Definitely a cut above the usual roasted potatoes! The unique thing about Greek Lemon Potatoes is that they are cooked in a heavily flavoured lemon garlic broth so they suck up all that flavour before roasting to golden perfection. They’re utterly addictive!
Greek Lemon Potatoes
Welcome back to the final instalment of GREEK WEEK!!! We started the week with Greek Chicken marinated in the most incredible yogurt marinade, served up a big pan of homemade Greek Baklava on Wednesday and we’re finishing up the week with the much anticipated Greek Lemon Potatoes!
We’re serving all these with a side of fresh Greek Salad and Tzatziki for dolloping (in the Greek Chicken recipe) – and see here for more Greek recipes.
Plate smashing is optional – but loads of garlic in everything is not!
Let’s be clear about one thing up front:
These are not your usual roasted potatoes
Don’t get me wrong. Throw spuds in the oven drizzled with oil, salt and pepper, and I’ll happily munch my way through them.
Make the effort to follow a few extra steps to make the crunchiest roast potatoes you’ve ever had, and it’s like all my Christmases have come at once. Thick, craggy crusts, perfectly seasoned, fluffy insides.
But these roasted Greek Lemon Potatoes….
These are unlike any other roasted potato I’ve ever had because they’re flavoured all the way through. Flavoured with all THIS ↓↓↓
How I cut potatoes for this recipe
We want chunky pieces for this recipe so they hold up to the relatively long cooking time. I cut medium potatoes into 3 pieces, as pictured below, and large potatoes into quarters or thick wedges.
HALF BRAISED, HALF ROASTED
The idea behind Greek Lemon Potatoes is that they are braised in a lemon-garlic flavoured broth so they suck up all that flavour, then you continue roasting them until the liquid evaporates, leaving behind just the oil to roast the potatoes until golden.
The concept sounds easy enough, but actually, it’s quite tricky to do in one pan. I swear, it’s scientifically impossible to roast potatoes until golden without the garlic burning. It’s one or the other – golden garlic or golden potatoes (unless, like I do with my Herb Roasted Potatoes, you add the garlic midway through cooking).
Also, I kept ending up with burnt ridges on the potato from the lemon juice and broth that caramelises on the base of the pan, and a disappointing lack of golden crusts promised by recipes I used.
After two, three, five, seven attempts, I threw every recipe I read out the window (virtually) and settled on an easier, less risky way of making Greek Lemon Potatoes so they come out as golden as possible: Braise in one pan to suck up flavour, transfer to a tray to bake until golden, drizzled with the flavoured oil from Pan 1.
How to make Greek Lemon Potatoes (my safer way)
You can skip the transference step if you want. But just be mindful that you’ll need to keep a super close eye on the potatoes and they won’t be as golden as you see in these photos, you’ll likely end up with thin dark burnt ridges and the garlic with burn (gee, I’m really making this sound appetising! 😂)
In the interest of total transparency …
Because I hate recipes that lie, I want to be 100% clear about expectations: these are not the crispiest roast potatoes in the world. I truly think it’s scientifically impossible to get seriously crispy roast potatoes once they’ve been submerged in all that lemon and broth (believe me, I tried my heart out!).
So if seriously crunchy potatoes is what you are after – and I’m talking seriously thick crunchy crust and they stay crisp for ages – use this recipe: Duck Fat Potatoes or Truly Crunchy Roast Potatoes.
But these Greek Lemon Potatoes do have nice crispy edges and some crispy surfaces (see video and photos) and in any case, you won’t miss major crunch factor because these have so much more flavour than any other roasted potato.
It was actually scary how much of these I was able to consume in one sitting. I just couldn’t stop – they are so darn good!! – Nagi x
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Greek Lemon Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg / 2.5lb potatoes (Aus: Desiree, US: Yukon Gold, UK: Maris Piper) (Note 1)
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock/broth , low sodium (Note 2)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 5 garlic cloves , finely grated using microplane (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp salt (Note 4)
Garnish (optional)
- Lemon wedges, fresh oregano leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°Cfan).
- Cut potatoes: Peel potatoes and cut large ones into thick wedges – about 3cm / 1.2" thick – and medium ones into 3 (see photo in post).
- Coat potatoes: Place potatoes in a roasting pan with all the other ingredients. Toss well.
- Roast 45 minutes: Roast for 20 minutes. Turn potatoes, roast for a further 25 to 30 minutes until the liquid is mostly absorbed by potatoes/evaporated and you're left with mainly oil in the pan.
