Crispy, fluffy and well seasoned roast potatoes. These are a cornerstone to any roast and come out perfectly every time. This is a perfect autumn/winter recipe! Seasoned with a homemade rosemary garlic salt, they’re packed with deep flavour. Pair these up with recipes like my roast chicken to start building out a perfect roast dinner!

Steps to Achieving Perfect Roast Potatoes

A perfect roast potato (or roastie in the UK) has to have 2 things. It must have a crispy exterior, and it must have a soft and fluffy centre. Without these they will alway be underwhelming, and I’ve had too many examples of poor roasties. This is not as easy to achieve as it sounds, and can be done with a couple of simple steps. Of course, you want to right potato too. Choose a fluffy potato, not a waxt one. Maris Piper are the best if you ask me!

Firstly, the potatoes cannot be roasted straight out of the bag. Obviously you need to peel them, but you also have to parboil them. This step is essential to ensure the middle will cook enough. I do this by putting them into warm salted water and bringing to the boil. Once boiling, 10 minutes is ordinarily enough to boil them sufficiently. You should then leave them to steam dry.

The next step is essential. You have to fluff them up to break down the surface of the potaotes. This is what will give them that crispy surface! I do this in the pan that i boild them in, after I drain them. I put the lid back on and shake them around. You should then also add in a table spoon or two of plain flour and shake around again. This will further help to build that crisp.

Choice of Fat for Roasting

The choice of roasting fat is really important! It will impact both the flavour and crispiness and is definitely a factor to consider. The BBC has a good article about this where they have gone into it in lots of detail! Most people tend to agree that using duck or goose fat is the best for flavour, and I agree whole-heartedly! You can buy this in supermarkets, but I tend to roast a duck around Christmas and my family makes a goose, so I collect a few jars worth to carry me through the year.

This fat choice has the obvious drawback of making these no longer vegetarian. This is obviously not perfect, but I do have a good alternative! Butter is normally said to bring the best flavour from the veggie alternatives, but it will burn at high teperatures and taste acrid. Some people mix it with a high smoke point oil to prevent this, but you can just simply use ghee instead! This is clarified butter without the solids, and so does not burn. It still tastes great and delivers a brilliant crunch.

Now if you wanted to make it vegan, ghee is no longer possible. The best oil for a vegan roast would probably be coconut. This oil delivers a fantastic crunch, but doesn’t quite give the same savoury flavour as animal fats or ghee.