Pan-Fried Potatoes

Pan-fried potatoes for 2 © kvalimad.dk

Pan-fried potatoes are raw potatoes fried in a pan. It’s a good way to cook 2–4 portions of potatoes, but it doesn’t work well for large quantities. If they’re stacked in multiple layers, the top ones won’t cook through and the bottom ones will easily burn. Those half-raw potato slices hiding among the rest can really ruin the dish. For large batches you’d also need to spend a long time at the stove to make sure everything is cooked through — with the risk of burning some in the process. Here are my tips for getting it right.

Ingredients

Yields 2 servings

  • 4 medium potatoes, (300–400 g)
  • 50 g cooking fat (animal fat, clarified butter, or oil)
  • salt
  • pepper

Directions

Peel the potatoes and cut them into slices about 1 cm thick.

Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat.

Fry the potatoes in a single layer for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt.

Flip and fry for about 5 minutes.

Flip again and fry for about 2 more minutes.

Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels.

Season with salt and pepper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCVrDiSljiY

Notes

For each potato, start by cutting a thin slice off the end — you can’t fry a rounded tip. This also makes all the slices uniform in shape.

The exact thickness doesn’t have to be precisely 1 cm, but it’s fairly important that the slices are all the same thickness so they finish cooking at the same time.

I only put one layer of potatoes in the pan so they all brown and cook evenly.

I give fairly specific times for each side of the potato slices. That’s obviously a rough guide — it depends on your stove and pan. But the principle of frying them on the first side for about half the total time, then half of that on the second side, then half of that on the first side one last time, is a good one to follow. If it’s a dish you make often, it’s worth experimenting with your stove settings to get consistent results every time.

My stove is induction and goes from 1 to 9. At setting 6, 1 cm potato slices come out perfectly browned on both sides and cooked through after 10+5+2 minutes. Yes, it’s nerdy, but it’s handy to know they can be done in 17 minutes — 20 minutes including the slicing. The fastest way I know to cook potatoes.

It also means that if they’re browning before 10 minutes, the pan is too hot. If they’re not cooked through after 20 minutes, the pan is too cold.

You can easily make a larger batch, but you’ll need to turn them often to get even cooking, and you risk some slices being half-raw. You can speed things up by adding a splash of water at the start and steaming them under a lid until they’re nearly cooked through.