Crispy Smashed Buffalo Potatoes

I love smashed potatoes and can usually have them on a platter in 35 minutes. This recipe intrigued me by the use of the microwave to steam the potatoes and the oven floor for crisping. I also loved the idea of spicing them up and then serving them with the tangy and cooling blue cheese sauce.

But wait, these warm little taters with creamy exposed centers absorb flavour like sponges. The heat level is fiery. While I’m giving this a testers designation, I’m shaving a point. These are not for everyone. Even though most recipes that have the said “Buffalo” flavour are expected to be spicy, the spice hit in these will bring water to your eyes and a good tickle to your throat.

I did have to rewarm my Buffalo hot sauce. Since there was some separation of the butter from the sauce, I fixed this by whisking in 1 teaspoon of chilled butter. This re-emulsified the sauce. The blue cheese sauce was perfect as described in flavour, texture, and amount. It was so good and really served to cool down the palate.

With attention to the cooking method as described herein, and some toning down on the spice level, the 1 hour required to platter these little morsels is so well worth it! I served mine as an appetizer topped with two tablespoons total of finely chopped parsley. The blue cheese sauce was freshened up with 1 tablespoon of chopped chives. I paired my smashies with a crisp rosé wine and extra cooling sauce for each of my party of eight.

Chrissy Tiegen’s crispy smashed Buffalo potatoes are a fun, different preparation and makes an interesting and tasty side dish. Prep was easy but it looks and tastes like you spent a lot more time on it.

It was a delicate balance to flatten the potatoes enough so they would crisp in the oven but not so much that they fell apart. Having said that, the very crispy crumbs from the crispy smashed potatoes that fell apart were really good. Very tasty dish but go easy on the Buffalo sauce, it packs a punch. I served them with grilled chicken and green salad.

One thing I didn’t really need was another potato recipe. Or another smashed potato recipe. Or another crispy potato recipe. And yet there I found myself, eagerly putting Chrissy Teigen’s crispy smashed Buffalo potatoes together, happily digging into the finished potatoes, and savoring every last bite. I love potatoes and found the glory of smashed/flattened/squashed potato recipes years ago.

One thing that was different from any of the other potato recipes I have tried was cooking these potatoes on the bottom of the hot oven. The only other time I have ever cooked anything on the bottom of the oven was placing a pie there, as suggested by David Leite himself. I needed to get the bottom crust browned and it wasn’t working in the oven itself. Well, it worked with the pie and it worked with these potatoes. The potatoes came out with a deep, golden, crispy deliciousness. It is said that we eat first with our eyes, and these tasted wonderful even before putting them in our mouths.

Instead of pouring the sauces over the potatoes, I put the potatoes on our plates and spooned dollops of the sauces next to them. That way the potatoes retained their crispness, and we could control how much sauce we wanted for each bite. It also made a difference with the leftover potatoes. They were not at all soggy. They crisped up beautifully in our air fryer, and there was plenty of leftover sauce for dipping.

Speaking of the sauces, the blue cheese sauce was not blue cheese-y enough to our taste. I added an additional 1/3 cup of blue cheese, in this case Stilton, (hey it’s what we had) which was perfect.

The first time I made these we had them with homemade Shake Shack burgers. The second time I made them, not even a week later, we had them with St. Louis-style ribs. And then there were the leftover, crispy pieces we enjoyed just using our fingers as a vehicle to get them into our mouths. I made a note for this recipe that says, “Make many more than you think you will even be able to eat.” I didn’t follow my own advice the last time I made these potatoes, and kicked myself the next day when I was craving them, and we did not have enough. I hope that I have better luck next time.

These crispy/spicy (but not too spicy) little nuggets of goodness got two thumbs up from all of us. I served the sauces on the side so everyone could personalize the potatoes to their taste. I had equal amounts of both sauces on my serving and it was perfect with the heat from the Buffalo Sauce and the cool creaminess of the blue cheese sauce. These smashies would also be delicious dipped in sour cream or just on their own. They are great as an appetizer as well as a side dish. This recipe will definitely be going into my permanent rotation.