My dad used to make Crispy Hash Browns before school most days, so over the years it’s become a sort of comfort food for me. Now that I’m older, and much less coherent in the mornings than my dad, I’ve found some shortcuts to make these a lot faster and still just as delicious.
For example, my dad would peel and shred raw potatoes, but I just pull a bag of frozen hashed browns out of the freezer. Sorry, dad! But cooking the potatoes in a mix of olive oil and butter is a must. These hash browns are so simple to make but it’s all about the method, so I’ll teach you every trick I know!
Frozen Hash Browns
Start with a bag of partially thawed frozen hash browns. Of if you are my dad…wake up at 5am and carefully peel and shred 2 pounds of potatoes, then soak the shredded potatoes in water to remove excess starch. So as I was saying, start with a bag of frozen hash browns…
If I’m making these for breakfast, I just move the bag from the freezer to the fridge before bed and it’s ready to cook by breakfast the next morning.
Butter and Olive Oil
Melt several tablespoons of butter in the bottom of a skillet or griddle, set to medium heat.
Spread the hash browns evenly over the butter cubes. And drizzle with several tablespoons of olive oil.
Top with more butter cubes and salt and pepper generously.
Don’t touch the potatoes!
Now for the most important part, don’t touch the potatoes for about 5-10 minutes. Just let them cook over medium heat, in the butter and olive oil, untouched.
Once the potatoes start to form a nice crust like this, go ahead and flip them.
See how beautiful they are!
Salt and pepper the other side and let them finish cooking on the underside. This will only take a minute or two. Turn the heat down if the potatoes start to brown too quickly on the bottom.
So easy and so delicious!
Crispy Hash Browns
1 (30 ounce) package of frozen pre-shredded hash browns, defrosted in the fridge overnight*
1/2 cup salted butter, cut into 1/2” slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Directions
Scatter 5 slices of butter in the bottom of a preheated large nonstick frying pan or griddle.** Sprinkle the hash browns evenly over the surface of the griddle. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Top with the rest of the butter cubes. Cook over medium heat until a light, golden crust begins to form on the bottom of the hash browns (see photo above) and flip the potatoes over. Salt and pepper again, and let cook for another 1-2 minutes, until browned on the bottom as well. Turn down the heat, if the crust is forming faster than the potatoes are cooking through.
*This hashbrown recipe can be doubled, or halved, depending on how many servings you need.
**If cooking in a large frying pan, split the potatoes between 2 frying pans to help with cooking. The key to getting these potatoes crispy is to keep the layers thin.
My apologies to anyone who received a very rough draft of this post last week when I accidentally published it! Right now I have all of my kids home for the summer and I’m trying to make the most of every minute of it, and sometimes some other things get neglected in the process. But I have a ton more great content coming your way!
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