoes. They will crack and become flat on both sides.

- Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper and place them in the now 425°F oven until the undersides of the potatoes are becoming golden, about 10 minutes. Then flip them over and continue to roast until golden, about another 10 minutes.

- Remove the pan from the oven and add a small dollop of the prepared garlic-herb butter to each potato. Let it melt and serve!

Variations

• Make them cheesy. Sprinkle the potatoes with grated Parmesan a few minutes before you take them out of the oven.
• Spicy version. Add a teaspoon of chili paste to the butter and omit the fresh herbs.
• Bacon version. Cook a few strips of bacon, crumble them into small pieces, and sprinkle them over the potatoes.

Serving Suggestions

• Meat stews and saucy chicken dishes are great alongside smashed potatoes. Mushroom Pork Stew, Brisket Stew, and Herbed Orange Chicken are all especially excellent with them.
• For a vegetarian meal, I love it with this slow-cooked red cabbage stew.
• And if you're planning a brunch, serving garlic smashed potatoes with eggs and bacon will blow your guests away.

Making Them Ahead

• Steps one and two -- softening and smashing the potatoes can be done a few hours ahead of time.
• The final roasting should be done as close to serving time as possible, since they're at their crispiest right out of the oven.
• Between steps two and three, cover the sheet pan with foil and keep it at room temperature.

Other Must-Try Smashed Potato Recipes

I hope you love this garlic smashed potato recipe as much as my family and I do!

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