Crispy hashbrowns easy

Our typical weekend mornings involve crispy hashbrowns which I’ve made hundreds of times over the years. Through trial and error I’ve narrowed in on a relatively low-effort way of getting a consistently good result.

Gear

Box grater
Potato ricer, or a clean kitchen towel
Potato peeler
Cast iron or carbon steel skillet
Medium and extra small kitchen bowls
Kitchen scale

Ingredients

~200g starchy potatoes per person, I use russet
2g salt per person, or 1% of total potato weight
high smoke point oil

Process

Rinse your potatoes, then either peel if you prefer or leave the skins intact but remove blemishes and eyes from potatoes if not.
One at a time, grate a potato then fill either the ricer or the towel with what you’ve grated and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Potato ricers make this simple, with a towel you’ll need to twist up the end to create pressure then squeeze quite hard. Put the squeezed potatoes in the bowl and continue with the rest.
Portion out the potatoes to roughly equal amounts per person. Add one serving back to a bowl and weigh, use a scale to measure out 1% of the weight in salt into a separate small bowl (so, for 250g potatoes you’d want 2.5g salt), and set aside.
Heat up the skillet to medium-high heat. Add 10mL of the oil and swirl around the bottom till smoking. Only now should you add the salt to the potatoes, stir in quickly, then add directly to the skillet. Use a spoon or spatula to spread evenly, then after 2 minutes turn the heat down to medium. Let it cook for another 8 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally to keep it from sticking,
After 10 minutes turn back to medium-high heat, total drizzle another 10mL of oil directly on top of the potatoes and flip, let sit for 2 minutes, then turn back down to medium. Once 20 minutes total has elapsed, remove to a plate and serve immediately.

Extra tips

The base recipe here is bare bones, I usually mix in the greens of 1 scallion per person and healthy amount of freshly-cracked green pepper to the bulk potatoes before portioning out.

200g of potatoes makes a medium-sized hashbrown. You can make servings of different sizes, just make sure to adjust the salt too. I use a fine scale to weigh out precisely 1% of the total weight per serving.

Knowing your stovetop’s heat is key, with my induction stove I heat up for 5+ minutes at 7/10 on the dial, then turn down to 5 after initial cooking. If your potatoes are coming out crunchy instead of crispy, increase the heat next time. If they’re getting too dark and taste bitter, lower the heat. It will take a few tries to dial in for your setting.