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Home Fries are pre-cooked diced potatoes that are fried until gold and crispy on the outside, and soft and tender on the inside. Simply seasoned, these crispy bites of potato are great for breakfast, or as a side dish at suppertime.
Learn to make the Best Home Fries
After ten years of sharing recipes here on A Family Feast, we’re finally sharing our delicious Home Fries recipe!
We recently served these potatoes for breakfast, in the morning after a teen sleepover, and our daughter’s friends devoured them! One friend asked to take the leftovers home, and another raved about them to her mother – who then asked us for the recipe. (It was then that we realized, we’ve never shared the recipe here!)
This is one of those easy, ‘back pocket’ dishes that we make all the time for breakfast, brunch, or dinner. It’s so simple, you almost don’t need a recipe for it – just a basic understanding of the method used to achieve super crispy, golden fried potato cubes with a soft and tender inside.
Why you’ll love Home Fries
- The perfectly seasoned crispy fried potatoes are simply delicious!
- While most often served as breakfast potatoes, home fries are a great side dish with any meal.
- You can do the initial prep ahead of time, so cooking the potatoes for breakfast is fast and easy.
- It’s a versatile recipe – adjust the seasonings to suit your tastes. Make more or less depending on the number of guests to feed.
Key Ingredients & Substitutions
- Potatoes – We always choose Russet potatoes for this recipe. While other potatoes could certainly be used, we think skin-on Russet potatoes are the best for this dish because they have the perfect moisture content and characteristics that allow the outside to crisp up, while the inside stays light and tender.
- Butter – We use unsalted butter since we add salt later, along with other seasonings. Although not 100% necessary, using clarified butter is recommended since it is pure butterfat with the milk solids and water already removed. The clarified butter crisps the potatoes more easily, since the butterfat doesn’t give off any steam which can make the fries softer. Shelf-stable clarified butter (also called ghee) is sold in jars at the supermarket, but it’s also very simple to make at home following this recipe.
- Spices – We keep it simple with just kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder and paprika. Feel free to change things up with other spices you enjoy.
Other Ingredient Options
You can add onions and peppers to your home fries if you’d like. Just be sure to cook them separately from the potatoes and stir them in at the end. If you fry them all up together, the moisture released from the onions and peppers will soften the potatoes and you won’t achieve the crispy texture that Home Fries are best known for.
Special Tools Needed
- Large pot – To boil the potatoes.
- Cutting Board & Knife
- Small saucepan – To make the clarified butter
- Small Strainer and Cheese Cloth – To separate the butter fat from the milk solids.
- Large Frying Pan or Griddle – To fry the home fries.
Product Recommendations
- A plug-in griddle like this is ideal for cooking a large amount of home fries, plus it’s great for making pancakes and bacon.
- Or, if you’d prefer a frying pan recommendation, we love this large, 14-inch frying pan. It is non-stick for easy cleanup, but still allows the potatoes to crisp up nicely.
How do I make Home Fries?
- Place whole, unpeeled Russet potatoes into a large pot and pour in cold water over them until water is doubled the depth covering the potatoes
- Boil gently for about 40 minutes, then remove from the water and cool.
- Make clarified butter while potatoes are cooking.
- Cut potatoes (once cool) into one-inch cubes.
- Add butter to the pan or griddle, then cook potatoes in a single layer with seasonings, allowing the potatoes to brown and crisp before moving or flipping. (You may need to cook the potatoes in batches if you don’t have a large enough griddle or pan to cook all of them at once.)
- Serve immediately with ketchup on the side.
Tips & Tricks
Avoid stirring the potatoes too much as they fry. Give them a chance to crisp up and caramelize before turning. Add a little more clarified butter as they cook if the pan starts to dry out before the potatoes are done.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I make Home Fries ahead of time? You can boil the potatoes ahead of time (as far ahead as the day before), then cool and store in the refrigerator. When ready to eat, dice and fry. The clarified butter can also be made well in advance and stored in the refrigerator.
- How do I store leftovers? Store refrigerated in a covered container for up to three days.
- How do I reheat leftovers? The best way to get them crisp again is to reheat them in a hot skillet. Adding more butter may be necessary but first try to reheat them without additional butter.
- Can I freeze Home Fries? No, home fries will turn soggy once frozen and thawed.
- Can I make Home Fries with uncooked diced potatoes? We don’t recommend it for a few reasons. First, it will take much longer to cook through and crisp up. Second, the moisture in the raw potatoes will create steam, giving your diced potatoes a soggier finished texture. Pre-cooked potatoes really are the key to the best home fries.
- Can I make Home Fries with leftover baked potatoes? Yes, if they are baked russets. Click here for the best way to make Perfect Baked Potatoes.
- What’s the difference between Home Fries and Hashbrowns? Home fries are traditionally cubed and fried, while hashbrowns are shredded potatoes.
You might like these other Potato Recipes:
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Home Fries
Home Fries are pre-cooked diced potatoes that are fried until gold and crispy on the outside, and soft and tender on the inside. Simply seasoned, these crispy bites of potato are great for breakfast, or as a side dish at suppertime.
Ingredients
3 large Russet potatoes (chose potatoes of equal size so that they cook evenly)
2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
2 sticks butter
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- Place unpeeled whole potatoes into a large pot then double cover with water. The water should be twice as high as the layer of potatoes.
- Add one teaspoon of kosher salt and bring to a boil, then lower to a medium gentle boil. (Not a full boil but a medium steady boil).
- Boil for 40 minutes then slip the tip of a thin paring knife into the center of one potato. It should feel almost tender and could still be a little hard in the center. Avoid poking them with a fork or poking more than once otherwise the skins will burst open.
- Gently remove each potato to a platter to cool, using silicone tongs or a spider to remove. Be gentle so they stay whole. This step can be done a day in advance.
- While the potatoes cook, place both sticks of butter into a small sauce pan and heat on low until melted.
- Use a small ladle and skim off foam from the top. Let the pan sit for about 15 minutes so the milk solids sink, then slowly pour the clarified butter into a container, stopping before you reach the milk solids on the bottom.
- Line a small bowl with a small strainer and a double thick layer of cheese cloth and pour what is left in the pan into the cheese cloth. What strains out the bottom can be added to the clarified butter container. Discard milk fat and cheese cloth.
- You should be left with about 2/3 cup of clarified butter. The clarified butter can be made days in advance.
- Once the potatoes are cool, cut in half the long way into two or three thick slabs, then cut each slab into one-inch-wide strips. Then cut across the strips into one-inch cubes.
- In a large 14-inch heavy bottomed skillet, or two 10-12 inch skillets, place six tablespoons of the clarified butter and heat over medium high heat.
- Once the butter is hot, add the potatoes, remaining teaspoon of salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika. Toss once then do not touch for five minutes.
- Use a large flexible but firm spatula and flip the potatoes and cook for five more minutes.
- Flip one last time and cook five final minutes for a total of fifteen minutes.
- Use more clarified butter as needed while they cook to keep the pan moist if you notice the potatoes are drying out. In our large 14-inch heavy duty skillet, we used a total of nine tablespoons of clarified butter but your conditions may be different.
- Remove to a bowl and serve.
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Notes
- The general rule for three Russet potatoes is to use 9-12 tablespoons of clarified butter, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper, ½ teaspoon garlic powder and ¼ teaspoon paprika.
- Each potato will serve 2 portions. If you add or remove potatoes, simply increase or decrease the other ingredients.
- If you add more however, fry in batches or fry in two large skillets. You do not want to crowd the potatoes while they fry or they will not crisp up.
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