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TL;DR (Quick-Answer Box)
- What it is: A traditional Irish potato pancake made from skin-on, grated russet potatoes, a touch of flour, and salt, fried in butter until golden.
- Why you’ll love it: This cozy, four-ingredient side dish delivers a satisfyingly crisp exterior and a creamy, tender middle. It is pure, rustic comfort food for any meal. A must for a St. Patrick’s Day menu.
- How to make it: Grate potatoes, squeeze out liquid, and mix with the reserved starch, flour, and salt. Fry in butter until golden brown and slice into wedges.
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The best way we can think to describe pan boxty is to that they’re hash browns’ answer to fudgy brownies. See, pan boxty is essentially a huge hash brown with a characteristically crisp, crackling surface but a dense and almost-but-not-quite gooey interior. It’s an Irish classic. And, as with so many classics, there’s all manner of shapes, sizes, and incarnations of the recipe. But the love for pan boxty is singular, as witnessed by the following little Irish ditty. (Feminists, please note, LC cannot take credit for this rhyme nor will LC be held responsible for it!)
Boxty on the griddle
Boxty on the pan
If you can’t make boxty
You’ll never get your man.
Why this Pan Boxty recipe works
Think of this Irish classic as the rustic relative that brings the best of both worlds to the table. It’s got that signature crunch but with a unique, creamy interior that sets it apart.
I love this version because it relies on the natural potato starch to bind everything together. By letting the starch settle and adding it back in, you get a potato cake that holds together without eggs or a mountain of flour. Plus, cooking it “low and slow” in plenty of butter ensures the outside turns a deep golden brown while the middle stays soft.
Your Pan Boxty questions, answered
These potato cakes, known in Irish as bacstaí (derived from either bácús, meaning bakery, or arán bocht tí, or bread of the poorhouse—no one seems quite sure), are particularly popular in the north-west of the country, where they take a variety of forms, from griddled pancakes to baked wedges of bread.
Here’s the thing with flipping the boxty. As with flipping potato pancakes or frittatas, you can slide a plate over the skillet, carefully invert it, then slip the boxty back into the skillet. Or you can use a couple of spatulas and a flick of the wrist. Or if you prefer a chunky hash, flip the potatoes over in chunks and press them with the back of the spatula to make them even.
Some of my favorite ways include fried eggs, bacon, and sour cream. How about smoked salmon, horseradish, and crème fraîche? I also think they’re pretty damn fabulous with just mounds of good, salted Irish butter.
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If you make this potato pancake recipe, or any dish on LC, consider leaving a review, a star rating, and your best photo in the comments below. I love hearing from you.–David
Pan Boxty ~ Irish Potato Pancake
Ingredients
- 6 medium russet potatoes, unpeeled
- 2 to 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, chives, or dill (optional)
Instructions
- Scrub the 6 medium russet potatoes but don't peel them.
- Line a bowl with cheesecloth. Grate the potatoes onto the cloth, then gather the ends of the cloth and squeeze the liquid from the potatoes into the bowl. Set the potatoes and cloth aside, and let the potato liquid in the bowl sit until the starch settles, 10 to 20 minutes. You should have 8 to 10 cups of grated potatoes.
- Carefully drain the water from the starch in the bottom of the bowl, reserving the starch and discarding the water. Add the grated potatoes to the bowl with the potato starch, 2 to 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, and a generous pinch of salt, and toss to coat the potatoes.
- Melt the 4 tablespoons unsalted butter in a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add the potato mixture and pat it down into an even layer. It should be 3/4 to 1 inch thick.
- Cook over medium heat, letting it turn a nice golden brown. Brown one side before turning it over. Don't increase the heat above medium to rush it, but do peek occasionally to make certain the potatoes aren't browning too quickly.
☞ TESTER TIP: You want the outside to turn pale brown by the time the inside is slowly becoming tender.
