Crispy Smashed Potatoes

When roasted potatoes just aren't golden, crispy and fluffy enough, it's time to bring out the crispy smashed potatoes! Although these small mouthfuls of deliciousness are very similar to roasted potatoes, they have one huge advantage - the broken, uneven outside skin. When covered in olive oil and baked, this skin develops the ultimate crispy texture which will leave you wanting more with every single bite.

If I really had to choose, I'd say I prefer smashed baked potatoes to ordinary roasted potatoes. Not only do you get a much better texture with this recipe, but they also take less time to cook since the potatoes are smaller and result in less mess since there's no chopping board, knife or greasy bowl to clean up. All the smashing and drizzling is done on the baking tray.

Just like I prefer to season my roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary, these are also the main flavours I use in my roasted smashed potatoes recipe. I'm not big on fresh herbs, since I rarely go a few months without accidentally killing the few fresh herbs I have in my office, so I use all dry herbs and seasonings in this recipe - dried rosemary, garlic powder and onion powder to be exact. I think dried herbs and seasonings are seriously underrated. They're cheap, easy to store and give a huge depth of flavour to every dish you use them in!

These garlic smashed potatoes pretty much go with any main meal and you can switch up the flavourings to compliment your style of dish. If you're going for Mexican, flavour them with cumin and coriander. In the mood for Italian? Then try oregano and basil. Don't really mind if your flavours clash or don't have any strong tastes to compliment? Then stick with my garlic, onion and rosemary version. It's really hard to beat!

My biggest secret when it comes to how to make smashed potatoes is the salt - you've got to sprinkle them with salt! If you don't, you'll end up with a bland potato that has a wonderful texture, but just doesn't stand up in the flavour department. And who would want that?

📖 Recipe

Crispy Smashed Potatoes

Print Pin Rate

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Servings: 6 potatoes - 2 servings

Ingredients

• 6 small potatoes
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• ½ teaspoon coarse salt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 430F/220C and bring a medium-sized saucepan of water to the boil. Drop in the potatoes and cook for about 15 minutes, until soft.
• Drain the potatoes and space them out on a baking tray. Use a potato masher to squash each of the potatoes.
• Drizzle all the squashed potatoes with olive oil then sprinkle over the garlic powder, onion powder, dried rosemary and salt.
• Place in the preheated oven and bake for around 30 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy. Serve immediately whilst hot.