- Melting potatoes are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.
- High oven heat and flavorful broth create restaurant-quality results at home.
- Simple to make, melting potatoes elevate any weeknight meal.
Buttery Yukon Golds, fluffy Idaho russets, picturesque red- and blue-skinned beauties … potatoes are not just pretty and delicious, they also pack a surprising nutritional punch, containing a good amount of potassium, vitamin C, fiber, a small amount of protein and a handful of antioxidants, among other nutrients.
Originally domesticated in the Andes and brought to Europe in the 1500s, ‘taters are popular worldwide, showing up in meals from places as far flung as India, Finland and Peru. Plus, potatoes keep well, can be found in pretty much any food store and are fairly easy to grow in a home garden.
Because potatoes are so beloved—the USDA estimates that Americans consume an average of 50 pounds per year—most home cooks have wonderful potato dishes in their repertoires. As a youngster, I learned to make tangy buttermilk mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes and classic potato salad, and all of them were hits. After all, when people are explaining that they’re selective eaters, they often describe themselves as loving “meat and potatoes.”
Why You Should Try Melting Potatoes
When I got older, I started incorporating more chef-y techniques into my cooking, and that’s when I discovered the glory of melting potatoes, or fondant potatoes. Roasted at high heat and then bathed in flavorful broth, the resulting potato pieces are crispy on the outside and beautifully tender in the middle. Adding herbs to the mix, and throwing in some smashed garlic, makes them even more delicious.
The best part is that melting potatoes are so easy to make. Once you have slices prepped, all you need to do is babysit them while they cook, flip them once and then pour in the broth.
How to Make Melting Potatoes
You’ll begin by preheating your oven to 500℉. It’s pretty common for home cooks to use 350℉ for the majority of their cooking tasks, and this is one way that restaurant chefs set themselves apart. In professional kitchens, cooks vary cooking temperatures widely to meet specific goals. In this case, we’re aiming to get a gorgeous browned exterior on our potato slices, and to cook them quickly, which leads us to use an amped-up oven temp.
As the oven heats up, you’ll toss the potatoes with a mixture of olive oil, butter and seasonings, including fresh herbs, salt and pepper. Doing this in a bowl ensures that you can mix the slices around and get all of the sides nice and coated. Then, arrange the potato pieces in a single layer in a metal baking dish—glass isn’t safe to use at higher temperatures—and pop them into the oven.
Now’s the time to work on other dinner projects, or simply hang out and do whatever else you want! You’ll cook the potatoes for 15 minutes, flip them with a spatula and then give them another 15 minutes. When you pull out the potatoes halfway through, look at how they’re cooking. If they look uneven, rotate the pan before putting it back into the oven. If they look like they’re getting too dark in spots, perhaps your oven is running a little hot? If that’s the case, you could knock the heat down to 475℉.
When 30 minutes is up, carefully pour the broth into the pan and add the smashed garlic. Pop the ‘taters back into the oven, and continue roasting until the potatoes are tender throughout when you stick a fork into them, and the majority of the broth is absorbed. These are nicest served while piping hot.
Fun Variations
The truth is, when I make this dish, I skip peeling the potatoes. Not only does it save me some time but it also results in a more nutritious finished product. Plus, I like the way the skins taste when they’re crispy and bathed in herby broth.
Once you’re comfortable with the “high heat plus liquid” methodology, you can start playing around with different seasonings. Try adding sage, parsley and thyme to the herb mix, and consider using different fats that are safe for higher-heat cooking, including avocado oil, refined sunflower oil or safflower oil. Spices can burn at higher temperatures, so if I want to add smoked paprika or chili powder, I’ll add it toward the end of the cooking time or sprinkle it on just before serving.
Another way to change up the flavor is to mix a zingy, acidic liquid in with the broth. A small splash of vinegar, wine or citrus juice will brighten up the end result remarkably, as in Lemon-Rosemary Melting Potatoes.
Sprinkling on a bit of cheese for the final few minutes of roasting, like we do when making Garlic-Parmesan Melting Potatoes, is another excellent move. French Onion Melting Potatoes, with rich beef broth and Gruyère cheese, are even more decadent.
What to Serve with Melting Potatoes
Melting potatoes are so delicious that your other accompanying dishes can be fairly simple. While the potatoes are in the oven, I might whip up a stovetop seafood dish, such as Seared Scallops with White Bean Ragu & Charred Lemon, which sounds fancy but takes only 25 minutes, or Spice Seared Salmon with Greek-Style Green Beans.
The Bottom Line
By using high heat to roast the potatoes and then adding liquid for the last few minutes of cooking, you’ll end up with slices that are browned and crispy but nicely cooked all the way through. The broth, which will pick up all of the lovely herbs from the pan and become infused with the flavor of garlic, turns into a sauce as liquid is absorbed by the potatoes.
Overall, melting potatoes are a perfect fusion of home cooking simplicity and restaurant kitchen technique, which yields an extraordinarily delicious product quickly, with just a handful of common ingredients, and using only a single bowl and pan.
