I will fully admit that I dislike getting on TikTok. If I open the app, I know I'll fall down a black hole of viral videos, and hours later, I will look up from my phone and wonder why I didn't get any work done.
However, when a friend sent me Rachael Ray's viral video on how to make crispy, lemony potatoes, I knew I had to make them. I've made roasted smashed potatoes before, but her recipe looked easy and so good. Turns out, it went viral for good reason! My husband and I couldn't stop eating them.
Rachael's video is short and vague on some aspects of what to do. But the recipe is simple, so it's not difficult to figure it out. The first thing to do is boil small fingerling potatoes for 20 minutes. I went with baby yellow potatoes. Once boiled, drain them and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Then, for the fun part! Smash the potatoes with the bottom of a glass. Any flat-bottom glass will do, but you can also use the bottom of a heatproof measuring cup or even the bottom of a pancake spatula.
The more gentle the smashing, the fluffier the inside of the potato will be. If you're aggressive, the insides will smush out and give you scraggly edges. Scraggly rough edges equal crispiness, so I went full Hulk and smashed away!
Then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil (EVOO for all your Rachael Ray fans) and generously sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper.
Roast the potatoes in the oven at 450°F until golden brown and crispy. It took me about 25 to 30 minutes to get there, but it will depend on how big your potatoes are and how much you smashed them.
Read More: This Is How Long You Should Preheat Your Oven
While the potatoes roast, I cut a lemon in half and charred it like Rachael did. Looking closely at the video, I saw she used a small cast iron skillet, so I did the same thing. Big mistake!
It's not that the lemons didn't char nicely. The acid in the lemons ate away at my beautiful seasoning, which meant I had to re-season my skillet. Don't be like me. Skip the cast iron and use a stainless steel or nonstick skillet to char the lemons!
If using a stainless steel pan, I recommend drizzling a little EVOO and then placing the lemons face down in oil to keep the lemons from sticking. Heat on high until the cut side of the lemons are nice and brown around the edges. Set aside to cool.
As soon as you pull the potatoes out of the oven, squeeze the charred lemon over the potatoes and serve.
The smashing of the potatoes creates the ideal ratio of crispy to fluffy. And the acidic lemon juice cuts through the starchiness of the potatoes, brightening them up and making them delicious.
Other than the cast iron skillet snafu, I wouldn't change a thing. Well, maybe one thing. Rachael says to make half a pound of potatoes per person, but I'm pretty happy we roasted a 24-ounce bag of potatoes for just the two of us. I can't wait to make them again!