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These are the best Irish Potato Pancakes ever – crunchy, perfectly fried, and great alongside your favorite Irish dinner for a delicious family favorite side dish!
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At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. My goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
Table of contents
You will love these Potato Pancakes!
Irish food is something we take seriously in our house. I’m half Irish on each side of my family, and we’ve always enjoyed making delicious meals based on our family heritage.
We love the hearty homestyle foods with a focus on potatoes, rich and delicious meats, and gorgeous fresh produce – it’s easy to love traditional Irish cooking.
One of my favorite indulgences when we toured through Ireland one summer (more on our trip here here and here) were potato pancakes – crunchy, crisp, light and airy – they are so delicious and pair perfectly with so many dishes!
Check out my web story about making these Irish Potato Pancakes!
Best Potato Pancake Ingredients
- 4 cups potatoes, mashed , with 3 tbsp butter melted in – you can use leftover mashed potatoes, too. Potatoes act as the base for our pancakes, giving them their light, airy texture, and rich and creamy flavor.
- 1 egg – egg acts as a binder and gives our pancakes extra lift.
- 1/4 cup flour – flour helps our pancakes come together and acts as a binder. All purpose flour or AP gluten free flour works in this recipe.
- 2 tbsp garlic powder – potatoes can be a bit flavorless, and the garlic powder is absolutely necessary to kick this recipe up a notch and make it rich and delicious.
- 1 tbsp salt, maldon finishing salt – we like large, light, crunchy Maldon salt flakes to sprinkle over the top of potato pancakes at the end. Maldon salt is large, but has less sodium, so it isn’t overpoweringly salty.
- 1 tbsp pepper, fresh cracked – black pepper gives a bit of extra kick to the potato.
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil, for frying – you can also use peanut oil, lard, or butter.
- Green onions, to garnish – we like to serve these pancakes with green onions, but you can also serve with sour cream, too!
Best Potatoes for Potato Pancakes
The best potatoes for potato pancakes are starchy varieties like Russets or Yukon Golds. Russets have a high starch content, which gives potato pancakes a crispy texture, while Yukon Golds add a creamy interior. Some people even mix the two for a balance of crispiness and creaminess.
Avoid waxy potatoes, like red or new potatoes, as they can make the pancakes dense rather than light and crispy.
Can you make potato pancakes with instant potatoes?
Yes, you can make potato pancakes from instant potatoes! Prepare the instant mashed potatoes thicker than usual, then add an egg, a bit of flour, and seasonings like salt, pepper, and onion powder to help bind the mixture. Shape into small patties, and pan-fry them in oil over medium heat until golden and crispy on both sides. While they won’t have the exact texture of traditional grated potato pancakes, they’re a quick and tasty alternative!
How to Make Potato Pancakes
- In a large bowl, combine potatoes, egg, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
- Mix well.
- Roll potato mixture into palm-sized pancakes.
- Add oil to skillet and heat (set to 375 if using an electric skillet).
- Add pancakes to oil and fry, about 4 minutes on each side until crunchy and browned.
- When golden brown on each side, remove from skillet and let sit on paper towel for 5 minutes to cool and drain excess oil.
- Garnish with green onions and serve immediately.
Potato Pancake Recipe Tips
- Variations: You can also easily make these according to your favorite tastes – you could add in a cup of fresh shredded Irish cheddar, some grated parmesan, add in bacon crumbles, onion, and even ground beef or pork!
- Oil Temperature: The secret to these pancakes is making sure your oil is at a perfect temperature for frying – you want it to be hot enough to cook these pancakes quickly, so don’t overcrowd the pan too much as it will bring down the temperature of the oil, which will make them really greasy and soggy (these should be crunchy, not soggy.)
- The BEST skillet: If you’re looking for a really perfect skillet to make these in, I love my electric skillet. It is shallow so I don’t have to use too much oil, but has a good sized lip so it doesnt splash all over – and it has an easy to control temperature dial! You can buy mine here (affiliate link).
Potato Pancake Recipe FAQs
Leftover potato pancakes can be stored up to four days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
We recommend pan-frying leftover potato pancakes in a pan with a bit of butter for the best flavor and texture.
Potato pancakes are done when they are crispy and crunchy on the outside, about 5 minutes frying time per side on medium heat.
Potato pancakes should fry in shallow oil that doesn’t cover the pancake – it should only be 1/4u0022-1/2u0022 deep. Deep oil will make your pancakes soggy.
We fry potato pancakes in canola or peanut oil, lard, or butter.
Potato pancakes don’t contain baking soda or self-rising flour, making them different from our easy Irish potato bread. All-purpose flour, without baking soda, works in this recipe.
What to Serve With Potato Pancakes
If you’re making these potato pancakes for Saint Patricks Day, and want to
These potato pancakes are the perfect side dish recipe for Saint Patricks Day!
You can find more Irish food inspired recipes here.
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Potato Pancakes Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 cups potatoes, mashed , with 3 tbsp butter melted in
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 1 tsp pepper, fresh cracked
- ½ cup vegetable oil, for frying
- green onions, to garnish
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine potatoes, egg, flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
- Mix well.
- Roll potato mixture into palm-sized pancakes.
- Add oil to skillet and heat (set to 375 if using an electric skillet).
- Add pancakes to oil and fry, about 4 minutes on each side until crunchy and browned.
- When golden brown on each side, remove from skillet and let sit on paper towel for 5 minutes to cool and drain excess oil.
- Garnish with green onions and serve immediately.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
1
Hi Courtney,
If I’m bringing these to a party, what’s the best way to store them and keep them warm?
Hi Kim, I like to heat up a casserole dish in the oven and place them in the warmed dish. Then I cover them with a kitchen rag (to keep them moist) and wrap it in tin foil to capture the heat. They will lose some outside crisp when being transported, when you get there you can always brown them more in the pan but they will taste great even without more toasting. Enjoy!
Are the potatoes measured before or after mashing? My mom never used a recipe, just threw leftover mashed potatoes and everything else together and made the BEST ‘potato cakes’ ever!
This recipe was measured before the mashing – but it is very much a recipe intended to use leftovers, so you can totally adapt it to make it more like your moms! Think of it as a base more than a strict recipe 🙂
Thank you!
Hey! I am making these and wondering if too thin – I can’t “roll” these. Add more potatoes?
Yes, you may also need to press your shredded potatoes in a kitchen towel to get out more of the moisture so that they aren’t lending too much liquid to the batter. Hope this helps.