Get Perfect Hasselback Potatoes With One Genius Chopstick Trick

You can fry potatoes, roast them, mash, or smash them, but if you're really looking to impress a crowd, meticulously made Hasselback potatoes are the perfect showstoppers. Although they are cooked in the oven similar to baked or roasted potatoes, what distinguishes these spuds are the tiny slices joined together at the bottom and forming what looks very much like an open accordion. The best of them have the crispiest exterior and the centers are as fluffy as pillows.

Though they are as beautiful to look at as they are tasty to eat, for most people, cutting the tubers into those perfect thin slices can be a painstaking process. But that's just because most are unaware of the genius chopstick trick. And if you are one such frustrated cook, then hear it from us — the secret to effortlessly preparing perfectly sliced Hasselback potatoes is simply placing a chopstick on either side of each potato while cutting it.

Using a pair of chopsticks when cutting Hasselback potatoes will remove the guesswork or overreliance on instinctive knife techniques that can fail you at any time. The sticks will stop the knife blade in its tracks before it goes all the way through, automatically leaving a small unsliced part of the tuber at the bottom. This way, you don't have to overthink the process and you'll end up with beautifully sliced spuds. But in case you don't have any chopsticks lying around in your kitchen, fear not, you can also use the handles of two wooden spoons to achieve the same results.

The slices on a Hasselback potato should be about 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch wide, but so long as they're thin and even, there's no need to worry too much about the exact size. The whole point is that the slices allow your oils, butter, and seasonings to get uniformly distributed in the spuds by sliding into the inside parts. This way, every bite you take or slice you pick of the Hasselback potato will be as flavorful as the next. Additionally, the "almost" slices on Hasselback potatoes are what allow it to fan out when cooking, producing its signature look that can transform any simple meal into a celebration.