These savory Crispy Potato Pancakes are a delicious side dish for breakfast, lunch or dinner. You can expect a golden brown, super crispy exterior and a softer interior that is loaded with green onions.
What are potato pancakes?
Potato pancakes are a crispy, savory pancakes made from grated or mashed potatoes. They’re mixed with ingredients like eggs, flour, and seasonings, then fried until golden brown. They’re popular in Jewish, Russian, German and Polish cuisine. Though my husband is Irish, and he’s all about some good crispy potato pancakes!
Savory pancakes are a delicious alternative to making everyday breakfast pancakes. Our recipe for savory bacon and corn griddle cakes is a very popular recipe on the RecipeGirl website, and it’s a recipe in The Recipe Girl Cookbook too!
Ingredients Needed:
- Potatoes: In this recipe, we use red potatoes. In fact, we don’t even peel them before shredding! Alternately, you can use Russet potatoes, which are a great choice for making crispy potato pancakes as well.
- Green Onions: You’ll use a whole bunch of green onions, and you can chop both the green and the white into 1/4-inch slices.
- All purpose Flour: Flour will be a binder that will help bring the potatoes and eggs together. Use a gluten-free flour blend (or tapioca flour) if you need gluten free potato pancakes.
- Eggs: These will be a binder in the recipe, so the pancakes don’t fall apart!
- Salt and Pepper: Since these are the only spices added to the recipe, feel free to be generous. I like to use ground white pepper so I don’t have black flecks in my potato pancakes!
- Oil: You need to use an oil that has a high smoke point. I recommend canola oil, vegetable oil, grapeseed oil or peanut oil.
How to make Crispy Potato Pancakes:
Shred the potatoes, and then squeeze the moisture out of them by wrapping the shredded potatoes in a dishtowel and squeezing the heck out of them.
Then you’ll mix the shredded potatoes with green onion, eggs, flour and salt/pepper.
Then you’ll heat some oil in a skillet until it’s very hot. Add scoops of the potato mixture, spread each out a bit and let them cook for a few minutes (until golden brown). Then you’ll flip them and cook the other side. They should be thin enough so the inside is able to cook in the hot oil too.
Recipe Tips
- Make sure you really work to get the moisture out of the shredded potatoes. They’ll crisp up better in the hot oil if they are dry.
- Mix in additional spices such as sweet paprika, garlic powder and thyme. Be creative!
- Add some grated cheese!
- The skillet with the oil should sizzle when the potato pancakes hit the pan.
- Serve on their own, or top them with sour cream or applesauce (or both!)
What’s the difference between potato pancakes and latkes?
Latkes and potato pancakes are similar in texture and looks, but they do have some significant differences.
Latkes usually have a crispier, more textured surface because they use coarsely grated potatoes, often mixed with grated onion. Some recipes also include baking powder or matzo meal for extra fluffiness. They’re commonly served during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah topped with sour cream and applesauce.
Potato pancakes can be made with either grated or mashed potatoes, resulting in a smoother, softer interior. Sometimes additional spices or cheese are added in too.
Favorite Potato Recipes:
Crispy Potato Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1½ pounds red potatoes, scrubbed
- 1 bunch green onions cut into ¼-inch slices
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon white pepper
- 4 tablespoons canola or olive oil
Instructions
- Shred unpeeled potatoes in a food processor or with a box grater. Make sure to drain the shredded potatoes well. (It's sometimes necessary to squeeze the shredded potatoes between two clean dishtowels to remove extra moisture. You want to start with dry potatoes to get the crispy exterior.)
- In a large bowl, mix together shredded potatoes, green onions, flour, eggs, and seasonings until evenly blended. Do not over mix. Covering with plastic wrap right on the potato mix will help to avoid discoloration.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Place scoops of the potato mixture in the hot pan, and spread them as thin as you can. Allow to set for 2 to 3 minutes. Do not let it burn. Turn over and cook on the other side. The pancakes should be golden brown and crispy on the outside (and cooked and fluffier on the inside). If you prefer smaller pancakes, reduce the amount of potato mixture.
- Continue this procedure, adding more oil as necessary, until all the pancakes are cooked. Hold in a warm oven until ready to serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was so close to perfect. I figured that since the directions said I could “Hold in a warm oven until ready to serve.”, that I really could! I first made the chili sauce for the scallops (that I was serving over the pancakes), then made the potato pancakes and left them in a 300(f) oven while I cooked the scallops & sauteed some spinach.
The pancakes got soggy in the oven except for the edges & they really needed to be pressed down to be more evenly cooked. It was one of those things that was so sad because I knew it could have been a great recipe except for those 2 things.
I will make them again but it will be cooked last. It also would have been incredible with poached eggs.