BEST EVER Salty Herbed Smashed Red Potatoes

The BEST EVER Salty Herbed Smashed Red Potatoes are the perfect side dish! Smothered in tasty herbs and chunky salt, these are finger-lickin’ good! 

Gosh, I just love salt. I know it’s not great for you, and you probably shouldn’t eat too much of it, but when you do eat it, PLEASE eat the good stuff; I prefer kosher or sea salt as they’re the best options for roasting vegetables by far. You are doing yourself an injustice if you are roasting your veggies with table salt…just don’t do it. If you are going to indulge and use salt, use the good stuff.  With that said, when I was making these Salty Herbed Smashed Red Potatoes, I knew I had to go for the good stuff; the big chunky kosher salt. By loading these bad boys up with kosher salt, herbs, and olive oil, they really are The BEST EVER Salty Herbed Smashed Red Potatoes.

As much as I wish I could, I can’t take credit for this recipe. However, it was so good, I felt like I had to share it. This recipe comes from non other than The Pioneer Woman.

Funny story…I was talking to one of my friends, and she was telling me that a friend of hers from high school was going to be on TV.  She wasn’t really sure why, but she thought it was something to do with cooking. She told me that her friend did some ‘pioneering stuff’…at which point I questioned her, “Umm, are you talking about The Pioneer Woman?”..she wasn’t sure. She told me her name was Ree Drummond, and at that point my jaw dropped hitting the telephone. “Wait, your friends with THE PIONEER WOMAN???” She nonchalantly said, “Yeah, I guess, if that’s who it is..” I went on to try to explain just how well known Mrs. Drummond is, but my friend was still like, “oh well, I don’t know, you know I don’t cook!”…yeah, okay. Sure enough, I tuned into her TV appearance and there she was, my friend’s friend, the Pioneer Woman.

Turns out my friend’s brother dated The Pioneer Woman’s sister like for years, so they knew each other. Crazy.  I guess that’s what happens when you are from small town.  You are probably guessing this is before the Pioneer Woman got huge, but it wasn’t…this was like a year ago…she already had her own TV show, a line of cookbooks, and was pretty recognizable. But again, my friend doesn’t cook, so how would she know?! LOL.  About 3 months after I found out about all this, I actually was able to meet Ree, The Pioneer Woman, at a blog conference. I brought up my friend and she knew exactly who she was, about her family, and asked me some very personal questions about my friend and how she is doing. Anyway, it was a great time and fun to have a mutual friend!

The Pioneer Woman and me! I’m 8 months pregnant here (June 2014), don’t judge!

Anyway, I did tweak this recipe a bit, so I will post the recipe below, but you can also check it out on The Pioneer Woman’s Blog.

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The BEST EVER Salty Herbed Smashed Red Potatoes

The BEST EVER Salty Herbed Smashed Red Potatoes are the perfect side dish! Smothered in tasty herbs and chunky salt, these are finger-lickin' good! 

Ingredients

• 12 red potatoes
• kosher salt
• ground black pepper
• olive oil
• dried basil leaves
• dried thyme leaves
• dried rosemary

Instructions

1. In a large stock pot filled halfway with water, bring to boil and liberally salt water. Add red potatoes, and boil for 15 minutes, or until they are fork tender. Strain; set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Using a baking sheet, drizzle some olive oil onto the sheet, and spread around using hand (or paper towel). Line your potatoes up 4 to a row, 3 across, making sure they aren't too close to each other. Using a potato masher or strong fork, press down in the center to smash your potato; repeat for all potatoes.

3. Drizzle olive oil over the tops of the potatoes, then brush around the entire potato (I used a basting brush). Sprinkle kosher salt, pepper, and all herbs over the tops of the potatoes. Place into oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until browned on the top.

Recipe Notes

These are delicious by themselves, but also taste amazing topped with sour cream or greek yogurt, and also parmesan cheese! Yum!

Like potatoes as much as I do? Check out these other potato recipes from Domestic Superhero:

Thanks for visiting!

– Allyson