4-Ingredient Smashed Potatoes with Garlic

Sure, mashed potatoes are great. But, smashed potatoes? Ahhh-MAZING. Never tried smashed potatoes? I hadn’t either until last week and I couldn’t believe that I had been missing out on such a tasty and easy potato recipe my whole life!

They look (and sound) complicated to make (especially when you take a look at their golden-brown hue), but they’re actually really easy to prepare! I swear. I had no idea. They’re even easier to make than mashed potatoes and take much less effort.

The easy potato recipe below only calls for five ingredients, which makes it incredibly budget-friendly. Even though there aren’t a lot of seasonings in this recipe, the garlic really gives the potatoes a lot of flavor. It strikes a great balance of not being too faint nor too overpowering.

I’ll never look at red potatoes the same way ever again and, hopefully, neither will you.

Serves4

Easy

Ingredients

2 pounds new red potatoes, unpeeled
8 garlic cloves, peeled but whole
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and fresh ground pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil, droop in potatoes and cook until fork tender but not soft (they will continue to cook in the oven). Drain the potatoes and set on a work surface. With the bottom of a heavy mug, smash the potatoes just to open them up and slightly flatten them but so that they remain whole as much as possible but cracked and split.
While potatoes are cooking, prepare a bake dish that will just hold the potatoes in one layer by pouring in the oil and placing the pan into the preheating oven for 10 minutes until the oil is very hot. When potatoes are “smashed”, place them into the hot oil and drop the garlic cloves in between them.
Roast for 15 minutes, remove pan carefully turn potatoes over and sprinkle with salt and pepper, then roast another 15 minutes. The potatoes come out sticky, crunchy and irresistible.