13 Potato Hacks You Need to Know | Allrecipes

The internet is full of genius hacks and tips for the humble potato and I'm putting them to the test. Here are 13 of the best potato hacks. Let's see which ones are worth keeping in your back pocket. Starting with the cooling rack hack. This is the fastest and easiest way to dice potatoes, whether you're making potato salad or mashed potatoes. So let's give it a try. All right, baked potatoes. Cooling rack on top of a bowl. Take your potato, cut it in half. Set it down and press it through. I do like this, no peeling and no cubing ahead of time. Think you can do the same thing with avocados if you're making guacamole. I think what I'm loving besides how easy this is is the fact that it's a two for one special and that you get potato skins. Now they are cubed when they go in here. I love this not only for mashed potatoes but especially for potato salad because I like my potatoes for potato salad cubed but mostly mushy. What the heck, let's just go ahead and turn it into potato salad. Can't let these potatoes go to waste. Oh, it did kind of keep its shape, very nice. Definitely the easiest potato salad I've ever made. Next up, we're gonna use our box grater to create spiralized potatoes. Now this just creates a fun shape or I think they might be good roasted if this works. On the box grater, you have this little blade on the side. So we're going to pass the potato through and just spiral it. And I bet you've never even used that before. Maybe today's the day. Oh God, I really don't even know how to start. Maybe I'm being too ambitious starting with the big old potato. Let me use a smaller potato. They did use smaller ones in the videos. I don't know guys, I don't know that this one's gonna be worth it. This is why I try these things so you don't have to. I mean, people tell me in the comments, what am I doing wrong? Have you done this before? I've never seen it. So it starts there, you never see it go in and then it magically is inside. Yeah. That is not. Call bull. Let's cut. I don't like when the internet lies to me. I do not like it. Spiral hack is a no-go, but a helpful tip, use the side of your box grater to make chips. One early fail in the game, but let's move on to the next. All right, this next one, I have been wanting to try for a while. It is the easiest way to boil and peel your potatoes. This is great if you are needing to peel a bunch of potatoes to then make potato salad again or mashed potatoes. And all you do is you just make a thin slit around the potato, just enough to break the skin, and then you just boil it. And after it's cooked, the peel is supposed to just slide right off. I've seen many successful videos of this, so I hope they're not all lies. And I'm gonna try it with russets because I know that's a popular choice, but also I'm gonna do a gold potato because I use those probably more often to make mashed potatoes, so I wanna see if it works with these. And I did wash them before I put them in the water also, just because you don't want them boiling in a lot of dirty water. Now, one thing I'm a little bit concerned about is that I'm gonna salt the water. When I am making potatoes for mashed potatoes or potato salad, I always salt the water, but the peel is off, so the salt goes right into the potato flesh. If the peel's still on, how is the salt gonna get inside? Maybe that little slit took care of that. So you can see where I made the cut, it's starting to show once it started to cook. Super tender, let's see if it's easy to peel. If this works, it is a lot easier than just chipping away at the peels, especially if you have a lot of potatoes to cook. Does slide right off. Okay, that was really easy. Let me see if the salt flavor got in there. Not too terribly much, but I mean, it works. Look, it's boiled, peeled, and ready to mash. Let's see if it works with the gold potato. It does peel very easily. This is a great thing if you don't have a vegetable peeler or you can't find it, like when your kids unload the dishwasher and put things in the wrong place. I want it to do that swoop motion where it comes off like I've seen in the videos. Ah, that's what I was hoping for. You really wanna pay attention to the center being as cooked, because they are a bigger potato, they are gonna take longer to boil this method, and you wanna be sure they're super soft in the middle. Otherwise, this hack has my stamp of approval. I'm gonna show you two hacks to a faster baked potato. Now, of course, we know the fastest is in the microwave, but that's really not a baked potato. Okay, when you get a baked potato, you want that good, crispy skin on the outside and fluffy inside. I have done this before, it works beautifully, but to really put it to the test, I'm gonna put two in the air fryer and two in the oven, and we'll see which are done faster. I've washed my potatoes, and I'm going to poke some holes in them with a fork. That's going to allow the steam to escape out of the baked potato, thus leaving you with a fluffier inside. You want to flavor the outside of your potato, because you should be eating the skin. It's delicious, especially when it's baked salty and crispy, and that's where all the nutrients are, you know? So you just do a little bit of oil, just about like a half a teaspoon, and just rub it all over the potatoes. This is for the oven and the air fryer. And then you're gonna salt the outside