- Flip the potato pancake and cook on the other side until crisp and golden on the outside, tender and creamy on the inside, about 40 minutes total, depending on the heat and the size of your skillet. Again, be patient and don't crank the heat or the outside will scorch while the inside remains underdone.
- Cut the boxty into 4 to 6 wedges and serve it straight from the skillet. Sprinkle over chopped fresh herbs, if using.
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Nutrition
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Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Did you know only 68% of the recipes we test make it onto the site? This recipe survived our rigorous blind testing process by multiple home cooks. It earned the Leite’s Culinaria stamp of approval—and the testers’ reviews below prove it.
This potato pancake is fun to make and fun to eat! The crisp outer layer is super and just what I’d expected; the tender inside is equally as good.
I added fresh herbs the first time I made it–parsley, some thyme, and a wee pinch of rosemary and chopped oregano–and thought it was perfect. The second time I added some chopped scallion and a lot of parsley.
The only problem I have with this recipe is that it says it serves 4, but it doesn’t tell you 4 giant lumberjacks! I found that 6 medium potatoes makes enough to serve at least 12 regular people. I would cut this recipe in half next time and invite some hungry friends over.
P.S. This was just as good the next morning with a sunnyside egg on top. Try it, you’ll love it. And when you pile lots of chopped parsley on top, you can serve it on the 17th of March!
Before I say anything else, let me explain that I’m a home fries type of gal. I’ve yet to meet any sort of hash browns with whom I’m compatible, so I was leery about me and Pan Boxty. Let’s just say that while I still swoon to home fries, I’ll definitely be cheating on them with this little number.
I was quite startled at the size of the mound of grated potatoes before me, so I used a 12-inch cast-iron skillet rather than a 10-inch so I could spread that heap of spuds into a slightly thinner cake, which was still a good inch thick. I was thinking the wider skillet may help the inside turn tender before the outside scorched. I needn’t have worried, as the Pan Boxty turned a lovely crisp golden brown on the bottom within 20 minutes.
Though I played it safe and flipped the spuds using 2 spatulas, next time I think I’ll try to flip it midair, as the cake was really cohesive, more so than any hash brown I’ve ever made. (I would love to say, for the benefit of those who need to eschew flour, that the ingredient is optional, but it’s really not. It helps create a stickiness among the shreds of spuds that makes turning the entire thing a cinch.)
The result was, as promised, the potato counterpart to a fudgy brownie–crisp outside, dense and moist inside. Full confession: I used olive oil instead of butter, but these were still, as I told my 10-year-old nephew, the world’s best and most monstrous tater tots. He didn’t argue.
Why do you save the starch from the potatoes, is it used someplace?
Hi Linda, in step 2, it is combined with the grated potatoes, flour, and salt.
Hi. I cannot use cast iron anymore, to my sorrow. What do I have to do differently if I use a nonstick fryer?
Hi Liz! I’m very sorry to hear about your cast-iron situation, although I don’t think you need to do anything differently. Well, aside from keep an extra cautious eye on the heat, erring on the side of a lower rather than higher flame. (Cast iron tends to maintain a very steady temperature, whereas thin skillets such as nonstick frying pans are prone to more fluctuations, and also provide less of a buffer between flame and spuds.) I just made this recipe today, and wow! I think you’ll like it quite a lot, which is a good thing, because chances are there’ll be leftovers…
Thank you, Renee. I generally use a lower heat just because it’s non stick. I do have a small stainless, but it’s too small for this.
I’ll give it a try and let you know how it worked out. 🙂
Please do let us know, Liz. And you know, you could always cut the amount in half or thirds, because this does make quite a lot of Pan Boxty…
FINALLY!!!!! I’ve gone back to eating the nightshades occasionally so tomorrow is going to be Pan Boxty Day. I’ll let you know how it comes out. Can’t wait. I love potatoes. 🙂
Lovely to hear it, Lisbeth! Although a word to the wise…I was on a potato hiatus, too, for a while (silly me) and when I started in again, wow and holy cow, it was as if I couldn’t stop! You may need to make a second skillet of boxty if you intend to share…