Garlic Parmesan Smashed Potatoes (with Baby Potatoes)

by Kayla Berman on Apr 12, 2022 (updated Jul 19, 2023) 1 comment

Garlic Parmesan Smashed Potatoes are the ultimate side dish or appetizer recipe! Made with baby gold potatoes, fresh garlic cloves, olive oil, and parmesan cheese … these boiled, then baked potatoes have crispy edges, soft and fluffy middles, and are super easy-to-make. They’re flavorful, oven roasted to golden brown perfection, and are a fun way to switch up your next potato preparation!

Love this recipe? Check out my Smashed Broccoli Parmesan next.

About This Recipe

Potatoes are one of those foods that you can’t go wrong with. They’re delicious in every form – mashed, roasted, french fries, hash browns … the list goes on and on. However, this recipe involves my new potato obsession and preferred method of preparing them – smashed!

You get the best of three worlds with this easy potato side dish. There’s the crunch and crisp, like in french fries! The soft and fluffy potato inside, like in mashed potatoes. And lastly the flavorful, fancy feel of oven roasted potatoes. It is truly no wonder this style was all the rage on TikTok!

Besides being the best-of-all-potato-worlds, Garlic Parmesan Smashed Baby Potatoes are:

Easy-To-Make: These scrumptious smashed potatoes require 4 essential steps: boil, season, smash, and bake. Besides that you’ll need to do some garlic chopping and mixing, but that’s about it! You’ll let the oven do all the work, while you sit back and enjoy the wonderful smell as it fills your kitchen.
Require 4 Ingredients: Baby potatoes, fresh garlic, olive oil, and fresh parmesan cheese (plus a few extras) are all you need. Talk about affordable, convenient, and simple! Read on for all the ingredient details.
Flavorful: I mean it’s in the name – Garlic. Parmesan. Need I say more??? Prepare for a delicious flavor explosion when you bite into one of these babies.
Versatile: A weeknight dinner carb source, fancy dinner party side dish, or appetizer spread addition … these smashed potatoes with parmesan can do it all.

Ingredients & Substitutions

This easy side dish recipe is made with 3 main ingredients – small potatoes, fresh garlic cloves, and parmesan cheese! You’ll also need olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs if you’d like.

Now let’s get into the details:

Baby Potatoes: These crispy potatoes are made with gold baby potatoes! Any other smaller potatoes should work as well, like baby red potatoes. You will need about 24 oz!
Garlic: Freshly minced garlic cloves give this recipe so much delicious flavor. Add 4-5 minced cloves, or however much you’d like. I really would not recommend swapping in either garlic powder or jarred minced garlic here. Fresh is best!
Olive Oil: Use 1/4 cup olive oil here to get perfectly crispy smashed potatoes. Alternatively, you could use melted butter.
Parmesan Cheese: Everything is better with cheese in my opinion, especially parmesan cheese. So much savory, umami goodness! This potatoes recipe is no different. 1/3 cup is the perfect amount! You could alternatively swap in any other cheese you’d like.
Salt & Pepper: Season these potatoes with salt and black pepper to taste.
Fresh Parsley: Fresh parsley is optional, but it is both a tasty addition and beautiful garnish! Fresh thyme is another great option. Or just dried parsley.

Feel free to add anything you’d like to this short ingredient list too! I’m never going to say no to extra fresh herbs or seasonings.

Equipment

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How To Make Garlic Parmesan Smashed Potatoes

Smashed Potatoes with Parmesan are a super simple recipe! They require 4 easy steps – Boil, Season, Smash, and Bake – to crispy, crunchy, golden potato perfection.

Step 1: Boil. First fill a large pot with water. Heavily salt the water and bring to a boil. Add the baby potatoes. Boil for 20 minutes or until fork tender. Drain and thoroughly dry the potatoes.

Step 2: Season. Add the boiled potatoes to a large mixing bowl. Add the olive oil, minced garlic, parmesan cheese, chopped fresh parsley, salt, and black pepper. Combine thoroughly until the potatoes are thoroughly coated in the seasoning.

boiled baby potatoes mixed with garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese, and parsley in a mixing bowl

Step 3: Smash & Bake. Transfer the seasoned potatoes to a large baking sheet. Smash each potato gently with the bottom of a glass jar or potato smasher. Add any remaining garlic or parmesan cheese left in the mixing bowl to the top of the potatoes. Optional: Add an extra drizzle of olive oil and sprinkling of parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

smashed garlic parmesan potatoes before baking

smashed garlic parmesan potatoes after baking

Step 4: Serve & Enjoy! Remove the smashed potatoes from the oven. Season with extra salt, black pepper, and fresh parsley.

Expert Tips

Smashed parmesan potatoes are pretty hard to mess up! I mean potatoes + cheese + garlic are always a recipe for success.

But I do have some pointers to make sure these potatoes turn out as perfect as possible for you guys!

Heavily salted water: When you boil the baby potatoes, ensure the water is heavily salted. This is the best way to get some extra flavor into the potatoes.

