Home Fries

The first time I tried Home Fries was at a local breakfast cafe named KeKe's. First of all, their pancakes are killer--light, fluffy, and enough to get any late sleeper wide awake in the morning. Secondly, I ordered a dish that came with a side of home fries and I was floored by how great they were. I've heard of home fries for years, and still can't believe I hadn't tried them earlier in life! I'm a hash brown/french fry/potato pancake lover, but this style of breakfast potato was new to me. I mean, I've had oven roasted potatoes, but these are just delicious. I know you're Lille wondering the difference between these and the Rosemary seasoned steamed potatoes you order as a side dish. Trust me, these slightly crispy the on the outside wonders are a step up.

One morning, I decided that I wanted to take these on myself, in the oven baked style. I took a total of 6 average sized red skin potatoes and cut them into hunks of varying sizes, then added them to a cast iron skillet along with some thinly sliced onion and minced garlic. I tossed them all together lightly and added some pats of butter over the top.

A baked potato usually takes right around an hour in the oven, so I put the whole pan in and baked it for 50 minutes, until the potatoes were fork tender and smelled GOOD.

This is not your average potato recipe! First off, I've babbled about cast iron skillets plenty of times before, and oven-baked in this pan created one awesome potato. Now, I have made Barbecue Roasted Potatoes previously in the oven, but used a regular casserole dish instead of a skillet. Cast iron works wonders - it heats evenly and is both stove-top and oven-frendly, making it a great all around choice. These potatoes hard a nice crispy outside and a perfectly soft, baked potato-like inside. The butter of course added some intense flavor, and the pepper and spices along with that buttery sauce I ended up with knocked these potatoes out of the park. They are perfect not just in the morning for part of a hearty breakfast, but as a great side dish with dinner. I gotta tell ya, this gets me thinking about these killer paprika-seasoend cheesy potatoes I had a while back and yum..time for more potatoes.

Home Fries Recipe

Ingredients:

6 red skin potatoes
1 cup sliced white onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons butter , cubed
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon tumeric

Instructions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut potatoes into cubes 1-2 inches in size. Add potatoes, onion slices and garlic to a cast iron skillet, then mix to combine. Top with butter cubes scattered over the top. Sprinkle salt, pepper, chili powder, and tumeric over the top and bake for 1 hour.

adapted from home fries