Hash Browns and Hot Dogs with Hash Brown Sauce using refrigerated Baked Potatoes. Fry the Hash Browns Soft, Crispy, or somewhere in between. Add your Onion & Hot Dog Slices and serve with that Hash Sauce, which is the same Red Sauce used for Saucy Steak and excellent on Hash Browns, offering a bright & Zesty slight smoke flavor.
Diced Hash Browns
For the best Hash Browns or the Old Fashioned way of preparing Hash Browns, bake whole Potatoes and refrigerate overnight. This method also happens to be diabetic friendly, because it doesn’t spike the glucose levels as much as freshly prepared Potatoes. Baking and refrigerating Potatoes and then exposing them to heat again creates resistant starch, which helps with minimizing blood spikes and is food for the gut flora.
Preheat the Oven to 400 F and Bake the Potatoes for about 50 minutes. Remove and transfer to a plate to refrigerate overnight. When ready to make Hash Browns, peel or slice the skin off and dice. Fry them in a skillet with a bit of Fat.
Hash Brown Fats
The amount of Fat used determines if the Hash Browns come out Soft, Crispy, or somewhere in between. With less fat the Hash Browns will come out soft and with more fat the Hash Browns will come out crispy.
The best type of Fat to use are animal Fats such as Bacon Grease, which can be chopped and cooked until crisp and removed from the pan to add back in later. Other animal Fats, such as Beef Suet, Lard, Lamb Fat, or Duck Fat, are very good with Hash Browns. Outside these Fats, a neutral Oil can be used.
Hash and Hot Dogs
Use Beef, Chicken, or Pork Hot Dogs and dice or slice them. I tend to slice them in half and then chop. When the Hash Browns are just about done to your liking, add the hot dogs and continue to fry. If you like the Hot dogs very well cooked, then add them in earlier.
Hash Browns with Onions
I almost always add in diced Onions and depending on how well cooked you like them add them in for a longer or shorter cook time. Garlic and/or Green Onions can be added towards the end, they only need a few minutes to cook.
Salt & Pepper
Use a good amount of Salt & Pepper to season the Hash Browns. Combine the below Salt & Pepper blend and season the Hash Browns as they cook. Taste and adjust as needed.
Salt & Pepper blend Ingredients
- 1 Tbl Sea Salt
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp White Pepper
Hash Brown Sauce
I absolutely love the Red Steak Sauce on Hash Browns, it’s so good! Just combine the below ingredients together, mix really well, and place into a bottle to serve this Hash Brown Sauce on the side or directly over the Hash Browns.
Hash Brown Sauce
- 1/2 C Ketchup
- 1 Tbl Yellow Mustard, Worcestershire Sauce, & Lemon Juice, each
- 2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1/2 tsp Garlic & Onion Powder, each
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt, Black Pepper, & Liquid Smoke, each
Hash Brown Texture
The texture of the Hash Browns themselves will have a soft starchy inside caused by baking the potatoes and refrigerating overnight and not letting the steam escape. This continues to steam the potatoes and the starch inside goes gelatinous. This is what makes this old-fashioned style of preparing Hash Browns so great. Besides also being a more diabetic friendly version and feeding your gut flora due to the resistant starch created.
After these are peeled and cubed, they can go one of two routes, depending on how much fat you use. Soft with varying degrees of crispness with very little oil, or crispy with lots of oil. The Potatoes will soak up the oil as you cook, so you may need to adjust as you go, depending on what you’re after. Any excess oil can be strained off before adding other ingredients or serving.
In both cases, you’re not mixing it around all that often. Let the Hash Browns cook and occasionally toss around for even cooking or crisping.
Soft Hash Browns and Hotdogs
Soft Hash Browns are cooked in just enough fat for the Potatoes to absorb. This style breaks the Potatoes down a bit, creating a fond on the bottom of the pan that gets crispy. This is scraped up and tossed with the Hash Browns. There should be no visible oil in the pan, or very little.
The below image is made with corned beef, but it illustrates how Soft Hash Browns look.
Crispy Hash Browns and Hotdogs
With Crispy Hash Browns, you are in effect shallow frying. These style of Hash Browns require a decent amount of Oil to Crisp up the exterior. Add enough Oil so that the bottom of the pan has a small layer of Oil. Add more if the Potatoes soak it up. Toss occasionally for even crisping all the way around, giving the Hash Browns time to fry up golden.
Once the Hash Browns are crisp, any excess oil can be strained off and the hash browns themselves can be seasoned with additional seasonings you choose to toss and briefly cook through before serving.
Soft & Crispy
Soft and Crispy is somewhere in between, which uses about 1/4 C of Fat to 1 lb (ca. 454 g) of diced Potatoes. You add the diced Potatoes and toss so they get coated in the Fat. Leave them be a few minutes so they can crisp up. Then toss them around for even browning. There is no fond created and some sides get crispy while other stay soft, with no additional oil added. This is the method used in the main recipe.
Equipment
- 1 Large Skillet
Ingredients
- 3 Med Potatoes - or weigh out about 1 lb (ca. 454 g)
- 4 Hot Dogs - sliced
- 1 Small Onion - diced
- 1/4 C Oil - more if needed for Crispy Hash Browns, less for Soft
- 1 portion Hash Brown Sauce
Salt & Pepper Blend
- 1 Tbl Sea Salt
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp White Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F with the rack in middle position. Pierce the end of the Potatoes 3 times with a fork and place them on a baking sheet. Place the Potatoes into the oven to bake for about 50 minutes, flipping them over halfway through. Remove and transfer to a plate and refrigerate overnight.
- To Prepare Hash Browns: Slice the ends off the Baked Potatoes that have been refrigerated overnight. Peel or slice the skin off and cube the potatoes to the desired size.
- Heat a large Skillet up with Oil over medium heat. Once the Fat is hot, add in the Potatoes, season with Salt & Pepper and leave them for about 5 minutes. Toss and leave again for another 5 minutes. Toss again every few minutes until crisp to your liking, total cook time of about 20 minutes.
- Add diced Onions about halfway through (10 minutes in) or earlier for more caramelization of the Onions or later for lightly cooked Onions. Same with the sliced Hot Dogs.
- If there is any excess Fat left at the end, strain it out and Season the Hash Browns more if needed. Toss and cook a few minutes more before serving.
Notes
Hash Brown Sauce
- 1/2 C French’s Ketchup
- 1 Tbl Worcestershire, Yellow Mustard, and Lemon Juice — each
- 2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1/2 tsp Onion & Garlic Powder — each
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt, Black Pepper, and Liquid Smoke — each