Soft and fluffy on the inside, crispy and spicy on the outside served with your favorite dipping sauce. No par boiling or soaking and peeling is optional, simply baked in a spicy coating, little parmesan and served with a generous amount of flaky salt, and parsley. If needed an extra sprinkle of chip and potato spice because it's that delicious and flavorful!
These are the perfect sides for this Chicken Sandwich Recipe and even a plate with just wedges on works splendidly! All you need is a good dipping sauce, use your favorite or ketchup if that's your thing. I've shared a very popular recipe on this site Easy Braai Sauce Recipe that's fitting with these potato wedges. Whether this is the first time making baked potato wedges or not there is always something new to learn so hopefully you will find your something new here.
Crispy and Spicy Baked Potato Wedges
This has got to be not only the easiest food to make but it's also the most forgiving so don't be critical of details just enjoy the making and yes the eating! Making crispy wedges is easy but again, making spicy crispy potato wedges is even better! The spice not only adds flavor, it also adds so much incredible tasty crunchiness on the coating! Yes because what's the point of having crispy potatoes with no flavor? Generous amount of salt is necessary because they also taste so good, now just take them up another level and add this chip and potato spice.
There are many tips and tricks to getting potato wedges in a particular way but those tips and tricks are not the only way. No matter how you cut your potatoes, or bake them, with or without parmesan cheese you will still eat delicious potatoes because this root vegetable makes a great meal, snack, sides or appetizer regardless. The extras like salt which is necessary and spice simply add the extra layer of deliciousness.
It's really hard to mess up potato wedges and remember they don't need to be perfect, just crispy and flavorful.
How To Make Potato Wedges
Think of these 4 steps; Cut, Dry, Season and Bake.
How to cut potato wedges: Cut in half lengthwise, cut that half in half again, and one more time. You should get 8 more or less equal size wedges but that will depend on the size of your potatoes.
Dry the potatoes: Dry the potatoes after cutting them into wedges. I like to place a dish towel over a tray and lay the wedges down on the dish towel. Let them sit in the fridge for 20 minutes to dry up. I know it sounds crazy but the colder they are when they get into the oven the more they crisp up.
TIP! And that's my tip to crispy wedges!
Season: Coat the wedges with chip and potato spice and olive oil. Add the Maizena and part of the cheese.
Bake: Bake the potato wedges in a preheated oven for 20/25 minutes or until light golden brown. You can flip them halfway through but again, check your potatoes first and if they're still too soft to flip then preferably leave them alone to crisp up. It depends on what potatoes you're using, sometimes you need to turn them over but sometimes that can cause them to break. There are times all you need to do is rotate your oven tray because that is dependent on your oven temperatures.
Baked Potato Wedges
I have a few things that I do to help make my potatoes crispy including the above tip;
- Rinse - After cutting the potatoes into wedges, rinse and dry.
- Dry - Drying them is as important a step as the rest to remove as much moisture.
- Refrigerate - Because people like me are paranoid and want to make sure they are as dry as possible and I do find that this step helps. Trust me, after cooking every day for a few decades you come up with weird and wonderful ways to get the results that you want 🙂
- Coating - Coat them well in maizena to help create that layer of crisp that we're looking for.
- Oven Temperature - Using a hot oven is paramount in achieving the goal here friends.
- No Fiddling! - I always have people ask me how do you get the crisp but when I ask a couple of question it's always that they open the oven too early! And start fiddling???? For the first 20 to 25 minutes let the potato wedges be, please.
Maizena is the miracle ingredient to so many dishes! Here it is used to gain that overly thick crunchy coating over the potato wedges and then think of the spice that cooks into that crisp? Good heavens it's delicious!
Feel free to add half to one teaspoon of spice to the maizena when coating. Not in the picture but added a generous pinch!
No need to feel pressured into peeling the potatoes. Most times I roast them with the peels on and when making wedges it's an on the moment thing to peel or not. Don't overthink it. These potatoes were as crispy with peels on, it happens 🙂
A Few Things To Consider
Peel or Not To Peel That's entirely up to you, there's no right or wrong way. The only thing to consider is that most of the nutritional value is in the skin. I've read that without the skin is less crispy but that's not true, I've done them both ways there are other elements involved as explained above.
Cutting The Potatoes These are wedges so let's make wedges. Cut the potato in half, half again and again so you have 8 potato wedges from one potato.
Crispy Potato Wedges Tips & Suggestions
There are many tips and suggestions but these are the few that will make all the difference.
- As explained earlier, leaving them alone for the first 20 minutes once they're in the oven.
- Rinsing the potatoes It does help to remove the sort of smudginess which is the starch so rinse it out.
- Spread them out It looks great when you spread them out neatly but the wedges will also cook if they are not all in a straight line. As long as the potato wedges are not piled over each other.
- Focus on the taste: Food doesn't have to look perfect for it to taste amazing. Often we are under the impression that if the photo is bad the food is bad too. However, it isn't so. Taste and aroma with enough flavor and crispy bites is what we're aiming for.
So in theory, food works just as life does, it's never as it seems 🙂
More Delicious Sides and Appetizers?
Oven baked potato wedges are always a great appetizer or side dish and super simple to make. Here are a few more ideas.
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Crispy Spicy Baked Potato Wedges
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 potatoes rinsed (See notes below on peeling)
- 2 Tbsps. Maizena
- 2 Tbsps. chip and potato spice
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese grated
- ¼ cup olive oil if using butter or duck fat about 4 tbsps.
- flaky sea salt
- 2 to 3 Tbsps. parsley finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat - Preheat the oven to 220 °C / 428°F.
- Line a baking tray - Use baking paper or aluminum foil to line the inside of the tray, this is for roasting the wedges. Line another tray or dish - Line with a clean dry kitchen towel / cloth and set aside, we will leave them in the fridge for 10 to 20 minutes after cutting.
- Wash / rinse the potatoes - Drip / air dry and place on a board to cut.
- Cut the potatoes into wedges - In half lengthwise, cut each half lengthwise again and once more. This will depend on how thick you want them. (8 wedges)
- Dry the potato wedges - Use a clean kitchen towel (cloth) to dry the wedges and then place them on the prepared tray with a dry cloth. Place them laying flat on the side, spread apart not overlapping and leave them in the fridge for anything between 10 to 20 minutes. (the latter is best)
- Spicy flavor - In a small bowl / jug combine 2 tablespoons of chip & potato spice and olive oil.
- Remove the potatoes from the fridge - Place the cold wedges in a bowl and sprinkle the Maizena and a teaspoon of the chip and potato spice.Coating: Use your clean hand to coat the wedges. Pour the spicy flavor oil mix over the potatoes, carefully mix one more time.
- Spread the potato wedges out on the baking paper tray, spread apart, sprinkle a little parmesan, and bake for 25 minutes or until crispy with golden color and edges.
- Serve with chopped flat parsley and or extra flaky salt and a sprinkle of the chip and potato spice if needed.
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