Parmesan-Crusted Potatoes Are A TikTok Recipe Worth Trying

TikTok food trends come and go but the really great ones echo all around the internet, bouncing from platform to platform and from blog to blog (remember butter boards?). That's the case with this absolutely easy-to-make and even better-to-eat parmesan-crusted roasted potato hack that, as it turns out, is so yummy, you may never eat your roasted potatoes any other way. 

With only a handful of ingredients and not much prep, it's no wonder these taters are popular. Not only that but the garlicky, salty, buttery, cheesy flavor of these bite-sized spuds is matched only by their crispy-on-the-outside-potatey-on-the-inside goodness. And while there are several variations of the dish floating around online, as long as you stick to the basic principles of preparation, you really can't go wrong. If you're looking to lean into this fabulous food trend, you're gonna need potatoes (preferably new, fingerling, or any other small-in-size potato), fat (often butter but sometimes olive oil), garlic (fresh minced or powdered), onion powder, parmesan (freshly grated or powdered), and salt and pepper.

While the ingredients required are easy enough to acquire and the recipe itself is a breeze, it's the cooking technique that may be most responsible for wowing so many eager mouths and pleasing so many beleaguered home cooks. That's because after a few simple steps of kitchen prep your potatoes will be roasting away unattended, cooking themselves pillowy while simultaneously melting that parmesan into the most delightfully crunchy amber-hued crust, while you do — well, anything else your heart desires. 

You'll need a sheet pan with at least a 1-inch lip and 2 pounds of small potatoes cut in half. Score the open flat side diagonally in a criss-cross pattern. Once complete, melt a quarter to a half cup of butter and pour it onto the bottom of your sheet pan. Next, sprinkle anywhere from 2 tablespoons to a third cup of parmesan cheese into the pan, completely covering the butter, and do the same with the garlic and onion powders (a half teaspoon each), salt, pepper, and any other spices, quickly mixing and spreading to cover the bottom of the pan evenly, before placing your potatoes face down onto the buttery, cheesy, spice mixture. Then, brush or drizzle on more butter or oil to the backsides of the potatoes and top them with a sprinkling of any additional cheese or spices you'd like. Lastly, put them in a 425-degree Fahrenheit oven for 15 to 35 minutes depending on the size and thickness of your potatoes. 

Though TikTok has been widely credited with hyping up this latest batch of attention for this epic recipe, it's been hanging around the interwebs for years, with similar postings popping up as far back as 2014. This potato recipe is so popular it's next to impossible to find their ground-zero origins, but that's the beauty of a recipe like this: It belongs to all of us. Try purple potatoes or bacon grease, add paprika, cumin, or fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme, and make it your own.