- To crisp the potatoes (optional): Transfer potatoes to a separate tray. (Note 3) Tilt the original roasting pan and scoop off as much of the oil as you can (some juices is ok), then drizzle over the potatoes.
- Roast 35 minutes: Transfer potatoes to oven and roast for 35 – 40 minutes, turning once or twice, until potatoes are golden and a bit crispy on the edges.
- Heat pan juices: Return pan #1 with the garlic juices to the oven for the last 5 – 10 minutes or so to reduce down and make the garlic golden. (Optional, Note 4)
- Plate up: Transfer potatoes to serving platter. Drizzle over the reduced garlic pan juices (or toss potatoes in the pan). Serve, garnished with lemon wedges and oregano if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
When Dozer stole a dog treat at the pet shop while I was trying to take cute photos of him eyeing off the treats…..
Delicious!! Similar to my favorite Greek restaurant. My only problem, and I’m certain it’s my fault, is that my potatoes didn’t soak up the broth. They were a bit mushy at the end of it. Not sure why. Still…amazing!
I’m on a low carb diet so I made this with daikon radishes. It was amazing!!!
add a few teaspoons of yellow mustard to make this next level awesome
Scrummy. Really, really good. On my second time cooking them I reversed the order. Browned them first with a little olive oil then finished off with the wet ingredients. Still quite good.
Hi Nagi!
These were excellent! They have that crisp slightly chewy exterior and are nice and tender and golden.
Thanks!
Holly x
They are totally addictive aren’t they Holly?? N x
As good as it looks for sure.
We made this to recipe, flavor was awesome but they didn’t crisp up…definitely try again.
Hi Donna, sorry you had issues here – did you follow the direction in the final steps for crisping and they still didn’t crisp up? Can I ask what type of potatoes you used? N x
Not sure, just the red ones 🙂
We put them in the airfryer in the end and they crisped up nicely.
Haven’t tried this recipe, was just browsing the catalog for meal prep inspo but….
We use semolina to make them extra crispy. You can thank my yiayia for that secret.
Not too much or the liquid can go claggy.
Best way I have found is to sift it onto the potatoes after you’ve transferred them.so its not in ALL the liquid, but sticks to the still wet potatoes.
I don’t have measurements, about as big as your palm? For about 8 potatoes?
Nice tip Arty – thanks so much for that! I use a similar trick in this recipe: https://discountspot.info/duck-fat-potatoes-crispiest-best-roast-potatoes/%3C/a%3E N x
These are amazing. So very flavorful. My husband and I ate almost the whole recipe the 1st night. I used russet potatoes because it’s what I had.
Absolutely AMAZING. i had never made greek lemon potatoes before and this was so easy!! I didn’t do the transfer, i just baked it in the oils and such for a little longer than instructed but they still turned out amazing. Thank you for this recipe, it is definitely a keeper!
outstanding!
Have made these so many times (using ‘dirt potatoes’), and every time they are sensational.
Oh my God Nagi!!!!! These are amazing, Thank you , Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YES! They’re so addictive aren’t they Tsholo?!?! N x
I made these to accompany the emergency fish recipe. I did not have time to crisp the potatoes. When I finally took the potatoes out of the oven, some liquid (more than advised) still remained. I pretty much just threw it all in a bowl. It was tasty but some bites were too salty and some were too lemony. I am sure I made some mistake along the way. That said the potatoes were still great.
We love these in our household, adults scoff them, kids scoff them. Great with fattier meats like lamb roast, also works with preserved lemon roast chicken. A lemon and garlic double down. We don’t transfer potatoes to new run but get a reasonable bit of crunchy brown on there.
I made these tonight and they were absolutely delicious!!! Thank you for the amazing recipe, I will definitely be making again!
This recipe produced the best Greek lemon potatoes. My husband said they where better than the ones get at our local Greek restaurant. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
Hi! I only have new nugget potatoes on hand… will it still work just sliced in half?
Hi Kathy, these are a smaller variety of potato which may require less cook time and to be honest I haven’t tried with this type. I’d love to know if you give it a go!! N x
Hi, Nagi! I used the nugget potatoes and they were tasty, but didn’t crisp up like the other ones. Still, they were all gone… I give your blog to everyone I know! Thank you so much for all the totally amazing meals.😁
Hi! For Step 6 after transferring the potatoes to a separate pan, do we put them in the oven for 20 minutes (like it says in the video) or 35-40 minutes (which is what it says in the written recipe)?
Thanks!
Best Greek style potato recipe ever!!!!