Oven Potatoes – Quick and Easy!

What to make when you want a low maintenance side dish with a little flair? Oven Potatoes!  You can stick them in the oven and forget about them.  Well, please set a timer or else they’ll burn, but you know what I mean!  These are a great compliment to  nice grilled steak or chicken. Get your man to grill, stick these in the oven and go give yourself a facial! And the great part? Nothing to wash if you use tin foil! Let’s begin! 

The Ingredients of Love:Red potatoes, olive oil, onion, garlic, salt, pepper and your favorite spices.  We typically use Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning but you can use rosemary, thyme – whatever floats your boat!  Today I used rosemary and Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Salt.  My kids let me know they like  the cajun way better..aren’t kids brutally honest sometimes? 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees!  Get out a cookie sheet and line it with foil.  Take your red potatoes and onions and dice them into bite size pieces.  The smaller you dice them, the faster they will bake. I actually just left my onions in chunks, but hey, I love onions.  You can skip the onions and garlic altogether if you don’t have time and they’re still great.  It’s just a little extra somethin!  Lay them on the cookie sheet in an even single layer.

Smash a few cloves of garlic and throw them whole into the pan.  You can totally skip this step, but have you ever had roasted garlic? It’s heaven I tell you,  just heaven and it flavors the oil in the pan and gives the potatoes that little edge that puts it over the top!

Drizzle some olive oil over all the potatoes, onion and garlic.

Sprinkle your seasonings over all.  Now get your best mixing tools out – your hands.  Smoosh everything around together getting the olive oil and seasonings to coat everything.  It may seem gross at first, but then it will take you back to that time you played in the mud as a kid and you got away with it.  

Go wash your hands!  Would someone please send over a hand model for these pictures? I truly hate my hands!

Now, pop your pan into your 400 degree oven onto a middle rack. Set your timer for 15 minutes.  Walk away, paint your nails, go outside and watch your kids weeding your flowerbed, take a short nap or whatever you can do in 15 minutes.  

When the timer goes off, come out and stir the potatoes around in the pan.  Walk away again for about 20 minutes.  Potatoes should be done when they are turning a little gold brown at the edges and you can stick a fork in them and they are tender.   Spoon them into a bowl and serve!  I sprinkled a little chopped parsley over mine, but chives would be great also.  I planted parsley last year and it has gone ape-nuts!  It’s coming up in our grass! These potatoes will make ya smile!

Oven Potatoes Recipe

(Courtesy of Katie Johnstonbaugh)

Red Potatoes (1 large, 2 medium or 3 small/person)

Olive oil

Onion – any kind

3 garlic cloves

Salt

Pepper

Seasoning -Tony Chachere’s is good

Fresh parsley or chives for garnish (optional)

Cube red potatoes and onion.  Peel garlic cloves.  Put all on a foil lined cookie sheet in a single layer.  Drizzle olive oil over all.  Sprinkle seasonings over all.  With hands, mix all together until evenly coated with oil and seasonings.  Bake in oven for 15 minutes.  Stir and bake again, approximately another 20 minutes until potatoes begin to brown are tender when you stick a fork in them.  Optional: sprinkle with fresh parsley or chives.