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Chefs shared the biggest mistakes home cooks make when preparing, and how to guarantee a golden, fluffy result every time.
Autumn has firmly taken hold, bringing with it a gray sky and a noticeable chill in the air. The season also signals the ideal time to settle down to a proper Sunday roast, complete with all the trimmings.
No roast meal worth its salt is complete without roast potatoes, but achieving the perfect spud – crisp and golden on the outside with a soft, fluffy center – can be surprisingly tricky. While every home cook swears by their own method, there are a handful of mistakes that people make over and over again.
Chefs and food experts have shared with Express.co.uk some of the most common mistakes home cooks make with roast potatoes, and how to avoid a roastie disaster.
Here are the key mistakes you need to avoid in the kitchen, or you could end up with roast potatoes that are soggy and greasy.
The wrong kind of potato
Not all potatoes are the same, so it’s essential to make sure you choose the right variety for roasting. Kevin Barron, executive chef at Crossbasket Castle Estate, said: “One of the biggest mistakes people make is actually the type of potato they use to make their roast potatoes – they have to be tasty and mealy enough, so something like your typical jacket potato won’t work well.
“The water content is really important. At Crossbasket Castle we use high flyer potatoes which work incredibly well to get the crisp, delicious final product.”
The fat is not heated properly
Whether you use oil or animal fat to make your potatoes extra crispy, not getting the fat hot enough can leave your spuds greasy and soggy, without a crispy skin in sight.
Chef Stephen Beaddie explained: “The biggest mistake is not heating your fat properly before the potatoes go in. Whether you use oil, goose fat, duck fat or lard, the potatoes should be sizzling as soon as they hit them; otherwise they’ll absorb the fat and smoke instead of crisping up, leaving you with soft, greasy, armless roasties.”
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Boil the potatoes
Parboiling your potatoes before frying them in fat is an essential step, but many home cooks make the mistake of not cooking them long enough.
Mark Hartstone, head owner of La Fosse in Cranborne, explained: “The biggest mistake home cooks make is to sink the potatoes in the par-boiling stage. If you pull them out while they are still firm, the outside remains smooth and dense, so it cannot absorb the fat or oil once it goes into the oven.
“Cook them until they are really soft, so that a knife slides easily and the edges start to break. Drain them well, let them dry for a few minutes, then shake the pan to roughen the outside. The fluffy edges are what absorb the hot fat and become crispy. And season them well at this stage as well, because under spices the roast is simply the roast. all the difference.”
Rob Boer, head chef at The Mutton on Hazeley Heath, agreed, describing sub cakes as one of the “biggest mistakes” amateur chefs make at home.
He said: “I believe that the biggest mistake that home cooks make when cooking roast potatoes is to undercook them at the cooking stage, they must be fully cooked and fluffy (and seasoned, cooking is the only point to get the salt fully into the potatoes), the difficult thing, especially at home, is that to get them perfect, you lose some, but this can make it very messy.
“Then you have to let them dry, all restaurants that do good roast potatoes cook them at least the day before, then let them dry and crack, and the cracks are what really get crispy. When they’re fully cooked, you should be able to slide a toothpick through without resistance.”
Do not forget to dry the potatoes
While parboiling is essential, leaving the potatoes moist before going into the oven risks producing a soft rather than satisfying crunchy result.
Sohan Bhandari, executive chef of Colonel Saab, said: “The biggest mistake people make when cooking roast potatoes is not drying them properly after parboiling. Excess moisture on the surface prevents the potatoes from developing that beautiful golden, crispy exterior, often leaving them soft rather than crunchy.
“To avoid this, drain the potatoes thoroughly after parboiling and steam them dry for a few minutes. Shake them gently in the pan to roughen the edges, as these create more surface for crisping. Then coat them in hot oil or fat before roasting in a properly preheated oven, giving them enough space on the tray. Shape.”
Get them out
Food hygiene and HACCP consultant Mark McShane also emphasizes the importance of soaking the potatoes before roasting.
He said: “The single biggest mistake home cooks make when roasting potatoes from scratch is not thoroughly drying and chilling the potatoes after parboiling, coupled with rushing them straight into the oven while still full of moisture.
“This crucial rest phase skips falling steam and ultimately guarantees a weak, soggy result. The residual water becomes a pocket of trapped steam, which essentially cooks the outside of the potato. This process hits the potato in a weak layer instead of developing a shiny, crumbly crispy crust. Fat, leaving the interior tasteless and watery.
“After parboiling your potatoes in heavily salted water, drain them thoroughly in a colander and let them sit untouched for 10 to 15 minutes, until visible steam stops rising. When they’re dry and matte, give the colander a vigorous shake to break up the exterior and create a crunchy crunch layer of starch for maximum crispiness.
“Make sure your frying pan and selected fat in the oven are hot before carefully inserting the fluffy potato to trigger an instant sear.”
Forget to season
Achieving a perfectly crispy exterior is only half the battle – your roasties need to taste incredible too. Tom De Keyser, head chef at The Chalk Freehouse, Tom Kerridge’s Chelsea gastro pub, warned that all the seasoning towards the end of roasting could seriously undermine the overall flavor of your potatoes.
He said: “The biggest mistake is to taste only the fried potato at the end. You get a salty outside, but the potato itself remains colorless. The seasoning throughout the process makes a big difference to the finished taste.
“At The Chalk we put our raw potatoes in a brine with 100g of salt per liter of water 45 minutes before cooking, then season again halfway through the roast. You can dissolve the salt in cold water with a good dash, so there’s no need to heat it first.
“At home, the key is to think about seasoning during preparation and cooking, rather than relying on a last sprinkling of salt.”
Do not open the oven
While it can be awfully tempting to sneak a peek at your potatoes as they’re roasting in the oven just to reassure yourself that they’re crisp, this seemingly innocent habit can actually do more harm than good.
Adam Norris, senior product manager at Hotpoint, said: “Avoid constantly opening the oven door to check on the food as this allows heat to escape every time. And think about how you load the oven too – hot air needs space to circulate to stay at a consistent temperature, so squeezing in a last tray can sometimes work against you.
“Features like guided cooking programs can also take some of the guesswork out of larger meals, which makes a real difference when there’s a lot of traveling to get the timing right.”
