Definitely a cut above the usual roasted potatoes! The unique thing about Greek Lemon Potatoes is that they are cooked in a heavily flavoured lemon garlic broth so they suck up all that flavour before roasting to golden perfection. They’re utterly addictive!
Greek Lemon Potatoes
Welcome back to the final instalment of GREEK WEEK!!! We started the week with Greek Chicken marinated in the most incredible yogurt marinade, served up a big pan of homemade Greek Baklava on Wednesday and we’re finishing up the week with the much anticipated Greek Lemon Potatoes!
We’re serving all these with a side of fresh Greek Salad and Tzatziki for dolloping (in the Greek Chicken recipe) – and see here for more Greek recipes.
Plate smashing is optional – but loads of garlic in everything is not!
Let’s be clear about one thing up front:
These are not your usual roasted potatoes
Don’t get me wrong. Throw spuds in the oven drizzled with oil, salt and pepper, and I’ll happily munch my way through them.
Make the effort to follow a few extra steps to make the crunchiest roast potatoes you’ve ever had, and it’s like all my Christmases have come at once. Thick, craggy crusts, perfectly seasoned, fluffy insides.
But these roasted Greek Lemon Potatoes….
These are unlike any other roasted potato I’ve ever had because they’re flavoured all the way through. Flavoured with all THIS ↓↓↓
How I cut potatoes for this recipe
We want chunky pieces for this recipe so they hold up to the relatively long cooking time. I cut medium potatoes into 3 pieces, as pictured below, and large potatoes into quarters or thick wedges.
HALF BRAISED, HALF ROASTED
The idea behind Greek Lemon Potatoes is that they are braised in a lemon-garlic flavoured broth so they suck up all that flavour, then you continue roasting them until the liquid evaporates, leaving behind just the oil to roast the potatoes until golden.
The concept sounds easy enough, but actually, it’s quite tricky to do in one pan. I swear, it’s scientifically impossible to roast potatoes until golden without the garlic burning. It’s one or the other – golden garlic or golden potatoes (unless, like I do with my Herb Roasted Potatoes, you add the garlic midway through cooking).
Also, I kept ending up with burnt ridges on the potato from the lemon juice and broth that caramelises on the base of the pan, and a disappointing lack of golden crusts promised by recipes I used.
After two, three, five, seven attempts, I threw every recipe I read out the window (virtually) and settled on an easier, less risky way of making Greek Lemon Potatoes so they come out as golden as possible: Braise in one pan to suck up flavour, transfer to a tray to bake until golden, drizzled with the flavoured oil from Pan 1.
How to make Greek Lemon Potatoes (my safer way)
You can skip the transference step if you want. But just be mindful that you’ll need to keep a super close eye on the potatoes and they won’t be as golden as you see in these photos, you’ll likely end up with thin dark burnt ridges and the garlic with burn (gee, I’m really making this sound appetising! 😂)
In the interest of total transparency …
Because I hate recipes that lie, I want to be 100% clear about expectations: these are not the crispiest roast potatoes in the world. I truly think it’s scientifically impossible to get seriously crispy roast potatoes once they’ve been submerged in all that lemon and broth (believe me, I tried my heart out!).
So if seriously crunchy potatoes is what you are after – and I’m talking seriously thick crunchy crust and they stay crisp for ages – use this recipe: Duck Fat Potatoes or Truly Crunchy Roast Potatoes.
But these Greek Lemon Potatoes do have nice crispy edges and some crispy surfaces (see video and photos) and in any case, you won’t miss major crunch factor because these have so much more flavour than any other roasted potato.
It was actually scary how much of these I was able to consume in one sitting. I just couldn’t stop – they are so darn good!! – Nagi x
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Greek Lemon Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg / 2.5lb potatoes (Aus: Desiree, US: Yukon Gold, UK: Maris Piper) (Note 1)
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock/broth , low sodium (Note 2)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 5 garlic cloves , finely grated using microplane (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp salt (Note 4)
Garnish (optional)
- Lemon wedges, fresh oregano leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°Cfan).
