These Instant Pot Crispy Potatoes are based off the ones my mom made when I was growing up! They’re great for everything from breakfast to dinner, and are really easy to make as well.
The history behind these Instant Pot Crispy Potatoes goes all the way back to childhood for both me and Tyler. We both grew up with our moms boiling potatoes to cut up and fry for breakfasts the next morning.
Both of our mothers always added extra to the pot when they were making mashed potatoes for dinner. Then before mashing them, you reserve a few to cut up and refrigerate for the next morning. Come to think of it, pretty much everyone I know grew up this way, so I’d love to know if you grew up eating these too?
In any case, a couple years ago, I started cooking my potatoes in the Instant Pot instead of boiling them. It turns out the texture is way better, and way crispier this way.
Also this makes these potatoes great for meal prepping because they’re best made the night before/ or at least few hours before you need them. So we need to get cooking ASAP so you can have these ready to go for breakfast tomorrow morning!
Let’s make my Instant Pot Crispy Potatoes step by step:
Step 1:
The first step is to place clean potatoes onto the metal trivet or a steam basket. Then add water to the bottom of the pot, and you’re ready to pressure cook.
Step 2:
After the potatoes have been cooked, allow them to cool enough to handle.
Step 3:
When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them up into bite sized pieces.
Step 4:
From there it’s time to refrigerate them until you’re ready to fry them, or up to 3-4 days. I like cooking these in either cast iron or a non-stick skillet for the crispiest potatoes.
How to make these Crispy Potatoes for meal prep:
First pressure cook, then dice them up and refrigerate for up 4 days. With the potatoes already prepped, you’re just a few minutes in the frying pan away for crispy delicious-ness. I pressure cook some every Friday for weekend breakfasts. But I sometimes pressure cook some as part of my Sunday meal prepping to pan-fry for weeknight dinners as well.
What to serve with these potatoes for breakfast:
- Meal Prep Egg Muffins 3 Ways or Make Ahead Sausage Egg Muffins
- With Homemade Rosemary Breakfast Sausage and over easy eggs.
- Western Omelet Waffles
- Roasted Red Pepper Frittata with Feta and Spinach
- Asparagus Fontina Frittata
- Veggie Scrambled Eggs with Aged White Cheddar
- Saucy Italian Baked Eggs
- Mexican Baked Avocado Eggs
- Italian Sausage Egg Bake with Spinach and Tomatoes
What to serve with these potatoes for dinner:
- Bacon Wrapped Ranch Chicken
- Sun-dried Tomato Spinach Turkey Burgers
- Skillet Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs
- Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken
- Lemon Chicken and Asparagus Sheet Pan Dinner
- Instant Pot Creamy Tuscan Chicken
- Honey Mustard Chicken and Apple Skillet Dinner
- Bacon Wrapped Ranch Meatloaf
- Serve them like a side of fries with my In and Out Style Burger Lettuce Wraps.
- Strawberry Glazed Prosciutto Wrapped Stuffed Chicken
I sure hope you get a chance to make these potatoes soon! They’ve been such a huge hit in our house, especially when we have company, that I really hope you get to enjoy them too.
If you do make them, I’d love it if you’d leave me a comment/rating below. And I always love hearing from you here, and over on Instagram where you can tag me at #getinspiredeveryday with your photos.
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Instant Pot Crispy Potatoes
- Total Time: 25
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
These crispy potatoes are such a hit that we make them at least once a week for breakfast, and sometimes for dinner as well!
Ingredients
2 pounds Yukon golds, or other baking potato, see notes
To pan-fry 1/2 of the batch of potatoes:
2–3 Tablespoons ghee, or salted butter, for half the batch of potatoes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
Serve with:
Your choice of main dish, or with over easy eggs as pictured
Instructions
Place the cleaned potatoes onto the wire rack, making sure not to go over the ‘fill line’ on the side of the Instant Pot, (I use the 6-quart). Check to make sure the potatoes aren’t touching the sides. Then pour 1 cup of water into the bottom.
Set the Instant Pot to sealing and pressure cook for about 10 minutes for small potatoes, 18 for medium, and 30 for very large potatoes. When the cooking time is done, do a quick release. Then carefully lift out the potatoes to cool.
When you can easily handle the potatoes, cut them into bite sized pieces. Then place them into containers and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
To serve the potatoes, heat a large (15″) non-stick skillet over medium high heat. When the pan is hot but not smoking, add the ghee or butter and half of the prepped potatoes. Turn the heat down to medium and sprinkle the potatoes with sea salt and pepper.
Cook until browned before turning them to brown the other side, this takes about 6-8 minutes per side.
At the end of the cooking time, add the green onions and toss to combine. Cook and additional 2 minutes, then serve as desired.
Notes
Yukon golds are my favorite potato to use for this recipe because they’re the right amount of crispy on the outside and still moist in the centers. Although I have used pretty much every kind of potato here, so you can use what you have with varying results on the crispy factor.
For the purposes of this recipe, the potatoes I used were 4″x2″ in size. This is on the small side, but it’s what I have on hand. As you increase the size of the potato, you need to increase the cooking time. I’ve found very large potatoes, (think large Russets) to take as long as 30 minutes! If you find your potatoes aren’t done, put the lid back on and pressure cook for a few more minutes. Medium sized potatoes tend to take around 18 minutes.
Timing wise cooking the potatoes in the Instant Pot takes about 35 minutes or so for medium potatoes. Then when you’re ready to cook them, pan-frying takes and additional 15 minutes.
The nutritional information is for a half batch (or 4 servings) of fried potatoes.
- Prep Time: 10
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: American
Want to try this. I like that they are quick and ready to use. I’ve done a variation where I clean and chop potatoes and quick cook for 3-4 minutes in microwave then stir in olive oil and seasoning and then roast in oven till done, but your method is appealing and would have added benefit of prep already done when you’re ready to cook them. I love all your inspiring posts!
Thanks for writing with your method, I’ll have to try roasting mine in the oven sometime! So glad you’re enjoying the posts, and I hope you like these potatoes!