as well. Two into the oven, 400 degrees. Start with one hour, and then the other two, I'm gonna pop right into the air fryer. Same thing, 400 degrees. We'll start with 45 minutes. And we're off to the races. Let's see who wins. All right, just about four minutes left. These are gonna be perfect. You like that? Let's see if it's good and fluffy on the inside. Ah! That's a daggum perfect baked potato. Let's check the oven ones. Still feels a little bit hard in the center. The outer edges seem to be about done. I feel like these need about 10 to 15 more minutes. They both work, but the air fryer is indeed faster. The perfect baked potato in slightly less time comes from the air fryer. I'm glad I have an excuse to eat all these carbs today. All right, the next way to a faster baked potato is to cut it in half before you bake it. Now this serves a couple good purposes besides making it cook faster. So I'm gonna start the same way by seasoning the outside. So you're gonna cut it in half lengthwise, and I'm also going to rub the tops with a little oil and season all over with some salt. So besides being able to get good flavor all around, it is also cooking in half the time because the potato is cooked in half. So then you place it cut side down, and that's it, roast just like this. And I mean, look, you're gonna cut your potato in half anyway when you have a baked potato. Why wouldn't you do this? Normally a baked potato is gonna cook in about an hour. I'm hopeful that these will cook in about 30 to 35 minutes. We shall see. Ooh, 35 minutes. Let's check out these potatoes. See if they're tender. Yes. See, I love how it gets like color on the top because that's just a little added bonus that you don't get in a regular baked potato. And I still like to fluff up the inside when it's a baked potato. So just kind of like squeeze it. It definitely feels fluffy. And then you get that little bonus right there. Some crispy roasted potato skin. That is really fluffy. It's almost like mashed potatoes on the inside. A little butter, salt and pepper. I don't know, guys. This one might be my new favorite way to make a baked potato. The time, the ease, the flavor. Home run. I'll eat the whole thing. Skin and all. Thanks to the roasting flavor. You gotta try this one. This next hack is what I like to call the Martha Stewart smash. I feel like she made it up. But it is the way to get the fluffiest inside of a potato. I even taught this hack to Drew Barrymore when I went to see her. You take your baked potato, cut a small slit in the top. And then you gotta do this while it is really hot. So these just came out of the oven. Take it in like a kitchen towel, just so the heat doesn't bother you. And you go smash it, okay? A little bit of force. One, two, three. I don't know. I get so excited about it. Okay, I did it too hard. It's just a potato, Nicole. One, two, three. Oh yeah. Now when you squeeze it back up, it's already, like the fibers have already kind of broken up on the inside. Usually you have to do that with your fork. And that is the point of the Martha Stewart smash. You don't have to use so much effort, force. Look at that. I mean, that's the perfect baked potato. That Martha, she knows what she's doing. Let's get a perfect bite from the perfect potato. Mm. It really is fluffier inside. It is like mashed potatoes. The Martha Stewart smash. Approved by me. I think this could be a really healthy snack. Kind of satisfies a salty craving. All right, you know how when you peel potatoes, like so, you're left with a bunch of potato skins. Now, if you're not a composter, then you just toss these in the trash, but you don't have to. You can turn those peels into a snack. And that is the next hack. I just wanted to rhyme. I'm gonna do some where if you peeled it with a knife, it would have a little more potato in it, like when my mom peels potatoes and she takes off so much of the flesh. We'll see which ones are better. So we're just gonna toss these with oil and seasoning and then pop them in the air fryer. Supposedly, they're gonna get really crispy. They're gonna be kind of like a little potato chip snack. And it's a good way to make the use out of 100% of your potato. This will be a high-fiber snack. Oh, also, you wanna be sure that you have washed your potato before you peeled it. Not only is that what you should do to not contaminate your cutting board, but you're gonna eat the skin. So make sure you have washed them beforehand. I'm gonna toss them with a little bit of olive oil. And let's see how I wanna season these guys. Feeling like I want them with a little kick into the air fryer. So I'm gonna go in at 360 degrees. I'm not gonna do 400 because it's gonna cook too fast without kind of softening the potato part in there. Okay, 13 minutes later, and I stirred them halfway through. Sound of crispiness. I mean, this might satisfy the potato chip craving, and that's a healthy potato chip. I thought they would be quite nice with a little bit of ranch. Okay, so maybe I should not have left the ones with the skin on them, because they didn't get as crispy as just the peel part. Mm, that does satisfy the potato chip craving. I mean, I made them pretty salty, but that's why they're so dugum good. You hear the crunch? Let me taste one with a little more meat to it. Mm-hmm, you wanna do it with just the peels. That is the perfect piece. Crunchy, these could be highly addictive. Air fried