These healthier home fries are baked, not fried. They’re drizzled with healthy fats, tossed with garlic and paprika, and work perfectly for breakfast as well as dinner.
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If you need a cheap real food that keeps stomachs full without much fuss, potatoes are it. You can’t get much easier or much more versatile – soup, salad, stuffed, or layered between cheese and cream, it’s hard not to love potatoes.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly the problem in my family. They don’t like potatoes.
Somehow we ended up with a house full of people who think french fries are the only acceptable potato food. I’m pretty sure this is a clean eating fail.
Since we’re doing a #CheapskateWhole30, this root vegetable is extremely important right now. These Crispy Baked Home Fries saved our Whole30. It’s the perfect not-french-fry that tastes kind of like a french fry.
These home fries are baked, not fried. They’re drizzled with healthy fats, tossed with garlic and paprika, and they work perfectly for breakfast as well as dinner. Leftovers crisp up easily in the oven.
Budget-Friendly Crispy Baked Home Fries
The cost largely depends on how much your potatoes cost. We get ours from Aldi – 10 pounds of russet potatoes for $3.49. This brings a batch of home fries to about $1.15.
You can feed up to 6 people with this recipe, so each serving is 15 cents.
Or you can feed my 3 small boys the same amount of potatoes in one sitting, because they are part locust.
Make-Ahead Home Fries
To save time during the hectic dinner hour, you can chop the potatoes up to a day in advance. Store them in the fridge in a sealed container (these versatile glass bowls with lids are perfect – affiliate link), covered with water.
What to Serve with Home Fries
Home Fries with Eggs and 4-Ingredient Sausage
Serve with fruit on the side!
Potatoes with a Veggie-Loaded Frittata
Great for breakfast, brunch, or a meatless dinner.
Served in a Real Food Breakfast Hash:
Fry up sausage, peppers, greens, summer squash, eggs and leftover home fries. Season with salt and pepper. Top with cheese and salsa if desired.
More specific instructions here!
Home Fries Topped Like Chili Cheese Fries:
Top with chili, melted cheddar, sour cream, and pickled jalapeños.
Homemade Fries with Burgers and Salad.
Or Make My Kids’ Favorite Meal:
Serve home fries with a scoop of The Only Beef You Need to Make and steamed vegetables or salad.
With This Chicken Caesar Salad
For some reason, even people who don’t love salad love this.
Alongside a Big Salad
Make this salad the kind with shredded chicken and all the best summer veggies… you know what I’m talking about. Use one of these 4 easy salad dressings.
Ingredients for Crispy Baked Home Fries
In order to make these home fries, you only need a few ingredients:
- Russet potatoes (we’ve used other kinds, but these are our favorite)
- Oil or butter (grapeseed, avocado, and coconut work great)
- Paprika (optional – but paprika *makes* this recipe)
- Garlic or garlic powder
- Salt
- Pepper (optional)
How to Make Crispy Baked Home Fries
Preheat the oven and gather the ingredients. Dice the potatoes into fairly even cubes like this:
Place all ingredients in a large bowl with a lid.
Put the lid on the bowl and vigorously shake everything together until potatoes are evenly coated.
Spread them in an even layer on a large baking sheet (you may need to use two).
Bake for 1 hour, flipping them every 12-15 minutes until they’re brown, crispy, and perfect.
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and tag a photo #cheapskatecook and @cheapskatecook on Instagram.
Baked Home Fries
These healthier home fries are baked, not fried. They’re drizzled with healthy fats, tossed with garlic and paprika, and work perfectly for breakfast as well as dinner.
Ingredients
- 3 lbs russet potatoes*
- 3 tbsp oil or butter, (grapeseed, avocado, and coconut work great)
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 clove garlic, minced, (or 1/4 tsp garlic powder)
- 1 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1/2 tsp pepper, or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Dice potatoes into fairly even cubes by cutting them in half lengthwise then cut each half in half lengthwise to make 4 long quarters. Chop each quarter into fairly even chunks (see below).
- Place all the ingredients in a large bowl with a lid. Seal lid tightly, then shake the bowl vigorously until potatoes are evenly covered with oil and seasonings.
- You can also stir them together like an adult, but where's the fun in that? Plus it takes longer.
- Spread the potatoes evenly on a baking sheet. You may need to use two. Bake for 12-15 minutes - preferably on the top rack.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and use a spatula to flip the potatoes over. This doesn't have to be perfect - this step just helps ensure they don't burn and that they crisp evenly. Put the baking sheet back in the oven and bake another 12-15 minutes.
- Repeat the baking and flipping process 2 more times, until the potatoes have been in the oven for 50-60 minutes. They should have some dark crispy sides and some light brown sides. Taste one and add salt or pepper or cook another 10 minutes if necessary.
Notes
Serve With:
Chicken, burgers, salad, eggs, or topped with chili and melted cheese (see post for more ideas).
Make-Ahead:
To save time during the hectic dinner hour, you can chop the potatoes up to a day in advance. Store them in the fridge in a sealed container (these versatile glass bowl with lids are perfect - affiliate link), covered with water.
Sweet Potatoes:
This recipe works great with sweet potatoes. Omit the paprika and garlic, then bake them the exact same way. They might not need as long in the oven.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 1 cup (ish)Amount Per Serving Calories 226Total Fat 7gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 4mgSodium 326mgCarbohydrates 37gFiber 4gSugar 2gProtein 5g
Please note: The actual calories and nutrition of this dish will change depending on what ingredients you use. Nutrition information is not always accurate.
More Potato Recipes You Might Like:
- Potato peel soup
- Deeply-flavorful baked sweet potatoes
- Sweet potato bread
- Picadillo (Mexican Beef & Potato Stew)
What You Can Do Now:
What’s your favorite way to eat potatoes? Baked? Mashed? Fries?
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I also do home fried potatoes with left over baked potatoes. When I make baked potatoes I make a few extra and put them in the refrigerator. Then I cut up the potatoes leaving the skin on put them in a bowl drizzle a little bit of olive oil and whatever seasoning I want to use put them on a cookie sheet
Perfect!
Anyway these can be made using boiled potatoes and if so, how? Thank you.
Hi Aleta! These would work great with half-boiled potatoes, as in, they were boiled for just a few minutes, but they aren’t cooked all the way thru. If you use leftover boiled potatoes, they would be in danger of overcooking. But my philosophy with cooking is, might as well try!
If you want a home fries type dish made from boiled potatoes, I would pan fry them in butter to warm them up.
Thank you for your reply. Sure do appreciate it. 🙂
Of course!