~ These super-easy Rosemary Roasted Potatoes will become your go-to side for everything from grilled burgers to dinner-party salmon! With just a few ingredients you can keep on hand in the pantry, this simple side dish recipe is a snap to throw together anytime! ~

This Recipe Is:   •  Ready in 30 Minutes or Less  •  Vegan (and Vegetarian)  •  Gluten Free  •

By now, you guys know that I’m a HUGE fan of no-brainer side dishes.

The kind that take just a couple minutes of effort, so I can focus on my main dish (or on real-life stuff like helping with homework and folding the laundry!). And the kind that are also sort of like food-chameleons, adapting themselves to practically any meal I might be serving. 

These EASY Rosemary Roasted Potatoes are exactly that kind of no-brainer side dish. I make them ALL.the.Time. They’ve been an absolute go-to at our house for years and years now.

• It’s easy to keep the ingredients for this recipe on hand, since potatoes store really well. So, you can always just whip these up at a moment’s notice!

• They only take about 5 minutes to prep, and then they roast merrily along in the oven while you do other stuff. (Whether that’s creating a showstopper main dish, or helping with a math assignment.)

• These roasted potatoes are wonderfully adaptable! They’re fantastic nestled alongside a casual burger or a pulled chicken sandwich. And they also feel perfectly upscale alongside filet or salmon at a dinner party.

Well, that’s the thing. These potatoes are so easy, so practically no-fail, that I never used to measure anything when I made them. I never really thought of this as a recipe. I just eyeballed it all and tossed everything together.

But, as I mentioned in the post for our 5-Minute Easy Rice and Beans … that’s actually kind of the point here at THK, isn’t it?!? Giving you guys recipe ideas that are so gosh-darned-easy they don’t even feel like a recipe … like work. They just magically happen! Riiiiiight.

And if I made these Rosemary Roasted Potatoes all the time, all year long, then I realized you might love the idea, too!

So, let me give you a few tips to get ya started …

Perfectly Roasted Red Potatoes: Size Matters

As I explained in our post for Cheesy Oven-Baked Pizza Fries, size truly does matter when it comes to getting gorgeously, evenly roasted potatoes. 

More specifically, what’s critical is that every chunk of potato is roughly the same size – whatever size that might be. That way, every chunk will turn out crisp and toasty on the outside, yet fluffy inside … and they’ll all be done at the same time.

If you have some really big chunks of potatoes along with much littler ones, they won’t roast evenly. You’ll end up with some that are undercooked while others are edging toward charred (not so yummy!).

In the photos I took for you, I used darling, extra-small red potatoes. For those, just slicing them in half was perfect to yield uniformly sized, 1-inch pieces.

But, I often start with larger red potatoes. If so, then I may end up cutting each one into 6, 8 or sometimes even 12 chunks. How many pieces you’ll get from each potato really depends on the size of potato you’re using. 

On the recipe card, we specify potatoes that are cut into approximately 1-inch pieces. But seriously – there’s no need to pull out a tape measure! Just shoot for that approximate size, and make sure that every potato chunk ends up roughly the same.

So, maybe it’s not exactly that size matters … it’s more that uniformity matters! (But that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?!? 😉 )

The Right Amount of Moisture and Oil for Roasting

Two things to keep in check when you’re roasting potatoes, or practically any other veggie.

1) Water – You don’t want the chunks of veggies to be wet when they head into the oven. If you’ve rinsed them off, be sure to pat them dry and eliminate as much extra water as possible. If there’s too much extra moisture on them, they’ll steam instead of roasting.

This is also the reason that this particular recipe isn’t great to prep way in advance. If you cut the potatoes and toss them with the oil and spices, and then allow them to sit around for a while, you’ll notice that they begin to release water … and they won’t roast as well.

2) Oil – Good news if you’re watching your fat intake! Great roasted veggies don’t require a whole lotta oil. In fact, it’s better if you use just a little. You want enough to evenly cover all the exterior surfaces of your red potatoes (or other veggies), but not so much that they’re swimming in oil. 

