Michelin-trained chef tests 3 roast potato hacks and one is superior

For many, the simple roast potato is one of the highlights of a roast dinner. Crunchy and crispy on the outside, and fluffy and soft on the inside, that’s the general description of the perfect roast potatoes. However, achieving this can be a lot harder than you may think.

While most people, from chefs to home cooks, will have their own ways of making roast potatoes, one Michelin-trained chef named Poppy O’Toole decided to try three different cooking hacks regarding how to make the best roast potatoes to see which ones are the best. And the results truly baffled her.

Taking to her YouTube channel, where she has over 93,800 subscribers, Poppy went on to try three vastly different cooking hacks to see how you can make the perfect roast potatoes at home.

“Three roast potato hacks that are apparently meant to up your roast potato game,” Poppy said, explaining that they’d be trying to microwave, freeze, and adding a secret ingredient to the potatoes to see which method makes the best roast potato.

She went on to share her cooking methods and results in her video, as she was left baffled by one method.

Freezing overnight

The first method that Poppy was trying was to freeze the potatoes overnight. While many people might already be buying their roast potatoes in frozen bags, the chef explained that another alternative would be to batch cook your roast potatoes ahead of time and putting them in the freezer. When the time comes to cook them, simply take them out of the freezer and into the oven.

To make these, Poppy said she’d peeled some Maris Piper potatoes and cut them into quarters. She then went on to par boil the potatoes in salted water for around 10-15 minutes, as many would already be doing when making roast potatoes. Once done, she put them on a rack on a baking tray. She then poured on some melted goose fat onto the potatoes, however you could substitued this to beef fat or clarified butter. Once the potatoes are covered, add the whole tray into the freezer to set.

“And then the next Sunday, you’ve got them ready. So you can do double and then you’ve got them ready in the freezer for the next week, so you don’t have to worry about them,” she said. Not only will this save you time in the freezer, but Poppy also claimed freezing the potatoes makes them ‘better’ by making them crispier.

Once ready to cook, put them in the oven at 180C with the fan on, turning them over after half an hour. Then pop them back into the oven at 200C for a further 20 minutes, until golden.

“That is delicious,” she said as she taste tested them. “It’s got a really crunch outside. Considering we’re pouring fat over them, they’re not greasy in any way, shape, or form, which is lovely.”

“I like this hack,” she added, before scoring them 9.7 out of ten.

Microwave par cooking

Next up, Poppy went on to show what she explained to be the ‘microwave method’. She went on to say she’d seen another chef put the peeled and quartered potatoes into a tupperware container in the lid, before steaming them in the microwave for ten minutes.

“And apparently, you get these lovely, crispy, fluffy potatoes,” Poppy said. “We do then have to cook them after the microwave, but let’s see how these par cook in the microwave.”

After ten minutes, she removed them from the microwave, and was shocked to see some of the potatoes having gone golden brown, but said they were nice and soft, like you want them after par cooking them. She then put the lid back on and shook the tupperware to give them a rougher exterior.

For the second part of the hack, Poppy revealed she’d be cooking them in the airfryer at 180C for 30 minutes. She made sure to cover them in oil thyme, cloves of garlic, and some salt before starting the airfryer.

Once done, she was baffled to see that they’d gone nice and brown, and were smelling ‘delicious’. Overall, the recipe had taken her 40 minutes to complete. But would they taste as good as the first ones?

“These look good. They have a nice crisp to them,” Poppy said at first glance. After taking a bite from one, she added that they were fluffy inside and had a crispy exterior. Overall, she was amazed at the results after only cooking for forty minutes. She went on to rank them ‘a solid eight out of ten’, saying they were convenient and easy to make.

Adding bicarbonate of soda

“Now, this is a method of doing your roast potatoes using bicarbonate of soda, or sodium bicarbonate,” Poppy said, revealing that she adds a few teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda into the water, along with some salt, where you’re par boiling your potatoes.

She continuted to explain that the bicarb is added to react with the potato itself to break it down even more, which leads to a fluffier exterior.

Once the water starts to boil, she lets them simmer for 15-20 minutes, making sure they’re nice and soft, but said to keep an eye on them, as the bicarb might make this process faster. Once done, she goes on to drain them, which is when she realised they smelled a bit different to normal potatoes.

However, as she left them in the sieve to dry off, she made sure to start her oven at 180C fan. She melted some vegetable oil in a tray in the oven, before taking it out and adding the potatoes in. She tossed them around in the oil, before adding it back into the oven at 180C for half an hour, before turning them over. You should then add them back in for another 10-15 minutes.

Once turning them over, she noticed that they were already getting a lot of colour, but went to put them back in. Once done, she said: “They’ve got some fantastic colour on them. These are looking good.”

As she went to take a bite, she noted that they were quite oily. After trying it, she said: “I mean, they taste a bit like chestnut or parsnip, but they’re quite sweet.”

But she said this didn’t take away from the crispy exterior, which was more ‘flaky and tender’ than a classic crispy roast potato. Because of this, she said she wasn’t too impressed by the bicarb hack, and scored it a five out of ten.