Greek Potatoes

We have a local Greek restaurant that has the best Greek potatoes EVER. I have become kind of obsessed with them, lately, and at the risk of going broke and ordering them once a week, I figured I should learn how to make some myself. After doing some research, I came across a recipe by Ms. Martha Stewart that seemed like it would be good and wouldn’t take 25 years to make. For whatever reason, all the other recipes wanted you to cook them for 2 hours, and I just don’t have that kind of time! This one takes 50 minutes and is a breeze! I have also tried a Crock-Pot variation, which is below the first recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 large russet baking potatoes (8 medium), peeled and quartered
• 1/2 cup olive oil (yes, 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (the juice of 3 lemons sans seeds)
• 1 tablespoon dried Greek (may be called Mediterranean) oregano
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup of water

1) Heat oven to 500 degrees. Yep, I said 500. I was kinda scared, too, I’ve never turned my oven that high, but I promise it works and won’t make your potatoes burst into flames.

2) Place cut potatoes in a METAL pan in a single layer. I used a 9×13 size, and that worked perfectly.

3) Add all other ingredients on top of the potatoes and toss together until well-coated. I forgot to add the water until they’d been baking for 20 minutes because Martha’s ingredient line-up didn’t list water- it was only in the directions. They still came out fine, luckily.

4) Bake, uncovered, until fork-tender and brown on the edges. This takes about 50 minutes. Turn potatoes after about 25 minutes so they brown evenly. If at any point, your potatoes suck up all the water, go ahead and add a little more. This prevents them from sticking and scorching.

5) Eat them. This is the best part.

This is one recipe I didn’t have to tweak at all. The seasoning was absolutely perfect. I served my potatoes with some Greek chicken and fresh green beans. My Greek chicken was just chicken cutlets seasoned generously with Cavender’s Greek Seasoning. I sauteed them in olive oil over medium high heat until cooked through. This dinner rocked. Trevor loved it and was thrilled to have leftovers to take with him to work. I will definitely be adding this to our normal dinner recipe rotation!

I didn’t think about taking a picture, so I will borrow Martha’s. Mine didn’t look like this, they looked more seasoned. But they were still very pretty. And very delicious.

To make these in the Crock-Pot, I used the exact same ingredients and mixed them up in the bottom of the Crock-Pot. Then, laid a whole chicken on top (you could use boneless breasts, too) and seasoned it heavily with Cavendar’s Greek Seasoning (or you can use salt, pepper, garlic powder and more of that Greek Oregano). Then, let it go for 6 to 8 hours on low and it’s SO good!! This is what the Crock-Pot version looked like:

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