- Cut potatoes: Peel potatoes and cut large ones into thick wedges – about 3cm / 1.2" thick – and medium ones into 3 (see photo in post).
- Coat potatoes: Place potatoes in a roasting pan with all the other ingredients. Toss well.
- Roast 45 minutes: Roast for 20 minutes. Turn potatoes, roast for a further 25 to 30 minutes until the liquid is mostly absorbed by potatoes/evaporated and you're left with mainly oil in the pan.
- To crisp the potatoes (optional): Transfer potatoes to a separate tray. (Note 3) Tilt the original roasting pan and scoop off as much of the oil as you can (some juices is ok), then drizzle over the potatoes.
- Roast 35 minutes: Transfer potatoes to oven and roast for 35 – 40 minutes, turning once or twice, until potatoes are golden and a bit crispy on the edges.
- Heat pan juices: Return pan #1 with the garlic juices to the oven for the last 5 – 10 minutes or so to reduce down and make the garlic golden. (Optional, Note 4)
- Plate up: Transfer potatoes to serving platter. Drizzle over the reduced garlic pan juices (or toss potatoes in the pan). Serve, garnished with lemon wedges and oregano if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
When Dozer stole a dog treat at the pet shop while I was trying to take cute photos of him eyeing off the treats…..
What d’you suppose would happen if you took your potatoes out of the braise, added a bit of butter to the braising liquid, whisked the liquid to emulsification, tossed the potatoes back in to coat, then remove them and while they still glisten with the emulsion, dust with some semolina flour, and then put them in the hot oven to finish? Should crust up and brown real nice methinks. Just a thought. Incidentally, the Truly Crunchy Roast Potatoes are excellent and I look forward to a meal of your Greek chicken, these potatoes and a Greek salad.
Hi Roger! I think they’d be MIGHTY TASTY but just won’t have the same crust 🙂 It’s the liquid left in the pan, it’s basically impossible to get a proper crust with that liquid left. Also the sugar in the lemon caramelises on the base of the pan and creates burns on the edges of the potato. Hope you had a great weekend! N x
Just in case you’d like to try something a little different; my signature potatoes.
Ingredients…
◦ Two medium/large red or russet potatoes per person.
◦ extra virgin olive oil infused with garlic.
◦ sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.
Directions…
1) Scrub and inspect potatoes for defects and remove if necessary otherwise leaving skin intact.
2) Perpendicular to the long axis, slice potatoes into rounds 3/4-1 inch thick.
3) Place in microwaveable glass bowl with a lid and thoroughly rinse, drain but do not dry.
4) Cover loosely and microwave on high (1200 Watts) for 5 minutes. More if more than for two (4 potatoes) servings.
5) Remove from microwave oven, bowl and place on a half-sheet baking pan, lined in foil with a roasting grid to dry.
6) Brush both sides of each round with garlic infused EVOO dusting with salt and pepper to your liking as you go.
7) Turn oven or large counter top toaster-oven on, set rack one level down from broiling element or flame and set to “broil.”
8) Slide pan w/potatoes into oven onto adjusted rack and cook until top surface of potatoes rounds are browned to your liking then flip rounds and continue broiling until second sides are similarly browned. Remove sheet-pan w/rack of potatoes and set aside for serving.
9) We like to serve them with a dollop of sour cream sprinkled with chopped chives or finely chopped green onions (scallions).
Notes…
These potatoes finish equally well when browned on an outdoor grill and pretty well on a stovetop grill pan and are even great finished in a cast iron fry pan. Face it, potatoes pre-cooked until starting to go creamy inside and finished this way are just plain addictive. You can even dust them with semolina or grated Parmesan or a blend of both to up the ante if you think they need it. But they really don’t — trust me on this.
Loved Greek Week, greek food is the absolute best and I’m definitely planning on making all 3 recipes with some greek salad one night next week. Dozer is adorable <3
You know I and potatoes usually do not live in the same house together, but with that seductive recipe and my love of both extra garlic and lemon . . . and that interesting mode of preparation – you have made a convert this time 🙂 ! Want to try, want to taste . . . Oh Dozer: methinks many stores place the goodies within ‘dog distance’ on purpose – well, a certain ‘sale’ there !!!
