Smashed Potatoes with Cheese (or without!)

This is a tough one, since I really love me these smashed potatoes with or without cheese. The cheese topped has a crispy crustiness going on with the ooey gooey cheese texture to make your mouth sing. If you go with the regular smashed potato version, you get all over crispiness. So both are a win – it depends on my mood and also if I am serving dairy or not. If you want to make this quickly, I suggest that you use microwaveable potatoes because you speed it up this way. So gather your ingredients and let’s go!

The nice thing about the microwaveable potatoes is they are already cleaned and ready to use so you literally pop them right into the micro. Should you not have a microwave, still use the microwaveable potatoes and you don’t need to scrub ’em and they will be nice baby potatoes which works perfectly in terms of serving portions.

Zap the potatoes in the micro for 8 minutes or till just tender. You will continue cooking them in the oven so don’t overcook them. K. If boiling them, also, just till tender. Drain. Take the micro’ed potatoes and open the bag and place on a paper towel to let them dry a bit a (same with the boiled ones after draining well) while you heat the oven to 425 F/220 C. Really make sure the oven comes to temp since the high heat is what gives you the incredible crispiness.

Now put the potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet which you heavily spray with oil spray. Do not use parchment paper since the potatoes will brown, caramelize and crisp up properly when making contact with the metal of the baking sheet.

Take a glass and press down firmly on each potato but don’t do it so hard that they break completely apart. You want the potato to stay whole even when smashed, like so:

As you can see, you smash the top but it still holds together, this is correct. Now heavily oil spray the top of the potatoes and lightly sprinkle with salt. By now your oven should be to temperature, so pop the baking pan into the oven and time it for 23-25 minutes or till browned and crispy looking.

I won’t lie, I snabbled one right off the tray and blew on it till I could take a bite. Crispy and awesome. You want the regular version? Melt your butter (or margarine), and brush on the potatoes, sprinkle with granulated garlic and you’re good to go. Serve on a platter and spread the joy. Want the cheesy version? Carry on!

As before, brush (or drizzle) with melted butter (I prepare that in the micro while the potatoes are baking) and sprinkle with the garlic powder and sprinkle with the grated cheese (with a medium light hand, you don’t want rubbery cheese) and pop back into the oven for a coupla minutes just till cheese melts. Serve hot on a platter (not a bowl, you don’t want them to stick together). Awesome either way. In fact, sometimes I’ll do half with cheese and half without. A people pleaser.

Smashed Potatoes with Cheese (or without!)

1 bag microwave potatoes – about 12 baby potatoes

Cooking spray oil

Salt

3-4 tablespoons melted Butter

Granulated garlic powder

1 cup grated cheese

Directions:

Cook potatoes in microwave or boil in salted water on stovetop until tender, not longer. Drain well in colander and for both boiled and micro potatoes place on paper towels to dry a bit. Preheat oven to 425 F/220 C. Generously oil spray a rimmed baking sheet and place potatoes evenly spaced on pan. Smash each potato gently until crushed but still whole- not falling apart- using the bottom of a glass works well. Heavily spray tops of potatoes with oil and sprinkle with salt. Place potatoes in hot oven for about 25 minutes or until browned and crunchy. Remove from oven and drizzle with melted butter/margarine and sprinkle with garlic powder. Option- 2- after you remove from oven and drizzle with butter and sprinkle with garlic, sprinkle with cheese and return to oven to continue baking just until cheese is melted, a few minutes should do it.