After making this recipe a few times, you’ll probably get to a point that (like me) you simply eyeball all the ingredients instead of precisely measuring. If so, then just make sure you’ve got a complete, even coating of oil over all the potato chunks, which also helps to distribute the seasonings more evenly, too. Just a thin coat – no more than that.

Space Matters, Too!

We mention this point again and again in our various recipes for roasted veggies (like in our Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower Pasta recipe). It’s critical that those (perfectly uniform!) little chunks of potatoes each have some real estate to call their own when you spread them out on the baking sheet. 

If you crowd the potatoes too closely together, they’ll basically be steaming instead of roasting. Your potatoes will end up with softer exteriors, without the scrumptiously crispy-toasty exterior that proper roasting will give you.

So, if you want to double this recipe, don’t be tempted to crowd it all onto one baking sheet. You’ll be glad you busted out that second baking sheet so you get those gorgeous, perfectly roasted potatoes at the end!

The Perfect Temperature for Roasting Potatoes

I’ve seen a variety of different roasting temperatures in recipes for roasted red potatoes and other roasted veggies. Pretty much anything from 350°F – 500°F.

But, 475°F is my go-to temperature for most recipes that involve small chunks of veggies like this. I don’t want my potatoes to slowly bake, which may not yield that really “roasty” outside that you’re going for with roasted potatoes.

Of course, that’s not necessarily a problem, if what you want is baked potato chunks – not roasted. But today we’re shooting for roasted. (To see what I mean, check out the baked red potatoes in our recipe for Sheet Pan Chicken and Potatoes. In that recipe, the potatoes – which are otherwise A LOT like this recipe – bake at just 400°F. See the difference???)

To get all that awesome roastiness goin’ on, a quick hit of high heat is best. (I discuss this in slightly more detail in my recipe posts for my Easy Roasted Asparagus and my Oven Roasted Carrots.)

One important note, though, that a lot of people don’t realize – oven temperatures can vary quite a bit, and many home ovens aren’t very accurately calibrated. Unless you’re obsessed with precision (please don’t point fingers at me here!), and you own an oven thermometer, you might not ever realize if your oven has strayed from the perfect temperatures you’re expecting. 

If you think you might have a calibration issue (or if you chopped up bigger chunks of potato and think they might need a few extra minutes) – just keep a close eye on them toward the end of the cook time, and adjust the time by a couple minutes either way, as needed.

Also, most ovens all have “hot spots,” particularly around the edges. That’s why you sometimes find that cookies (or chunks of roasted potato!) at certain edges of a baking sheet brown before others.

No worries – stirring the potatoes once in the middle of roasting should even out the hot spot problem! 

The Right Amount … and Type … of Rosemary

Once I decided to stop eyeballing my roasted red potatoes every time I tossed them together for a quick side dish … and to actually write my recipe down so I could share it with you … I got kind of obsessed with exactly how much rosemary was spot-on perfect. Which is so funny, since I always just used to toss some in, without thinking twice or worrying about it.

So, the recipe I’ve got for you today is what my family settled on as being our favorite amounts of ingredients. It’s pretty rosemary-forward, with quite a bit of rosemary.

Feel free to change that up however you like, scaling the rosemary up or down as you prefer.

Especially after you’ve made this recipe a couple of times, you’ll probably be able to just “eyeball” the amount of rosemary that’s right for you.

Super important, though! Be sure to buy dried, crushed rosemary (like this), not whole rosemary. Maybe it’s just me, but for this recipe, I really don’t like gnawing through the longer pieces of “regular” whole rosemary.

Serving Ideas for Your Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

These little guys really are perfect with practically any meal!

• For sure, these Rosemary Roasted Potatoes are terrific with grilled meats, burgers, BBQ and pulled chicken … practically anywhere that you might normally serve French fries.

• They’d also be great instead of our 5-Minute Rice and Beans with our Broiled Fish Matecumbe or alongside summer-y Caprese Grilled Fish.

• Or, think of them as a side dish for meatloaf, simple roasted turkey or rotisserie chicken, and definitely with beef and steaks.

I just bet you’ll find so many ways to serve these, that they’ll become a go-to side dish at your house, just like they are at ours!

Enjoy!