I was thinking of trying something similar with cauliflower! I have 3 giant heads in the fridge at the moment!
Sugar! So do I !! Well, one . . . shall try . . . do tell . . .
Can the sodium amount be correct? 1299mg!!
Thanks Deborah! I put the “low sodium” in the wrong column. 🙂 Fixed – but it IS still quite high. Potatoes take a lot of salt! You can absolutely reduce the salt 🙂 N x
Yum, YUMI!! Nagi , step06 try using hot, hot, DUCK OR GOOSE FAT. MINE ARE DONE WITH DUCK FAT.LOVE, LOVE ROAST POTATO, COULD HAVE EVERY DAY. Dozer went shopping….., nice, lots of smells and sniffs ….Not nice outside, it has rained bit but windy. Have great day!
YES YES YES! Duck and goose fat with potatoes are INSANELY good!! N xx
I just discovered your website while looking for recipes to use up the food in my freezer…we are without power due to Hurricane Florence! Thank you for the fish taco recipe…I have some great local NC snapper in my freezer!
Please stay safe Morgan! N xx
I heart Dozer. He is the bestest boy!
He is SO CHEEKY!!!
These Greek lemon potatoes look good, just like everything else you make! See persistence paid off, after your 7 attempts and they look well worth it!
Now as for Dozer, trouble with a capital T! 😂 I bet they moved those treats up higher after he left or maybe not bc it’s like kids in a candy store! They know they are going to get a sale! They should have an emoji for a dog stealing treats! 😂
I bet they do it deliberately – they get more sales!!!
Nagi these look amazing!!! Your recipes are amazing! Made the simple pumpkin soup from your blog last night and it tasted amazing!!
So glad you loved that soup! It’s one of my faves! N xx
Can’t wait to try these.. they look and sound amazing…
Also love your life of Dozer
Thanks for the recipes
Hope you get a chance to try them Peta! N xx
What kind of potatoes do you use? White, red, or russet?
Russet is ideal 🙂 Thanks for the reminder Leslie, have added this in the ingredients!
What kind of potatoes can I use
Thanks
Added list in Note 1! 🙂 N x
These look amazing! I’ve always loved them in Greek restaurants, but yours look infinitely better!
The flavour inside is just amazing!! N xx
https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2018/09/roasted-lemon-pepper-potatoes-side-dish.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/sBff+(Food+Wishes+Video+Recipes)
Nagi, check this technique out as well. A few days ago, Chef John had posted this recipe. This weekend I’m making your Greek night for company…I’m debating which Lemon Potatoe recipe to make. I’m sure they are both delicious! Thanks
I saw that! I follow Chef John! I see he notes the same issues I raised re: burning garlic and crispiness! He uses cayenne pepper for colour but you can see his aren’t that crispy because he did the method of cooking them in the same pan. Use mine if you want the garlic/oregano flavour and a bit of crispiness, or his if you want a simpler recipe! 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi,
These look wonderful – we’re having Greek night next week so I can try all the yummies you’ve posted recently. Love the crisping idea!
Dozer Baby – I think you picked the bestest treat!!
He certainly picked the MOST EXPENSIVE one – it was some kind of fancy dried meat stick with dried chicken wrapped around it. 🙄
Yummy, I love potatoes that hold all the flavor! I wish I wasn’t such a carboholic but I can’t get enough of potatoes.
Dozer is hilarious! He probably thought the whole bucket was for him. I’m sure in his mind he wasn’t stealing, just simply taking what was clearly meant for him.
You and me both Dahn….. give me all the carbs!! 😂
Hi Nagi. I can’t wait to try this recipe. I did read your post all the way through. I love how you explain the why behind your methods. Thank you, Jeanne
I’m so glad you find it helpful Jeanne! Thank you for reading! N xx
I’m sold! At first it was the photo shot and an excellent side to the wonderful Greek chicken recipe; BUT, THEN you said it was “like all my Christmases coming at once!” LOL. I am soooo in!
Theresa
Carb. Monster. (Me. Not you! 😂)