Roasted Garlic Smashed Potatoes
Baby Yukon golds boiled tender, smashed flat, and roasted crispy with soft roasted garlic and flaky salt.
Prep: 10 min · Cook: 40 min · Total: 50 min · Serves: 4 · Difficulty: Easy · Rating: 4.8/5 (463 reviews)
INSPIRED BY
Smashed potatoes have been a steakhouse and gastropub side for years, and the home version only needs a sheet pan and a drinking glass. Roasting a whole head of garlic alongside is the move that takes them from good to the thing people scrape off the pan.
Story
These are the potatoes I make when I want one side dish to do all the heavy lifting. My in-laws came for Sunday dinner a few weeks back and I'd spent all my energy on the roast chicken, so I needed a potato that looked like I'd tried without actually requiring me to try. Boil, smash, roast. That's basically it, and they come out looking like I fussed. I used to skip the steam-dry step and I paid for it every time. You drain the potatoes, you're impatient, you smash them while they're still dripping, and then they sit in the oven going pale and soft instead of crisping. Now I drain them and just walk away for five minutes. They sit there steaming on the colander and the surface dries out, and that's the whole secret to the crackly edges. Five minutes of doing nothing is the hardest cooking instruction to follow but it's the one that matters here. The garlic is the part my father-in-law wouldn't stop talking about. You cut the top off a whole head, wrap it in foil with a little oil, and let it roast soft and sweet while the potatoes boil. Then you squeeze those caramelized cloves right over the hot potatoes. It melts in. No raw garlic bite, just this mellow nutty thing. I started doing it because I had a head of garlic going soft in the bowl and didn't want to waste it. Now it's the point. A couple of honest notes. They don't reheat well; the crispy edges go chewy, so make them right before you eat. And use a real sheet pan with oil already on it, not parchment, because the potatoes need to fry against the hot metal to get that bottom crust. My warped old sheet pan actually works fine for this. The kids ate them faster than the chicken, which after all that chicken effort, I'm choosing not to take personally.
By Casey
Ingredients
- 2 lbs baby Yukon gold potatoes
- 1 head garlic
- 4 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 tbsp kosher salt, for boiling
- 1 tsp flaky salt, to finish
- 0.5 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425°F. Boil the potatoes in well-salted water until fork-tender, 15 to 18 minutes. Drain and let steam dry 5 minutes.
- Slice the top off the garlic head, drizzle with 1 tbsp oil, wrap in foil, and roast on the pan while potatoes boil.
- Coat a sheet pan with 2 tbsp oil. Space the potatoes out and smash each flat with the bottom of a glass to about 1/2 inch.
- Brush tops with the last tbsp oil, season with pepper. Roast 25 to 30 minutes until edges are deep golden and crisp.
- Squeeze the soft roasted garlic over the hot potatoes and spread it around with a spoon.
- Finish with flaky salt and parsley. Serve right away while crisp.
Chef Tips
- Let the boiled potatoes sit and steam-dry for a full five minutes before smashing. Wet potatoes steam in the oven instead of crisping, and that dry-down step is the difference between crackly edges and sad, pale ones.
Cook's Notes
- **Potato substitute:** Baby red potatoes work in place of Yukon golds; pick ones roughly the size of a golf ball so they cook evenly.
- **Make-ahead:** Boil the potatoes up to a day ahead and refrigerate; smash and roast just before serving.
- **Storage:** They lose their crunch fast; store leftovers up to 3 days and re-crisp in a 425°F oven, not the microwave.
- **Equipment:** Use a metal sheet pan with oil, not parchment, so the bottoms fry crisp against the hot metal.
- **Common mistake:** Smashing wet potatoes makes them steam and stay pale; let them steam-dry 5 minutes first.
- **Doneness cue:** Look for deep golden, lacy edges and a bottom crust that releases cleanly from the pan.
- **Garlic tip:** Roast the whole head soft and squeeze it over at the end for sweet, mellow flavor with no raw bite.