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How To Cook Potatoes

Tips and tricks to make potatoes

What Is the Best Method for Cooking Potatoes?

Potatoes are an incredibly versatile and nutrient-dense vegetable that you can cook in various ways to suit your taste and mood. There’s no single best way to make potatoes—baked, roasted, mashed, fried, they are all delicious. Potatoes also provide the energy, potassium, and vitamin C you need to fuel your day.

These are some of our favorite ways to prepare and enjoy potatoes:

  • Baking russet potatoes produces a fluffy interior with crispy skin.
  • Roasting yellow potatoes enhances their flavor and texture while providing a crispy exterior.
  • Air frying petite potatoes is a quick and convenient way to cook them.
  • Mashing russet potatoes makes for a fluffy favorite; yellows, whites, or reds make for creamy, crowd-pleasing mashed potatoes.
  • Incorporating all types of potatoes into soups and stews creates a hearty and filling meal.

Check out the How-To section to get recipes for all these classic preparations and more.

Preparing Potatoes for Cooking

Due to the numerous ways potatoes can be prepared, they’re great as an entrée or side dish for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks in between! While every style of potato dish has a unique cooking process, there are certain best practices you should follow no matter the cooking method. Here’s how we recommend preparing potatoes to achieve the best results:

Before starting any potato preparation:

To peel or not to peel?

This question mostly comes down to personal preference. Even with the skin removed, a potato retains most of its nutrients. More than half of the nutrients are contained within the potato itself, so you’ll still get potassium and vitamin C if you like your potatoes without the skin.

Keep the following tips in mind when considering whether to peel the skin before cooking potatoes:

  • Roasted potatoes can get crispier without the skin (follow this recipe to make the ultimate crispy roasted potatoes). However, if you prefer the flavor and texture of potato skin, keep it on.
  • Many people prefer mashed potatoes without the skin because they have a smoother, more uniform texture. Others like mashed potatoes with the skin. If you’re the latter, dice your potatoes into small pieces to avoid overly large chunks of skin in your mash.
  • Pro tip: For extra crispy skin on baked potatoes, dunk them in a saltwater mixture before baking.

Additional Potato Prep Tips

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Slicing and Dicing

Should you boil potatoes whole? We don’t recommend it for larger varieties because they would cook unevenly. The same goes for roasting. Russets, yellows, reds, whites, large purples, or fingerlings should be diced or sliced for most preparations before cooking.

Smaller fingerlings and petite potatoes can be left whole.

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Soak or Rinse Your Potatoes

Soak or rinse your potatoes in water to remove excess starch before cooking. This will improve the texture and mouthfeel of many potato dishes. You can soak peeled and cut potatoes for up to two days before cooking them. The primary exceptions to this rule are scalloped or au gratin potatoes—the starch will help thicken the sauce for these dishes.

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Don’t Worry About Potato Discoloration

Sometimes, cut and uncooked potatoes take on a pinkish or brownish discoloration. This is due to the carbohydrates in the potato reacting with oxygen in the air. Discolored potatoes are safe to eat; the discoloration usually disappears when the potato is cooked.

Pro tip: If you’re prepping your potatoes ahead of time, you can preserve the color of your cut potatoes by storing them in cold water with a bit of added lemon juice or vinegar. Limit soaking time to two hours to retain the water-soluble vitamins in the potato.

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Start with Cold Water When Boiling, Parboiling, or Simmering Potatoes

Add your potatoes to the pot, cover them in cold water, and then bring it to a boil or simmer. This method helps potatoes cook more thoroughly and evenly than adding them to boiling water.

Pro tip: Add seasonings and herbs to the water while the potatoes boil to infuse them with flavor.

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Let Potatoes Rest After Cooking to Prevent Soggy Dishes

After potatoes are simmered or boiled, drain them and let them rest for a few minutes (they should still be warm) before you mash, roast, toss with dressing, or serve them. This will allow the potatoes to release excess moisture through steam. Otherwise, this moisture can get trapped in the potatoes, making your dish soggy.

Similarly, we don’t recommend wrapping baked potatoes in foil to cook. It traps water, preventing the skin from getting crispy. To achieve the crispiest skin, set your potato on a rack instead of directly on a baking sheet so air can circulate all the way around.

How-To: 6 Classic Potato Recipes

How-To: Baked Potato

How to Make the Perfect Baked Potato – Crispy on the Outside, Light, and Fluffy on the Inside.

The perfect baked potato has a crispy exterior, speckled with grains of salt, and a light, fluffy interior, kissed with a touch of butter. It’s a tried-and-true classic as a side for steaks and pork chops. It can also be topped with just about anything you like for a complete meal. You can achieve this level of baked potato perfection at home! Our comprehensive guide on baked potatoes includes the steps to make the perfect baked potato at home.

Baked Potato Recipe

How-To: Mashed Potatoes

How to Make the Ultimate Light and Fluffy Mashed Potatoes. 

Mashed potatoes are a staple at holiday meals and a perfect complement to a weeknight dinner. Whether you keep them simple or dress them up with added flavors, mashed potatoes are always a hit. Follow our step-by-step instructions, with tips and tricks, to learn how to make the perfect mashed potatoes.

