Roasted Duck Fat Potatoes

Updated June 6, 2024

Roasted Duck Fat Potatoes
Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Prop Stylist: Courtney de Wet.
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
4(982)
Notes
Read community notes

Duck fat adds incredible richness to roasted potatoes, which are layered here with fresh thyme and whole garlic cloves. If you are making this for Thanksgiving, throw the pan on the rack under the turkey when you first start roasting your bird, then reheat the potatoes at 350 degrees while your turkey rests.

Featured in: Melissa Clark’s Thanksgiving

Learn: Melissa Clark’s Thanksgiving

Learn: How to Cook Potatoes

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: give recipes to anyone
    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.
  • Print Options


Advertisement


Ingredients

Yield:8 to 10 servings
  • 3pounds baby or small potatoes, halved if large
  • ¼cup duck fat, melted
  • teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • ½teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 6thyme sprigs
  • 1bay leaf, torn into pieces
  • 6garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)

155 calories; 5 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 25 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 1 gram sugars; 3 grams protein; 337 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Powered by

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 450 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss together the potatoes, duck fat, salt and pepper. Lay thyme sprigs and bay leaves on top.

  2. Step 2

    Roast for 30 minutes, then toss the garlic into the potatoes and reduce oven heat to 350 degrees. Continue to roast until potatoes are fork-tender, another 15 to 25 minutes. Remove thyme and bay leaves and serve, or let cool for up to an hour then reheat, uncovered, at 350 degrees just before serving.

Ratings

4 out of 5
982 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.

Cooking Notes

Even better tweak, guaranteed: Line pan with nonstick foil. Put in oven. Heat to 450. Bring 10 cups water to boil in *large* heavy pot with tight-fitting lid. When boiling, add 1 T kosher salt and 1/2 tsp baking SODA. Yep. Changes the ph for the crispest outside yet creamiest inside ever. Add potatoes and simmer 6 minutes. Drain. Put back in pan, cover, and SHAKE hard. Toss in fat, herbs, garlic, more salt. Pour onto hot pan. Roast 15 minutes, turn over, roast 10-15 more. Done!

Even better tweak, guaranteed: Line pan with nonstick foil. Put in oven. Heat to 450. Bring 10 cups water to boil in *large* heavy pot with tight-fitting lid. When boiling, add 1 T kosher salt and 1/2 tsp baking SODA. Yep. Changes the ph for the crispest outside yet creamiest inside ever. Add potatoes and simmer 6 minutes. Drain. Put back in pan, cover, and SHAKE hard. Toss in fat, herbs, garlic, more salt. Pour onto hot pan. Roast 15 minutes, turn over, roast 10-15 more. Done!

I live in a very rural area of Georgia where duck fat is as hard to find as a peanut field or pecan grove would be in NYC. I order my duck fat through Amazon. These potatoes are like the ones you buy in Paris, roasted under a rack of chickens at the market. So delicious! Since rosemary grows rampantly here, I always chop a handful into the pan. Heaven!

For those who've written that this won't work on potatoes with skin - au contraire! It works beautifully. You're only par cooking for 6 minutes. And you're only shaking up and down twice; the baking soda makes more unneeded. A few skins slip part-way off, but become crunchier in the oven. I've made this recipe with skins on a dozen times and never failed yet. The secret is the nonstick foil and hot pan. That's what the Serious Eats version misses. Give it a try.

Duck fat is actually lower in saturated fat than other animal fats,

The shaking step is meant to rough up the starchy surface of cut or peeled potatoes. It won’t work on potatoes in their skins. Google Serious Eats Roasted Potatoes for a good description of this technique.

I’ve been roasting my baby potatoes in duck fat for years! Whenever I make duck, I render the duck fat to use. I now have a store near me that sells duck fat so I always have a container in the freezer. I melt the duck fat on the baking sheet while the oven is heating up. There’s really no need to precook the potatoes, they come out crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.

