Homemade Hash Browns Recipe - Laura Vitale - Laura in the Kitchen Episode 545

[Music] hi guys I'm Laura Vitale and on this episode of Laura in the kitchen I'm gonna show you how to make the perfect crispy hash browns now I fear anything like me you're a little bit of a hash browns you know hash browns snob is I like to call it because there's nothing worse than getting a hash brown that's not crispy when it's supposed to be just saying and to me hash browns and potato hash are two completely different things if you love a good ol potato hash check out my recipe for it's spot-on and perfect every single time but for now let's go over to very few ingredients you're gonna need so we can get this thing started you're gonna 1 shallot 1 large russet potato that I've peeled an egg white a little bit of flour salt and pepper and vegetable oil and this is gonna be your just your basic traditional hash browns you can do so many different things with it sometimes I'd like to do like a tex-mex style and put chili powder and green onions in there you name it but I really wanted to just share with you the basic of it and then you can go from there and I'll show you here I'll learn in the kitchen as time goes on different variations of it okay so what do we start first a good hash brown needs to be incredibly thin and incredibly crispy so there's a few different things as you can see the ingredients aren't very fancy you can also use an onion instead of a shallot it just it doesn't have that strong onion taste for me it just requires for you to do the rice steps now the first thing you wanna do is get a big bowl and fill it with cold water now this is extremely important because what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna grate my potato on my box grater and then I'm gonna put my shredded potato into the bowl of water now what that does is helps take out some of the starch from the potato that stops it from going crispy so by getting rid of some of that starch it really maximizes that crispy factor that we all know and love so I'm just gonna carry on with this and then we'll move on to the next step that's the end of it be very careful when you get to the end of it because I can't tell you how many times I have nicked myself and cut myself on a box grater so be very careful okay so got my shredded potato here I'm just gonna put this into my water and you can already see the starch releasing this is gonna really really help get that potato to be super crispy now I feel anything about me you know that I patience is not one of my virtues in life especially when it comes to cooking I'm not a fan of sifting I'm not a fan of you know finicky things and I when I don't have to take that extra step I usually don't but in this case this is key to getting the perfect hashbrowns I'm obsessed with cooking you know that so when I tell you that I have made this recipe for years and this is the only recipe that's worked for me and soaking in soaking them in water really really does the job I do the same thing when I make homemade french fries I don't make them often because we literally don't even leave the scene of the crime the pots right here with the French fries they come out we all crowd around in we eat them because it really does make a huge difference all right so not chatting let these sit aside send the water for about five minutes I'm just kind of tidy up a little tiny bit and we'll get going on the next step my potatoes have been sitting in vert in the water for five minutes and I'm gonna introduce you to the second most important thing you must do to get the perfect hashbrowns you got to get a potato ricer a potato ricer is awesome honestly for making the perfect mashed potato but this thing I'm telling you gets the water out of those potato like nobody else's business you can also use a kitchen towel let me show you them you take in a kitchen towel first get a kitchen towel you take your potatoes you put them in you squeeze squeeze squeeze the water out you can do that and works just as well not as good as this but it'll do the job this really really really is unbelievable so this is what I do I take a handful not too much a little bit at a time squeeze everything out actually don't even need this bowl squeeze squeeze squeeze squeeze squeeze squeeze and you'll see how dry the potatoes come out look at that it looks like shredded coconut that's what you're looking for okay so I'm just gonna keep on doing that all right that's the last now I'm just making enough today for my husband and I but obviously you can double the recipe triple the recipe you know to suit however many people you're having over all right so got my potatoes now to my potatoes I'm gonna just grate in here a shallot it gives great flavor but it's not too overpowering like an onion would be but if you don't have a shallot you just got an onion in the fridge you certainly don't want to go out to the supermarket just look at a shallot so cut up a piece of onion and grate it in there it'll do the job a little bit for about two tablespoons of grated onion or a xiaolin that's gonna be fine for me I don't want to go to choose too much okay then you're gonna need an egg whites just the white and the yolk a little tiny bit of flour this is to kind of bind everything together and hold well season it with salt and pepper remember potatoes love salts and now just take your spoon and mix everything together now I also have my skillet here with some vegetable oil now as you can see it there's just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan but it's not going to be deep-frying which you know you don't need now I will say that in the written recipe I don't say how much oil to put in there because it does vary and then if you're doing multiple batches chances are you gonna need to add a little bit more olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan again so just keep doing that until you have everything if you have the oil perfect and your hash browns come out perfect every single time and that's been preheating over about medium-high heat all right so that looks good enough for me now what I'm gonna take and then first so let's test this that sounds about right now what I have here is a third measuring cup device thingy and then this is gonna make all the hash brown the same size so fill this up like like so put this in your hot oil then with the back of this or with a spatula to use a fish spatula you're turning the back of this flatten this out a bit you want these to be thin so that they can get really really crispy and once you put them in there and you flatten them out do not by any means flip them until they're ready to be flipped this is not take a good six to seven minutes on each side and medium-high heat if you can if they look like they're burning after 2 minutes turn heat down a little bit but other than that that's about it I'm just gonna keep on trucking away and I'll show you what they look like when they're done and while my other two are going here I wanted to show you the ones that I just took out and look at this I mean like listen you hear that I hope you can this really is that's the way to go when it comes to hashbrowns I wanted to show them to you as soon as they came out I just flipped them after they cooked on the first side they took about six seven minutes on the first side then I flipped them and it took about another five to six minutes on the second side when they were perfection all the way I cannot wait to dig into these with breakfast because I just love weekend breakfast you know the weekend for me means a leisurely brunch and a home cook long dinner that's what the weekends mean for me but this is really about it they're very simple and to do I mean look at this okay that's a hashbrowns to be proud of okay everyone just find time with me little Laura in the kitchen I'm calm to get the recipe this is it I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Laura in the Kitchen

Views: 2,165,636

Rating: 4.8671432 out of 5

Keywords: breakfast piotatoes, sec breakfast, laura vitale, chef laura, hash brown recipe, Kitchen Appliances, chef vitale, potato recipes, cook, homefries, restaurant, hashbrowns, homemade hash, homemade homefries, Cookware, hash browns recipe, hashbrown, homemade hash browns, food, chef laura vitale, recipes, kitchen, potato hash, recipe, how to make hash browns, cooking, cookware, appliances

Id: xznjentYJbg

Length: 8min 45sec (525 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 27 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/goalienewf]

Thank You!

[u/Ahaigh9877]

The key steps here seem to be to soak the grated potatoes and to squeeze as much water out as possible. Definitely going to give this a try!

[u/[deleted]]

Yes I love this recipe. I've been making it for ages. It comes out well every time.