potato peels as chips? Yes, please. For my next trick, apparently the key to the perfect roasted potato, mayonnaise. Mayo all over your potatoes. And I think this makes sense, and I'm kinda curious as to why I've never done this before. I'm gonna use a red potato for this. I believe this will work with whatever roasted potato recipe you use, and instead of oil, you're gonna use mayonnaise. All right, potatoes, washed and cubed. Have no idea how much, so I'm just gonna start with like three tablespoons. I'm gonna get that coated first, and then I'll season. And then whatever you wanna do here, I'm gonna do a little Greek seasoning. This just can't be bad. You've got the moisture from the mayonnaise that gives the seasoning something to stick to, plus the mayonnaise is gonna add good flavor. And then I'll do about a half a teaspoon of just some herb blend, half more teaspoon of salt, quarter teaspoon of pepper. Give it one more toss to be sure everything is coated. I might've gone a little heavy on the mayonnaise. I don't know. Spread this out. You want it to be in a single layer with some space so they don't steam, and all the sides can get brown. I have high hopes for this one. Better work. Going in at 400 degrees. These look and smell incredible. I'm gonna give them one more toss because the way that mayonnaise kinda dripped down, it's almost like it created a little dressing in there. Crispiness. Oh yeah. Yes. I don't have another word for it. Yes, it 100%, 1,000% works. Like sometimes in a roasted potato, it almost dries out a little bit, but the inside is still like, it's almost juicy. It is so good. You gotta try this one. Mm, those are addictive. Have you ever over-salted a stew or a soup or a sauce? The best way to rectify that situation is by adding a potato. Potatoes just naturally absorb salt very well. What you're gonna do is you're gonna peel a potato and just drop it right in. Let that simmer, and as it cooks, it's going to absorb some of that saltiness. And we let it cook. Taste test. See if the soup is a little less salty. You're just trusting me on this one. But I feel like I've earned your trust. Potato's still cooked in there. And by the way, this potato will be quite delicious. It really does work. Stick a potato in your soup. For my next trick, you've gone through the trouble of making this delicious, flavorful soup, but you really wanted it to be thicker. Of course you can do a slurry, flour and water, cornstarch and water, but sometimes you want something just a little bit better and a really rich creaminess. The answer. Mashed potatoes. These are just store-bought mashed potatoes, but this is a great way to thicken a soup without changing the flavor. So right here I've got a beef stew, but it's kind of like soupy, and I want it more of like stewy. So I'm gonna add in some mashed potatoes and let them work their magic. And then you can go as much or as little as you want, and they just kind of disappear into there. You can tell the liquid went from pretty translucent to now it's more opaque and creamy. Look at that. Just let those potatoes finish dissolving. And that's how you do it. A roux is gonna thicken it more, but sometimes you're left with that kind of starchy taste in your soups. The potatoes are gonna not alter the taste, but just kind of give you a more creamy texture. Mm, it is. I mean, that's exactly what it is. It's like a velvet touch, thanks to the potatoes. It still tastes like beef stew. Listen, I think you'll use this one in a pinch. Hash browns are potatoes too, and I'm gonna give you three examples of this one hack where hash browns can be crust. I'm gonna show you two examples of how they can be bottom crust and one for a top crust. I'm gonna make hash brown breakfast pizza, and you're just gonna take some hash browns and lay them out onto a sheet tray. Hash browns down. It's okay if they overlap a little bit. You'll see why. And then you just pop these into the oven, 450 degrees for about 10 to 12 minutes. All right, that's not it. You have to parbake them and then turn them into the crust. All right, the hash brown patties have softened and started to crisp, so now you're gonna press them all down, and they'll just naturally start to glue together. You wanna kind of break the edges of them apart so that they kind of open and mash together. Starch from the potatoes are just gonna help them naturally stick together. And then these go back into the oven until they're all crispy and the crust is formed. Then we'll top it and build it like our pizza. Our pizza crust, done. And now we top it. I'm gonna go in with a little bit of cheese on the bottom just to act as a little more glue. Down with our eggs. And look, you can make this a dinner version. You can do just sausage and cheese with peppers and onions maybe, or pepperoni and tomato sauce. You can do whatever you want. Got some bacon that I've already cooked, but it's gonna crisp up again in the oven. Hash browns as a crust. It's a really fun thing to make for any of your holiday brunches, Christmas morning. It's just a little something different. Maybe we're tired of those same old casseroles. More cheese. And then back into the oven until the bacon's crisped up and the cheese is melted. And that is how it's done. That's a breakfast pizza right there. This was a hack with a bonus recipe. Want to garnish. Some green onion. And then you know what I'm gonna add next. A hot