Crispy Potato Roast

Updated September 2026, added make-ahead steps and slicing guidance.

The crispy potato roast with thinly sliced and seasoned potatoes, a beautiful and unique way to serve potatoes, great for holidays, or to make a regular day feel like one.

Just take a minute to stare at the Crispy Potato Goodness in the picture above. I am a huge potato fan and these just look stunning! YEP, they are as good as they look, if not better!
I know that some of you probably will give me the stink eye (which translates to, sure, they’re tasty and fulfilling, but you’d never really describe roasted potatoes as “exciting). Never, that is, until now.
If you think you’ve had roasted potatoes before, you have seen but through a mirror dimly because the thin top of each slice turns gorgeously golden brown and crisp while the rest of the slice stays soft, buttery and warm.

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And did I mentioned bacon ?? ( Everything is always better with bacon, right? ) Yes, this recipe calls for a bacon too, a crispy, salty bacon.  So, are you ready to slice some potatoes and top with some sweet, sweet bacon bits ??

The key to this recipe is getting the potato slices as thin as you can, the thinner the potatoes are cut, the crispier they’ll become in the oven. I’m not going to tell you this isn’t time-consuming. It is, a little bit, even with a mandoline.  If you don’t have one, it’s a lot of slicing, and these potatoes really need to be wafer-thin…but it was all worth it.
These were a huge dinner success at my house. You can customize the toppings to what each person in your family likes (great way to use up any leftover ham or bacon from the holidays!), and the leftovers make unbelievable home fries the morning after. Craving another can’t-fail potato side? Our Homemade Cracker Barrel Hashbrown Casserole is a cheesy, creamy favorite that disappears just as fast at every holiday table.

Can You Make This Potato Roast Ahead of Time?

Yes, you can slice the potatoes up to a day ahead, as long as you keep the slices submerged in cold water in the fridge overnight. The water keeps the cut surfaces from browning and drying out, the two things that would otherwise happen to raw potato left exposed to air for that long. Before you build the dish, drain the slices and pat them completely dry with a towel, wet potato slices steam instead of crisping once they hit the oven, so this step matters as much as the soak itself. Freezing is a different question. Nothing about this dish, thin, crisped edges over a soft interior, tends to survive a freeze and thaw well, so slicing ahead is the safer route if you are prepping for a holiday table and not the freezer.

How Thin Should You Slice the Potatoes?

Aim for slices about an eighth of an inch thick, roughly the width of a chopstick. The instructions have always said to cut the potatoes “as thin as possible,” which is true but not a measurement, and it is the single most common question this recipe gets. A mandoline set to its thinnest or second-thinnest setting gets you there in a few passes; by hand, a sharp chef’s knife and a steady, unhurried cut will do it too. The thinner the slice, the more surface area turns golden and crisp in the oven, which is the entire point of cutting the potato this way instead of just roasting it in chunks.

How Do You Keep the Slices From Falling Apart When You Cut Them?

Place a chopstick, or the handle of a wooden spoon, flat on the cutting board on each side of the potato before you start slicing. That guide is what makes it possible to cut almost all the way through without cutting the potato into separate pieces, your knife slides down until it hits the chopstick on either side, then stops, leaving a thin hinge of potato still attached at the base. Skip the guide and it is genuinely difficult to judge that stopping point by eye slice after slice, which is exactly what trips people up. This is the same trick used for hasselback-style potatoes, and it works here for the same reason.

Ways Readers Have Changed This Recipe

Swapping in Sweet Potatoes

Yes, sweet potatoes work in this recipe, and mixing them with the russets rather than replacing all of them is the version readers report having the most success with. Sweet potatoes hold more moisture than russets, so a dish made entirely from them will bake up softer and less crisp on top, splitting the dish between the two keeps some of that classic crisp edge while adding the sweetness.

Changing How the Bacon Goes In

Cooking the bacon further before it goes back in the oven, rather than adding it raw, is a real alternative to the recipe’s fry-then-scatter method. The recipe already has you fry the bacon separately while the potatoes bake, then scatter the cooked pieces on for the final 35 minutes, this variation just pushes that timing later, closer to when the potatoes come out. Either order gets you crisp bacon without raw spots, the difference is mostly about how much bacon flavor renders into the potatoes underneath it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does this recipe actually take to bake?
Total baking time is 1 hour and 50 minutes, in two stages: 1 hour 15 minutes uncovered, then 35 minutes more once the bacon and thyme go on top. That is the complete bake, the 35 minutes is not added on top of itself again, and it matches the recipe card’s own Cook Time of 1 hour 50 minutes.

Does the recipe really call for 3.5 pounds of potatoes?
Yes, 3.5 pounds of potatoes, not 35. The decimal point in “3.5” reads as a comma or gets lost on some screens, which is exactly why more than one reader has asked about it over the years. 3.5 pounds works out to about 4 medium russet potatoes.

Why is there liquid pooling in the baking dish?
That liquid is the butter and olive oil mixture releasing from the potatoes and onions as they bake, it is expected, not a sign something went wrong. The slices sitting in that liquid stay moist underneath, while the exposed tops above the liquid line are the ones that crisp, which is the contrast this recipe is built around.

If you try slicing ahead or mixing in sweet potatoes, tell me in the comments how it goes, that is exactly the kind of thing that ends up back in this post.

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Crispy Potato Roast

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 50 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Servings 6 -8

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• ▢ 3½ pounds russet potatoes about 4 medium
• ▢ 1 small onion or 4 shallots peeled and sliced very thin
• ▢ 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
• ▢ 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• ▢ Kosher salt
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• ▢ 4 - 6 fresh thyme sprigs or leaves
• ▢ 3 ounces bacon cubed

Instructions

 

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• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• In a small bowl, combine melted butter and oil.
• Brush bottom of a 9-10 inch baking dish with some butter and oil mixture. Set aside.
• Peel the potatoes, then slice each potato crosswise into rounds about 1/8 inch thick, almost all the way through to the bottom. To keep each potato in one piece, place a chopstick or the handle of a wooden spoon on the cutting board on each side of the potato, the knife will stop when it hits the guide.
• * Keep the slices together as you cut them so that you can arrange them easily in the dish.
• Place the potatoes vertically in the prepared baking dish.
• Wedge onion or shallot slices throughout potato slices - in about 3 or 4 sections of each potato.
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper flakes.
• Brush with the remaining butter and oil mixture.
• Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes uncovered.
• If you find at anytime throughout baking that the potatoes are too dry, a little of the olive oil/butter from the bottom of the baking dish can be brushed on the slices.
• While potatoes are baking, fry bacon over a medium high heat until crisp.
• Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel. Set aside.
• Remove potatoes from oven.
• Add bacon bits by scattering around throughout the potatoes.
• Lay the thyme sprigs/leaves on top of potatoes.
• Bake for an additional 35 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through with a crisped top.
• If it seems to brown too fast, cover it with foil to slow it down.
• Remove from oven.
• Sprinkle on a little more kosher salt. Serve immediately.

Notes

3.5 pounds is about 4 medium russet potatoes. You can slice the potatoes up to a day ahead, just keep them submerged in cold water in the fridge, then drain and pat them completely dry before adding the butter and oil. A chopstick or spoon handle on each side of the potato as you cut keeps the slices from separating.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!