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…..
This is a genius recipe. I’ve never seen or tried anything like it before. They were delicious and actually reheated surprisingly well as well in the oven the next day
Forgot to give this recipe its 5 stars in my previous comment. Sorry! (Would give it 6 stars if I could).
These are terrific! My family devoured them. To speed things up, I put the cut potatoes in their marinade and microwaved them (parcook) before roasting them. Easy and so flavourful!
I made this in the midst of a heat wave. I didn’t want to use the oven, so I followed the recipe, but simmered the cut potatoes on the stove top until done. I then put a heavy ruined cookie sheet on the hot grill to roast them. They were perfect and met with raves from my guests.
Thank you for a great technique for creamy center, crisped outers.
I cooked these over two days very successfully. On day one I cooked them for the recommended 45 minutes in the braising liquid. I transferred them to a rimmed cookie sheet, after draining off the extra braising liquid and put them in the fridge until the next day. On day two I finished cooking them according to the recipe. I didn’t reduce the extra braising liquid. They turned out perfectly crispy and lemony. Great recipe thats easy to partially make ahead of time.
One additional comment I forgot. It is best to let the potatoes cool for at least one hour or two, then rewarming before serving. This cooling firms the texture of the potatoes.
These are truly the best Greek potatoes I have ever made, even with my Greek friend. Everyone who tries my potatoes now just swoons. Thank you for the recipe
These were better than any Greek lemon potatoes I’ve ever had. I made them exactly as you described, but just left them in the oven an hour longer. DELICIOUS! Thank you for this recipe!!
I loved the idea about all of the flavors in these potatoes, particularly since I have Greek oregano in my garden. To get them crispy and brown, I cut out the chicken broth and mixed a dab of Better Than Boullion chicken flavor in with the olive oil and lemon juice. Then I just roasted it, turning once, for about an hour. Yummy. Yes my garlic burned on the bottom of the tray, but the flavors had all come through perfectly and the potatoes were crispy.
Oh my gosh…these are delicious!!!! I was a little worried as I was serving them the next day at a “Greek themed” lunch and there was a comment about them not being as good the next day. I did a test a couple of weeks back and we ate them the next day and they were awesome. The flavor and texture was spot on! Everyone asked me for the recipe which I gladly shared. Thank you!!!
Absolutely worth making these potatoes. Delicious
These were phenomenal. They tasted exactly like the potatoes you get at Greek restaurants. I made a half batch (for two people), just halving all the ingredients but otherwise following the recipe exactly. Turned out perfect.
The potatoes were absolutely delicious! Just a heads up though, the cooking time at the top of the recipe of 70 minutes does not include the optional browning. If you use the upper limits of cook time, it’s actually 90 minutes (20 + 30 + 40). I ended up browning for about 10 minutes at 425 instead, to time it with the rest of my meal. Plan accordingly!
Would this still be great the next day? Any tips for preparing for next day to eat?
Hi Lina,
I reheated the leftovers up to 3 days later in the air fryer. They were full of flavour and crispier. I gave some to my neighbours and they loved them. I was shocked at how yummy they were.
Hi Lina – this one does not keep well and is best eaten just after cooking – sorry!! N x
I’ve made this dish a half dozen times since seeing this recipe posted here, I’ll echo what VK said about it. It’s just as tasty as the Greek potatoes (and the lemon rice recipe) served at my fave Greek restaurant. Fantastic results, so good!
This looks delicious! Can you cook them in the liquid the day before and then finish roasting the next day?
I really wish someone would answer this, I’ve made these many times, but today I’m roasting them for 1 hour then continuing tomorrow for the browning. Hoping it will turn out, it’s just easier than using up the host’s oven or bbq for 90+ minutes. BTW did them on the bbq the other day, they took longer but were fantastic!
Tastes just like the ones from my favourite Greek restaurant. I’ve been searching for this flavor for years! Good job N!
Awwww!! Thank you VK!! N x
Potatoes are very yummy
Do you use Kosher or table salt?
I use kosher in my cooking unless I specify differently Christine! N x
I made these for Orthodox/Greek Easter today. Everyone loved them. My Greek father in law said they were amazing and exactly how Greek potatoes should be. Thank you for the recipe! (By the way…you mention in the recipe that getting them more crispy isn’t really possible…my FIL says that they are perfect and all the lemon potatoes ate growing up in Greece and made by his Greek family in the US is the same consistency/crispness as this recipe.)
Forgot to rate it!
I made these for Easter dinner along with pork roast and they were a huge hit with everyone including the littlest ones! These potatoes had that chewy crust on the outside and moist and lemony delicious on the inside. I used Yukon gold and they worked really well. They were easy and didn’t need fussing over. Will make often!
That’s lovely Maria!! N x