Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Easy Garlic Aioli

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These roasted smashed potatoes are perfectly crisped on the outside and warm and tender on the inside, perfect for a side dish or appetizer, and always a crowd-pleasing favorite. Paired with an easy, smooth, and addicting garlic aioli that you will want for an everyday dip.

I have yet to find a method of cooking potatoes that I don’t love. Mashed potatoes? Delicious. Roasted potatoes? A perfect side. And now that I’ve discovered crispy smashed potatoes, I plan on making them all the time, and trying all different kinds of sauces and dips. The potato is versatile – it can truly be paired with anything and cooked in any way and still be the perfect food. And I love this recipe as another vehicle for potatoes.

What’s the difference between mashed potatoes and smashed potatoes?

Mashed potatoes are cooked by boiling the potatoes in a large pot and then mashing them up, usually with butter, into a nice whipped consistency. These smashed potatoes are cooked totally in the oven, with their skins still on, and are only smashed once – enough to be flattened into a disc, and then crisped.

What do I need to get started?

These are the ingredients for both the potatoes and the garlic aioli:

• Small red potatoes. These usually come in a small bag, and are the size of baby potatoes. I like using these small potatoes, and they can be found at pretty much any grocery store.
• Olive oil.
• Salt and pepper.
• Garlic Powder.
• Dried thyme.
• Parmesan cheese – to make your potatoes extra crispy.
• 3-4 garlic cloves. It all depends on how much garlic flavor you want in your dipping sauce.
• Lemon juice.
• Mayonnaise – this is what makes this an easy aioli. Authentic aioli uses egg. Sour cream will also work in a pinch.
• Fresh Parsley.

How do I make smashed potatoes?

This is so easy, you will want to make it all the time.

First take your potatoes and toss them in some olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dried thyme. Then you want to bake them at a high heat for at least twenty minutes. Your cooking time will vary depending on your oven and what potatoes you used – check the potatoes with you finger to ensure that they are cooked through enough to be “smashable.”

Then comes the actual smashing. This is something you want to be careful with – you want the potatoes to be pressed into little discs, but not so smashed that all the good potato filling spurts out. So take a potato masher and just gently press down on each potato – firmly, but still gentle. Then sprinkle on some parmesan cheese.

After all your potatoes are smashed, put them back in the oven. This took me about 10-15 minutes, but it depends on how crispy you want your potatoes to be – baking potatoes for longer will get you crispier results. When the potatoes are ready, sprinkle with some parsley.

Of course this smashed potato recipe pairs perfectly with garlic aioli, which is made by simply blending all ingredients together. I actually used an immersion blender and found it worked better than my standing blender, but either are fine.

This would pair perfectly as a side or started for my Sweet and Spicy Honey Garlic Pork Chops. As you can tell from my title and logo, I appreciate garlic on pretty much anything :).