sauce. Does that not look bomb? That is how you do hash browns as a crust. Crispy on the edges, soft inside. And we did it again. But wait, there's more. Another way you can do a bottom crust is to make little mini muffin cups with hash browns. Well, with tater tots work best for this. This is great for little hors d'oeuvres. I'm gonna turn this into little jalapeno popper bites. And all you need to do is grab you a muffin tin, a mini muffin tin, but you could also do a regular muffin size. And you're gonna drop three hash browns in each cup. It'll look like they're not gonna fit, but don't worry. And then we're going to parbake these also and then turn them into the crust. Pop this pan into the oven 425 degrees for also about 10 minutes. Okay, just like the other one, I'm just gonna kind of glue these tater tots together. You can do that with like a wooden spoon. Just kind of break them up and press them down and just form a little indention in the middle so that they are cups. Then you can fill it with whatever you want. I'm gonna turn these into jalapeno popper hash brown cups. Just like the pizza, this goes back into the oven 425 degrees for about 15 more minutes. You want it to be really crispy. But now we're gonna fill them and put them back in the oven just like the pizza. This is a jalapeno popper mixture. Cream cheese, cheddar cheese, jalapenos, bacon. Fill those little cuties up and pop them back in the oven. While there is a lot of back and forth to the oven, promise you it's worth it. This is a party in a pan right here. You can garnish if you're feeling cutesy. Let me just show you these tater tots as crust, little pie crust. And to think they started as little tater tots. Just one more look. Not only is the hack a 10 out of 10, but so is this recipe. The hash browns get nice and crispy, but then when you add that little cheese in there, it adds to the crunchiness, gooey cheesy on the inside. Perfection. You ready to see hash browns as a top crust? Let me show you. For potatoes as a top crust, the best choice, hash browns. The main thing you wanna remember is that you want to kind of give them a head start in cooking. So to do that, I'm gonna put them in a bowl. Toss them with a little bit of butter, salt and pepper. And this is just gonna give them a head start because when you put them in the oven as a top crust, they're just gonna get crispy and delicious. But if they're not cooked through, then they're gonna be crispy on the outside, but like raw and cold on the inside. Cover it with some plastic and then just pop them in the microwave for about like six to eight minutes or until they're pretty tender. And then you can put them on top of whatever you want. It could be a breakfast casserole. I'm gonna put these as a topping to shepherd's pie. So instead of a mashed potato, we're gonna do a hash brown crust. Potatoes have cooked. This will work on any of your favorite shepherd's pie recipes You've got your meat mixture, whatever that is, and then you're gonna top it with this crust. And I like to keep them like kind of craggly on top so that they get a little crisp and browned. Then once you've topped it, it goes into the oven to finish off. But everything is cooked at this point. Now we're just trying to get browned and bubbly. That is hash browns as a top crust. Surely I've convinced you now that potatoes can and should be used as a crust. They tell me that you can remove rust with a potato. I don't know what to think about that. So I've found a couple rusty items here, and we're gonna see if indeed the potato will rub it off. I always feel like everybody's go-to is a russet, so I'm gonna say this one's not gonna work. Just so I can go ahead and call it, and maybe I'll be surprised. Oh no, I just don't know if a potato's that powerful. Oh, oh, it's doing something. I don't know if it's like fully getting it off, but it's definitely a start. I stand corrected. Who to thunk it, as my mom would say. Let me rinse it and see if it's really off. I think I chose something a little too rusty, but I think it could work. But let me try something only mildly rusty. I feel like it will work. I just feel like you're gonna need a lot of elbow grease. Because I mean, you can see how it's just kind of breaking it down just a little bit. I mean, it is taking off the rust. It might be doing something else to this metal, but it has removed the brown rust. Well, let me rinse it. I mean, it's working to remove the rust. I don't know what else it's doing. You can't say it doesn't work. Are you ready for the final hack? You'll see why I had to wait till last to do it. Did you know that potatoes can be used to remove stains? So the easiest way I thought to create a stain is with a beet. This is why this had to be the last hack, because if it doesn't work, I'm gonna have stained hands for the rest of the day. Take some of my not so good potatoes. I think it could work. Like the other, it's gonna require a lot more elbow grease. I mean, it is working. This might take a while. Let's see if I can get the stain out of a cutting board. Whoa. Now we're talking. Now that's a successful ending. From an easier way to cut your potatoes to a faster way to cook your potatoes, I have shown you how powerful the little potato can be. If you have any other hacks you want me to try, please send them my way. Now I gotta go find some more things that have stains on them. I'm gonna remove them.