Roast potatoes are a favourite of mine. So much flavour with so little effort. Roast potatoes have the potential to be bland but this method of preparing them will eradicate that problem completely and make them the perfect accompaniment to almost any meal.
You can either par boil or forgo that tradition all together. I rarely par boil the potatoes because I can’t really be bothered. I would much rather just bung them in the oven and forget about them until two hours later when they are ready. If you par boil the potatoes it will cut half an hour off of your roasting time.
Use standard white, washed potatoes for this. Chop them into fairly even quarters. Place them in a roasting dish (I always use a disposable roasting dish because that minimises mess and clean up duties at the end of the ordeal) with a little room between them all. Drizzle some olive oil on the bottom on the dish first, then drizzle some over the potatoes.
Now, dissolve two chicken stock cubes (or beef if your prefer) in a bowl of boiling water. Once they have completely dissolved pour the chicken stock into the roasting dish with the potatoes. The stock should be just shy of covering them.
Place the roasting dish in the oven on 180 degrees celcius for an hour and a half, checking on them every 20 minutes or so. When the top starts to get lovely and golden brown, use a pair of tongs to flip them so the under sides get done nicely too. Once the hour and 30 minutes is up, put the oven up to 220 degrees for 15 minutes. This will allow the chicken flavour to really infuse into the potatoes. They will get a lovely crunch at their edges and the stock will all boil off during this stage.
After the first 40 minutes, should you wish to add onions, tomotoes, garlic or pumpkin, that’s the best time. Go ahead and place them in the gaps between the potatoes.
Pull the roasting dish out of the oven after the 220 degree session and voila, you will have beautiful roasted potatoes with a great flavour, cooked to perfection.
Enjoy!
Image: fifikins
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