Perfect Homemade Hash Browns
Hash browns have always been one of my favorites… but I could never get my homemade ones to turn out right. They were usually always too gummy which would mean that I’d end up burning them. So out of desperation, I’d spend a lot of time carefully cutting them up into as small of chunks as I could and frying them up that way. It worked, sorta. But it still wasn’t hash browns.
Until one day I learned the secret: rinsing the shredded potatoes. So I tried it, and in no time at all I had the most mouth-watering, perfectly browned hash browns.
Here’s my recipe:
4-6 potatoes
Salt to taste
1-2 Tbs of olive oil
(more garden-fresh recipes here)
Wash and peel your potatoes (or you can leave the skins on and just remove any blemishes). Shred the potatoes, then place in a colander and rinse until you don’t see the starch coming out in the water any longer. Then remove as much of the excess water as possible, then add salt. Pre-heat your frying pan with the olive oil and add shredded potatoes. Cook on medium-low heat (depending on your stove) for 6 minutes, then flip potatoes over for another 6 minutes. Don’t stir them up. The less you turn and stir them, the better.
Once the potatoes are finished on the other side, then serve and enjoy!
Have you tried making homemade hash browns before? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
The way I learned to make hash browns from my mother-in-law, who ran a coffee shop, was you steam the potatoes first. They used to do a huge pot of potatoes because this was the start of french fries, hash browns and potato salad. Let them cool and then shred.
Fry up and enjoy. Light and fluffy.
that's what I thought, you cooked the potatoes first then shred .
How long you steam them, half way or until they are completely soft?
Steam them until they give but are not soft. They are pretty much done at this point. Frying them is just to crisp the outside and brown them.
Bake or steam them until they are fork done -- not mush.
Yes, always pre-bake or pre-steam potatoes before shredding for hash browns. Makes all the difference in the world.
That was an AWESOME video (and recipe)!!
Loved the candidness, made it perfect.
Another way is to use potatoes that have been previously cooked....such as baked potatoes from the night before. Just peel, shred and fry as you do in your recipe. They turn out crispy.
My husband loves the hash browns he can make from my dehydrated shredded (cooked) potatoes and dehydrated (raw) onions. Yummm.
Learned an old farm wife's trick from my husband's gramma. When you bake some potatoes for dinner throw in extras to have any other time. After the baked potatoes have cooled you can store in a baggy in the fridge or they're good left out for the next morning. Peel and shred right into the frypan with bacon grease. Salt and pepper to taste. Mmmm…. Just read recently that starches that are cooked, cooled and reheated later are more "starch resistant". In other words, it passes more easily through digestion without being absorbed and stored as fat. Old timers knew a thing or two.
That's the way I do it, too, and they make great hash browns!
I'll try it this weekend. I've always shredded mine and then squeezed the liquid out. It came out OK; your way sounds better! Thanks. Do you share the recipe for scrambled tofu?
I’ll try that. I have been making disappointing hash browns along time.
Your recipe for hash browns says, " rinse until you don’t much." That doesn't make sense to me.
I think they meant, "..rinse until you don't see much, if any.."
Yes Brad, you were right. I fixed it so it should make mores sense now. You just need to rinse the potatoes until you don't see any more starch coming out. 🙂
Growing up it was just so cheap where I lived to buy the frozen ones or dehydrated ones. But on my last deployment I decided to make some home made hash browns for everybody. I had made them before, but they were always so gummy. Bad texture. So I taught myself this same method. I do, however shred them into a bowl of water first to help preserve color and to start the starch extraction a little earlier. Sometimes I'll blanch them, depending on what I want. Then rinse well. Then dry them and fry them.
Great idea. If you always squeeze the water out with clean hands, before placing in the skillet, they will be perfect -- keep the flame not too high to get a good crispy, flakey brown on each side -- browning slowly is better than rushing it. Potatoes are the back bone of every meal if you understand that everything tastes better with potatoes, any style, on the table.
Yes, we prepare our potatoes as you do and then also thinly slice onion with it and place it on our hot waffle iron and make them that way. Do they ever smell wonderful!
I've enjoyed hashbrowns, but I get mine in a 6# carton at Sams. I use a little bowl hydrate faster by microwaving 2 minutes then to the pan and fry the same way you do. Had to say in case dried options work for shelf stable in the pantry for 4 months.
In this day and age with produced food being adulterated with GMOs, chemical preservatives, pesticides, etc. until it is unfit, how do you know what you are getting when you buy the 6# pkg? If you can not pronounce most of the listed ingredients, this is your warning. I do understand that you may need help this way in preparing your meals, but take better care of yourself by buying organic foods -- they are labor intensive to grow, but cost only a few cents more to purchase.
Thanx for the Hash Browns recipe. Let me add, that if you bake your potatoes with scrubbed skins on first (I just bake extras to be used later when needed), then when cool enough to handle, shred them, brown on both sides in a skillet with just a little oil, -- YES, DO NOT STIR OR DISTURB UNTIL BROWNED -- flip and brown second side. Of course, season them on the second side being careful to scrape up all the dark tidbits from bottom of pan. YOU WILL FIND THAT PRE-BAKED POTATOES ARE NEVER STICKY OR SOGGY.
This is how my mother-in-law taught me to make delicious hash browns. She always sauted chopped onion in the skillet first and seasoned with onion and sea salt. Her name was Dorothy Meyer, she lived in Glendale, CA and was known even by carnvores for her wonderful vegetarian meals.
Kathryn Meyer
Valencia & Tehachapi Valley, CA.
On "shredded" potatoes I boil the potato for 20 min and then cold rinse. I can do this up to 48 hours before they go in the pan. Garlic and/or onion salt work well and bacon grease in a requirement. I cook the first side hot and fast, flip into a plate and slip the other side into the pan and turn the heat down to med on the second side; but then I like them crispy. O'Brien style I bake the night or two before.