The Best CRISPIEST Roasted Potatoes!

These amazing roasted potatoes are absolute perfection. Crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside they're highly addictive. They get that wonderful crispy edge from one single household ingredient! You'll never make crispy potatoes any other way again. This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader.

The secret ingredient to these super crispy roasted potatoes is bicarb or bicarbonate of soda. You may already know that bicarb does wonders with tenderising meat.

Bicarb as a tenderiser: Bicarb, Bicarbonate of soda or baking soda is different from baking powder. Chinese restaurants have been using it for years to tenderise beef and chicken. And with potatoes the bicarb breaks down the outer edges of the potatoes so that they're soft and mushy and this leads to maximum crispiness.

All you need for the very best potatoes ever are a few things: Potatoes, bicarb, salt and duck fat. Garlic and sugar are extra just for some extra flavour but it's really so much more than just a sum of its parts. Also when you salt the potatoes in the water, there is no need to salt at the end as the potatoes are perfectly salted all the way through!

Which potatoes to use? In the US Yukon Gold and Russets are great potatoes to roast but we can't get them here in Australia. In Australia the best potatoes to roast are Sebago, Dutch Cream, Desiree, Coliban, Red Rascals and Nicola. At the supermarket the potato varieties don't tend to be labelled so just looked for the ones recommended for roasting (which look to be most of the ones at the supermarket).

Options: At the halfway mark, brush some Sriracha on your potatoes. Or serve with chives or spring onions and sour cream or garlic aioli!

Tips for cutting potatoes: Don't cut the chunks of potato too small or they'll turn to mush. With one large potato you will get between 4-6 pieces.

Will the potatoes stay crispy after refrigeration? These potatoes will lose their crispiness. If you want potatoes that stay crispy, try these duck or goose fat potatoes.

This tip is from Serious Eats' J. Kenji López-Alt. I altered it a little but not a lot because it was pretty damn good the way it was. I just had some bacon fat left over from cooking some bacon in the oven so I used that and I love adding a teaspoon of sugar to balance the salt.

I pinky swear that these are super crispy potatoes, even though perhaps halfway they look so wet and grainy that you might doubt it. They aren't deep fried but almost taste like they are.

I'm so fussy and weird about crispy potatoes that at a restaurant I will send them back if the menu says that they are crispy potatoes but they aren't. If I see crispy potatoes mentioned on the menu I will always quiz the waitstaff, "Hey ok so are these actually really crispy? It says 'crispy' but they have to be crispy so are they?" I ask.

They always have a think about it and will tell me honestly, perhaps because I look like I might be a hidden lunatic, you know the kind of person that looks presentable enough but then all of a sudden does a table flip in rage. At times they've said, "No they're not that crispy, maybe get a different side dish" which I appreciate. Yes I'm that person!

So tell me Dear Reader, are you a fan of crispy potatoes? Is there a food that you're particular about?

Best Crispy Roasted Potatoes

An Recipe adapted from Serious Eats

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 55 minutes

• 1 kg/2.2lbs potatoes
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon bi carbonate of soda
• 50g/1.7ozs. duck fat
• 25g/1oz. bacon fat (or just use all duck fat)
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 220C/440F and line a large baking tray with parchment. Bring a large pot of water onto the boil. Peel potatoes and cut into chunks. When water is boiling add salt, bicarb and potatoes and cook for 10 minutes or until you can slide a knife in easily.

Step 2 - Drain and run water over the potatoes and drain and then put the pot and potatoes back on the heat to evaporate any water. Heat the duck fat, pork fat, garlic and sugar and toss the potatoes gently in the fat and then transfer to the lined baking tray.

Step 3 - Roast the potatoes for 45 minutes turning them over once during that time and moving the bigger pieces to the outside edge of the tray.