Mashed Potato Recipe

How-To: Roasted Potatoes

How to Make Craveable and Crunchy Roasted Potatoes

Roasted potatoes are an easy addition to any meal! Level up your roasted potatoes with our tips to help you make them extra flavorful and crispy. Explore our comprehensive page on roasted potatoes for information on selecting the right potatoes, whether or not to peel the skin, and the best roasted potato recipe.

Roasted Potato Recipe

How-To: Potato Salad

Make the Perfect Classic Potato Salad

Potato salad is a summertime classic; is any barbeque or picnic complete without it? While there are many different styles of potato salad, the traditional American version is known for its creamy mayo- and mustard-based dressing. We provide directions and tips to perfect this dish, and then you can customize it with your favorite additions!

Potato Salad Recipe

How-To: Au Gratin Potatoes

How to Make Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes

Potatoes Au Gratin is a classic French recipe that features thinly sliced potatoes in a creamy, cheesy sauce. This dish is often found at high-end restaurants, but there’s no reason why you can’t recreate it at home. Get the recipe to make au gratin potatoes that will rival the one at your favorite steakhouse.

Au Gratin Recipe

How-To: Scalloped Potatoes

How to Make Creamy Scalloped Potatoes

Similar to au gratin potatoes, scalloped potatoes are a preparation that features layers of sliced potatoes baked in a delicious cream sauce. This dish provides an elegant addition to any meal, and with our tips, it can be quick and easy to make. Impress your friends and family with these scalloped potatoes..

Scalloped Recipe

Steaming Potatoes

Cook Potatoes Faster

You can steam potatoes to speed up cooking time.

Steaming is an effective way to reduce cooking time for specific preparations. It can be a good approach for potato salad or with a heartier potato, like reds and yellows, because they can stand up to the higher heat involved with steaming. Steamed potatoes can also be added to baked goods to improve their texture. However, boiling is the better method for mashed and roasted potatoes to achieve optimal flavor and texture.

  • Boiling allows you to impart more flavor to the potatoes themselves because you can add seasoning and herbs to the water while the potatoes cook.
  • Adding baking soda to boiling potatoes is a crucial step for extra crispy roasted potatoes.

So, should you steam potatoes? If your most pressing need is to get dinner cooked as quickly as possible, steaming your potatoes is often worth some of the tradeoffs. But if your goal is to give your dish the best texture, consistency, and flavor profile, it’s better to boil.

To steam potatoes:

Place potatoes into a pot with a steamer insert and enough water to reach the bottom of the potatoes. Place a lid on top and turn the heat to medium-high. The steam gets hotter than boiling in water, allowing the potatoes to cook faster. After about 15-20 minutes, the potatoes should be fork-tender and ready to be finished using your preferred cooking method.

Which Type of Potato Is Right for My Dish?

 

Each type of potato can be used to cook delicious dishes that will pair with your favorite cuisine. However, choosing the right type of potato for the specific dish you’re cooking will help you get the best results. Here’s a helpful graphic outlining the characteristics and uses for different types of potato.

 

 

Download Graphic

How to Cook Potatoes—Frequently Asked Questions

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What is the best way to boil potatoes?

Add your potatoes to the pot first, then cover them in cold water. Bring it to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and cook at a rapid simmer until your potatoes are soft enough to be sliced with no resistance using a fork or butter knife.

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How long does it take to cook potatoes?

Here’s how long it takes to boil, bake, roast, and microwave potatoes.

The time it takes to boil potatoes varies based on the size of the potatoes (cook time is counted from when the water starts boiling):

  • Baby potatoes or 1-inch diced – 12 minutes
  • Small potatoes or 2-inch diced – 15 minutes
  • Medium potatoes or 3-inch diced – 20 minutes

We do not recommend boiling whole potatoes larger than 3-inch dices, as they will not cook evenly.

If you’re baking potatoes, the cooking time will depend on the oven temperature and potato size. For a medium to large russet potato (between 5.3 and 8 oz), the estimated cooking time is:

  • 50 minutes at 425°F
  • 60 minutes at 400°F
  • 70 minutes at 375°F
  • 80-90 minutes at 350°F

The cooking time also depends on your oven temperature if you’re roasting potatoes. For 1-inch diced or cubed potatoes:

  • 20-25 minutes at 450°F
  • 30 minutes at 400°F
  • 35-40 minutes at 375°F
  • 45-50 minutes at 350°F

A taste test can help you ensure your potatoes are fully cooked, no matter the method.

Microwaving is the fastest cooking method. You can cook large potatoes for 6 to 8 minutes in the microwave. However, your potatoes may not cook evenly, they may come out dry, or the skin may become tough.

Learn more about cooking potatoes in the microwave

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Do baked potatoes cook faster in foil or without?

Cooking potatoes in foil takes longer because the foil must heat up before the potato begins to bake. The foil will trap the moisture the baking potatoes release, preventing the skin from getting crispy. We recommend making baked potatoes without foil.

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Should you put potatoes in the pot before or after the water boils?

Allow the water to come to a boil with the potatoes already in it. This ensures more even cooking and a better texture in your final dish.

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Why should I put salt in water when boiling potatoes?

Potatoes are dense vegetables that get infused with any seasonings added to the water while boiling, especially salt.

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Can you over-boil potatoes?

Yes. If you boil potatoes for too long, they will disintegrate.

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How can I tell if my potatoes are done?

The best way is to taste test! You can also use a fork to pierce the potato. It should meet little resistance if your potatoes are fully cooked.