Drain & dry potatoes: Once you have boiled the potatoes to fork tender, thoroughly drain and dry them. You don’t want any excess water to be left when you mix them with the olive oil, parmesan, and seasonings. This would make them less crispy when baked!

Use freshly grated parmesan cheese: Grating your own cheese at home is almost always the way to go. Freshly grated cheese not only tastes better, but it melts better as well! Additives and preservatives that come with the pre-shredded packaged cheese inhibit the cheese from getting as creamy and delicious as it could.

Smash when hot: Make sure to smash the cooked potatoes quickly after you remove them from the boiling water and coat in the seasonings. They will be soft at this point and allow for the best smash!

Use a drinking glass or potato masher: For potato smashing, you can use a potato masher or the bottom of a heavy glass. Either will work, but I used the glass. One because I didn’t have a potato masher and two because it is a fun part of the process in my opinion!

Grease the jar: If you are using a glass or jar, I recommend greasing the bottom of it. This helps to prevent any sticking to the soft potatoes!

Grease sheet pan: Although these potatoes will be thoroughly coated in oil, I recommend adding an extra spray to the bottom of the sheet pan before adding them. This will help to prevent any sticking!

Parmesan Smashed Potatoes Serving Suggestions

Smashed garlic parmesan potatoes can be served in countless delicious ways! I mean when are scrumptious potatoes ever a bad idea?

Here is how I would serve them:

Serve As An appetizer: These crispy smashed taters are the perfect bite-sized, snackable recipe. They would be fabulous to serve at your next party! I would serve with an array of delectable dips – basil pesto, classic ketchup, garlic aioli, ranch dressing, and sour cream. YUM.
Well Rounded Meal: We all know the formula for a well-rounded, balanced, and nutritious meal … a carb, protein, and veggie. What better to fill the carb spot with than crispy, garlicky, cheesy potatoes? Then for the protein pairing, perhaps my Pesto Butter Salmon or Greek Marinated Baked Chicken. Lastly, top it all off with Maple Glazed Carrots or Honey Garlic Green Beans! Sounds like the perfect weeknight dinner to me.
Holiday or Dinner Party Side Dish: If you are looking for an easy-to-make yet crowd pleasing and impressive side dish, these potatoes are for you. They are a step-up from your basic roasted or mashed potatoes and might be a dish / cooking method that your guests have never seen before! For an entree, Baked Shrimp Oreganata would be a winner. Then for dessert, something simple yet delicious, like Air Fryer Peaches or Tahini Brownies.

FAQs

What is the difference between smashed potatoes and mashed potatoes?

Although their names are quite similar, only a small “s” of a difference, smashed potatoes and mashed potatoes are not very similar at all.

We all know and love mashed potatoes! They are one of the most common side dishes of all time, consisting of peeled or unpeeled boiled potatoes that have been mashed up into a fluffy, creamy texture. They are typically mixed with butter, milk or cream, salt and pepper, and other seasonings.

Now upon my research I have seen that sometimes mashed potatoes can be referred to as smashed potatoes if they are very roughly mashed. But that is not what we are talking about here!

These smashed potatoes involve individual baby potatoes that have been smashed into a crispy bite, not a bunch of potatoes smashed into one big dish.

The process for this version is quite simple. Essentially you use two methods of cooking the potatoes. First boiling and then oven roasting. The result is flattened potato patties with perfectly crispy edges and deliciously soft and fluffy middles!

Smashed potatoes are a newer way to prepare the classic carb, but I can say that they do in fact rival the tried and true mashed potatoes. I mean TikTok smashed potatoes didn’t go viral for no reason!

What kind of potatoes should I use in this recipe?

I recommend using any sort of baby or little potatoes in this recipe. I used baby gold potatoes, but any of smaller size should do the trick!

You could use regular sized potatoes if you’d like, but that would switch up the vibe of this dish. As is, with the baby potatoes, when smashed they are like little poppable bites that you can have multiple of. They also work for dipping into sauces or serving as an appetizer!

If you used regular potatoes, it would be more like serving a baked potato. Every person would most likely only get one each, rather than scooping a bunch onto their plate! Either option is great, it’s just up to personal preference.

You’d also most likely have to boil and/or bake the potatoes for longer if you don’t use baby potatoes.

Can I use garlic powder or dried herbs instead of the fresh ingredients?

I would not recommend replacing the fresh garlic here with garlic powder! In a pinch you could, but it just won’t yield the same garlic-filled results.

As for the parsley, I again think fresh is best but the difference won’t be quite as large. You could very easily swap in dried parsley. I actually do this sometimes – it is more convenient and easy!

Also feel free to add in more seasonings if you’d like. Garlic powder (in addition to fresh cloves), onion powder, paprika, or Italian seasoning just to name a few!

How to best store garlic parmesan smashed baby potatoes?

You can store leftover potatoes in an airtight container in the fridge. They should keep for about 1 week!

You can reheat them in the microwave or oven.
Microwave: Heat in the microwave for 30 – 60 seconds depending on the serving size.
Oven: Set the oven to 400 degrees. Add the potatoes to a prepared baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and spray with olive oil. Bake until warmed and crisped to your liking.

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