Fondant Potatoes
Aug 18, 2025, Updated Sep 19, 2025
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This fondant potato recipe can serve as an elegant side dish for holidays and dinner parties, but it’s simple enough for a weeknight dinner when time allows.
My Fondant Potatoes are known for their signature crispy rounded edges and a velvety soft interior that soaks up flavor from a mixture of fresh thyme, garlic and vegetable stock.
If you’re like me and are obsessed with scalloped potatoes or oven roasted potatoes, this elegant upgrade for spuds is a must-try.
Ingredients You’ll Need
To make these roasted fondant potatoes, you only need a handful of simple ingredients:
- Russet potatoes – Their starch content makes them ideal for a fluffy, tender interior.
- Olive oil – Helps the potatoes get a crispy top and bottom in the skillet.
- Salt & pepper – Kosher salt and black pepper are essential seasonings for perfectly balanced flavor.
- Butter – Adds richness and creates the silky pan sauce for basting.
- Garlic – Infuses the potatoes with aromatics and more depth of flavor.
- Fresh thyme – A classic herb pairing with potatoes.
- Vegetable stock – Provides a flavorful base for the potatoes to soak up during baking, flavoring the butter that because a finishing sauce.
How to Make Fondant Potatoes
Making fondant potatoes might sound like a restaurant-only dish, but it’s easy to recreate at home. The most challenging aspect is getting your potatoes cut into cylinders.
Prep the Potatoes: Peel russet potatoes and cut them into rounds about 2 inches wide and 3 inches tall. For uniform results, use a biscuit cutter, but a sharp knife works, too. Soak the potato rounds in cold water for 10 to 15 minutes to remove excess starch, then pat dry.
Sear the Potatoes: Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, then sear in a hot cast iron or oven-safe skillet until both sides are golden brown and crispy.
Add Flavor: Reduce the heat and add butter, smashed garlic cloves and fresh thyme. Pour in the vegetable stock, letting it simmer briefly.
Roast Until Tender: Transfer the skillet to a preheated oven and bake until the potatoes are fork-tender and fluffy on the inside, about 30 minutes total. Baste after the first 15 minutes.
Serve: Spoon the buttery garlic-thyme sauce over the potatoes and serve them straight from the skillet or on a platter.
Recipe Tips & Substitutions
- Cutting potatoes with a biscuit cutter makes perfect round pieces. You can also use a knife and make a slightly more rustic cut. Be sure all of the potatoes are equal size for even cooking.
- Run potato scraps through a food processor to make hashbrown shreds, or boil them for mashed potatoes.
- Swap in other hearty, earthy herbs like rosemary if you don’t have access to fresh thyme. You can substitute dried thyme, as needed.
- Vegetable stock is my preference, though you can use chicken or beef stock if you are not making these vegetarian.
- A simple swap of ghee for the butter makes this recipe Whole30 compatible.
- Make fondant sweet potatoes using white sweet potatoes instead of russets.
These fondant potatoes are delicious year-round, though they shine on the table for Thanksgiving, Christmas or other special celebration meals. If you give them a try, leave a comment to let me know what you think.
Fondant Potatoes
Ingredients
- 3 large russet potatoes, or 4 medium
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, plus a few sprigs
- 1 cup vegetable stock
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Peel potatoes and cut into rounds about 2 inches wide and 3 inches tall. I use a 2-inch biscuit cutter to make perfect rounds, though you can use a knife. The rounds don’t have to be perfectly shaped, but they should be as close as possible to the same size.
- Add potato rounds into a bowl of cold tap water. Allow to soak for 10 to 15 minutes, then rinse and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Toss potatoes with 2 tablespoons olive oil, ½ teaspoon kosher salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper.
- Heat a cast iron or other oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Once heated, add the potatoes into the skillet and pour excess oil from the bowl onto the potatoes.
- Cook for about 6 minutes then flip and cook an additional 6 minutes, or until potatoes have a crispy top and bottom.
- Reduce heat to low and add in 4 tablespoons of butter, cut into pieces. Add in 3 smashed garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon fresh thyme and a few sprigs, and 1 cup vegetable stock.
- Once the stock starts to simmer, remove the skillet from the stovetop and place it on the middle rack of the preheated oven.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then baste the potatoes with the liquid in the skillet and return to the oven for an additional 15 to 18 minutes, until potatoes are fluffy on the interior. A fork should easily pierce right through the potato.
- Remove from the oven and spoon on remaining liquid in the skillet, which should be mostly butter. Transfer to a platter or leave in the skillet and serve.
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Can you please explain Step 5?
Any excess oil you have in the boil from coating the potatoes should be poured into the cast iron pan or skillet. This makes sure you get the maximum amount of oil for crispiness.