Smashed new potatoes! Oven-roasted in butter, smashed with garlic and minced chives.
Okay, so “smashed” potatoes are sometimes considered just a lazy way of making mashed potatoes. And indeed, they take a lot less effort.
But smashing potatoes is also an excellent way to get butter and herbs into all of the nooks and crannies of the potato, while still retaining the potato’s texture. Spring new potatoes smash up great, as do buttery Yukon Golds.
Most recipes for smashed potatoes (there are links to a couple other food bloggers at the bottom of the recipe) call for boiling the potatoes to cook them.
In this recipe, you essentially bake them in a pot in the oven. The potatoes cook in their own moisture while they are bathed in butter. Baking them in a pot prevents them from drying out too much to smash easily, yet keeps them dry enough to fluff up well.
Do you have a favorite way to make smashed potatoes? Please let us know about it in the comments.
Smashed New Potatoes with Garlic and Chives Recipe
- Prep time: 5 minutes
- Cook time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Yield: Serves 3 to 6
Ingredients
- 1-2 pounds new potatoes or Yukon Golds
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Salt
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 1-2 tablespoons minced chives or green onion greens
Method
1 Bake the potatoes: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the potatoes in a medium oven-proof pot (with a cover) and add about 1 tablespoon of the butter, cut into pieces. Cover and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
2 Coat the potatoes with butter, sprinkle with salt, return to oven: Take the potatoes out and mix them so they’re coated with butter. Sprinkle the potatoes with salt. Return to the oven, cover, and cook for another 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how large the potatoes are.
3 Test for doneness: To test for doneness, poke a potato with a fork. If the fork penetrates easily, they’re done.
4 Crush with potato masher, toss with garlic and butter: When the potatoes are nice and soft, remove the pot from the oven and, using a potato masher, crush each potato. Don’t pound them into oblivion, just crush them. Toss with the garlic and remaining butter. Add more salt to taste.
Sprinkle chives on the potatoes to serve.
Links:
Lori’s skillet smashed potatoes – from Heidi of 101 Cookbooks
Smashed potatoes with chives and cream cheese from Ezra Pound Cake