My husband is Irish and when he does “roasties” like this, he parabola and then shakes hard, just like you advised. Roughing the potatoes up like that makes for crispier outsides.

The unique taste of duck fat is the whole point. If you don't use it, then there is no point is cooking this recipe. It's not for you. You can use olive oil, but you will have a different kind of roast potato. Duck fat won't hurt anyone once or twice a year.

You can buy duck fat on Amazon and keep in freezer. Apparently, duck fat can be recycled. Just strain and refreeze.

...The short answer is no. "Though we have all heard that potato skins are the most nutritious part, green potato skin may be very dangerous to eat. It isn’t the green color itself, which is actually chlorophyll, but its presence often indicates hazard levels of a highly poisonous substance. Because of this, the United States National Institute of Health recommends never eating green potatoes. Luckily, few people get green potato poisoning, the tubers have a distinct bitter taste."

The method recommended in the notes to parboil with baking soda & salt yielded very nice potatoes. I didn't have "nonstick foil", so I just covered a sheet tray with heavy duty foil, sprayed with nonstick spray before it went in to preheat, and then sprayed again right before I dumped the potatoes on. After 15 minutes, I stirred/tossed, but also used tongs to turn all the potatoes to make sure they got browned on another side. Very tasty.

Duck fat isn't so easy to come by. Whenever I cook bacon, I slowly render the fat, filter it to remove solids and keep it in a jar in the refrigerator. Makes a perfect substitute for duck fat and probably adds a few more spices to the mix. Also use the smallest potatoes available and cut in half. Helps them brown. After all, it's really the fat roasted skin that makes this so good.

parboils, I meant to say

These were delicious, but I found them to be too salty. Next time I will use 1.5 teaspoons of salt.

Cut roasting time to 20 min/10 min

Pealed and quartered Yukon golds and mixed in bowl with 1/4 cup melted duck fat, salt, pepper, dried oregano and thyme. Layered pan with good quality parchment paper and dumped potatoes on top. Added 3-4 sprigs rosemary and roasted at 425 for about 40 min. Be sure to check every 15 min to turnover to get even crisp. Delicious!

Duck fat potatoes are a specialty of southwest France where we spend time, and I've made them with skin-on or peeled potatoes, depending on the size of the potatoes and they've always turned out crispy and delicious. The duck fat is essential.

I have always roasted chicken with butter on top of new potatoes. Can never go wrong. Will have to try duck!

I love this recipe but caution you on your choice of potatoes. I have used Yukon Golds to great success, however I have found that "Baby Golds" are not at all the same. I thought the smaller "gold" potatoes would save time on cutting but they didn't pulverize when shaken and weren't nearly as crispy. When I first made these with Yukon Golds my husband told me there was a big problem in that now I had to make them all the time! LOL

I use goose fat, rendered and saved each year from the Christmas goose. Even more delicious than duck fat IMHO.

This recipe is incredible. Even if you don't use the garlic and thyme, which are great, this recipe will amaze you. That is, assuming you have never had duck fat roasted potatoes. If so, welcome to heaven.

Made as directed, left the skins on the potatoes. They were delicious and my family raved about them. Will be making these often.

1.5tsp salt works great

Great. Love potatoes in any form.

Mine did not get crisp on the outside. I used baby yellow finns. Next time I will cut up larger ones and cook them first.

As I do every time I see a duck fat recipe, I wonder: how would this work with bacon fat?

Delicious. Duck fat is key for browning. I used baby potatoes and cut them to increase the surface area for browning, so they cooked much more quickly than in the instructions - 450 degrees for 20 minutes and another 10 at 350; need to add the garlic a bit earlier in this case. I also added chopped rosemary from the garden instead of thyme.

I followed this recipe to the letter (only roasting, no boiling as others have suggested) and it was perfect. Potatoes were lightly crisped on the outside, soft on the inside. The seasoning just right.

Private notes are only visible to you.

Advertisement

or to save this recipe.