Crispy Cottage Fries are made from Baked Potatoes in order to maximize the Crunch. Season them any way you like and enjoy. Optionally brine the Potatoes to get the seasoning right into the potatoes and get a Golden Crispy Crunch.

What are Cottage Fries

To make Cottage Fries, start by slicing potatoes to your preferred thickness, either leaving the skin on or peeled. Then, you can bake or fry them in a skillet with some fat until they’re crispy. Alternatively, you can deep-fry them to achieve the desired texture. It’s their shape that earns them the names Cottage Fries or Coin Chips. The thickness of the slices varies and is a matter of preference.

What are Home Fries

Home Fries or Hashbrowns are diced potatoes fried in a skillet with fat or in the oven with some fat until crispy. Home Fries are generally fried until crisp, while hashbrowns can be fried up crisp or soft.

Potatoes

You can use any kind of potatoes for this recipe, although I usually prefer Russets or other starchy varieties. Whether you peel the skin or leave it on is up to you. In my version, I bake the potatoes and then refrigerate them overnight to prepare for making the cottage fries.

Baking the potatoes first is crucial for achieving Cottage Fries with a Major Crunch. Unlike boiling or steaming, which can make potatoes absorb water, baking them leaves them ready to soak up the fat. This ultimately leads to potatoes with a crispy texture and plenty of crunch. For an extra golden color, you can also consider brining the potatoes.

Baked Potatoes

Wash the Potatoes and pierce both ends with a fork 3 times. Place on a baking sheet and into a preheated oven in the middle rack position for 45 minutes at 400 F. Remove and let cool before refrigerating overnight.

The best thing about this recipe is that you can bake all the potatoes you want and then freeze them. Then anytime you are in the mood for Cottage Fries, Hash Browns, or Homemade French Fries, the potatoes are already baked and ready to go. Thaw them, Dice or Slice into any shape or size, and cook.

Handle it with care at first. After they have started to crisp up they will hold together.

Over Baked Potatoes

Make sure that you bake the potatoes until just done or a little under. If they are overcooked, the middle will split or separate which will be no good if the split is severe. Because you won’t be able to slice the potatoes and have the slices hold together, they will instead fall apart.

For this reason, it is better to lean on the side of undercooked potatoes which will yield good slices that hold together. These will also be cooked further so undercooking is not really an issue. About 45 minutes at 400 F should be sufficient for medium to large potatoes. Try to pick potatoes that are roughly the same size.

If you find yourself with overcooked potatoes don’t throw them out. These can be placed into a Ziploc bag and frozen to use for small diced hashbrowns, gnocchi, included in bread for potato bread, and more.

Peeling Baked Potatoes

Chop the ends off the Potatoes where they were pierced with a fork and remove any loose skin as this will make it difficult to peel the potatoes. Then peel with a potato peeler.

Skin on Cottage Fries

Cottage Fries can be made with the skin on too. Instead of chopping the ends off and removing loose skin before peeling the potatoes. Just start slicing them into the desired thickness and cook. The below picture is a baked potato refrigerated overnight and sliced, no brining, just straight to the oven.

Freezing Baked Potatoes

Once the Potatoes are baked and left to cool for a bit. They can be wrapped in tin foil and frozen until needed. This is a great way to buy a bag of potatoes just for this purpose to ensure that you always have baked potatoes ready to go for quite a few different dishes. It’s also great for potatoes that will soon expire. Just bake and freeze them. Optionally place the tinfoil-wrapped baked potatoes into a large freezer bag.

How to Make Cottage Fries

Pierce the potato ends three times with a fork. Bake the potatoes in the middle rack position for 45 minutes in a preheated oven at 400 F. Allow them to cool and refrigerate overnight.

Fat used for Cottage Fries

Use Lard to fry the potatoes. Optionally use Sunflower Oil or Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Ghee may be used as well.

It’s important to have enough fat to crisp the Cottage Fries. The potatoes will soak up all the fat they can. After cooking for some time the potatoes will not soak up any more fat. Use about 1/4 C – 1/2 C. It’s better to have more than less fat.

You can save this excess fat for next time. Simply remove the Cottage Fries after cooking and allow the fat to cool. Once the fat in the pan has cooled down, pour it into a container and freeze it. The next time you make Cottage Fries, take the frozen lard out and place it into the pan to melt while the oven is preheating.

Cottage Fries with Rendered Fat

You can also use rendered fats, which pair exceptionally well with Cottage Fries, especially when served with certain meats. If you find you’re short on rendered fat, you can add more lard or oil to make sure you have around 1/3 cup of fat. Use Rendered Chicken, Beef, or Pork, including Bacon Fat.

Duck Fat if you have it, is excellent with potatoes.

How to Cook Cottage Fries

Once the potatoes are baked, refrigerated, and sliced to the desired size, choose your cook method.

There is a balance between soft inside mash verse the crunchy outside. The more crunchy the less mash. This of course also depends on how thick or thin the slices are. Cook until the desired level of crispness is achieved. Scoop them out and Season with Salt & Pepper.

Cook times will vary depending on how thick or thin the slices are, whether they are brined or not and the type of fat and how much fat is being used. The cook times are just a guideline. In general, cook until crispy, and repeat for the other side.

You will need a smaller size baking pan or casserole dish for potato slices that are thick and a larger baking pan or casserole dish if the potato slices are thin. With the Potato slices laid out flat and side by side. I slice mine at about 1/4 inch – 1/2 inch. Slice thinner or thicker based on your preferences.

Stovetop Cottage Fries

Depending on how much you are doing, you may need to do this in batches. The potatoes will initially stick, that’s okay, after some time they will loosen.

1. Add fat to a large skillet over medium heat and place the potato slices in.
2. Cook until golden brown on one side and then flip them over to cook again until golden brown.
3. Scoop the Cottage Fries out. Season with Salt & Pepper and repeat for more Cottage Fries.

Oven Cottage Fries

This is what makes the oven method so great. Allowing you to cook so much more Cottage Fries. This method is used in the below recipe.

To cook the potatoes, place them in a large oven tray with the fat and bake them at 450°F until they reach the desired crispness. If you have more than one tray’s worth of potatoes, you can use multiple trays and position them side by side in the oven.

After they have been flipped and are crispy, remove them from the pan and season with Salt & Pepper. Save the fat in the pan for the next time you do Cottage Fries.

Serve immediately as these are best enjoyed fresh out of the oven.

Deep Fried Cottage Fries

Cottage Fries can be brined & deep fried just the same as Homemade French Fries to achieve that Golden Color & Crunch. I prefer this method because it’s quick and easy, and you don’t waste time flipping each potato over with tongs. Although if I have Duck fat or Beef Suet and want to use that to fry the Cottage Fries then the oven is best.

Seasoning Cottage Fries

Treat these the same as you would Fries, seasoning them as soon as they come out of the oil.

The Salt & Pepper Seasoning I use is the same one used for Salt & Pepper Chicken and is listed below.

You can opt to brine the Potato slices to really get the salt and other flavors into the potatoes slices using the Homemade French Fries Brine. This also improves the color, yielding a beautiful golden color. With Brined Cottage Fries you may need no seasoning at all or at least very little of it after it has cooked.

Brined Cottage Fries

Brining the Fries for 1-2 hours will toughen the exterior, create a whiter color potato that crisps and goldens beautifully, and has seasoning that penetrates inside the potatoes.

The below is Cottage Fries sliced with the skin on, no brine & the right side is cottage fries sliced with the skin off and brined before being cooked.