Crispy potato cakes are our favorite way to use leftover mashed potatoes! I regularly make extra mashed potatoes just so we can have potato cakes with our eggs for breakfast!
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Sharing this recipe with y’all has been a long time coming! Crispy potato cakes are one of the foods that I ate as a child and that I’ve now adapted a bit as an adult (along with the super popular pan fried chicken tenders). My kids, especially my oldest son, get excited whenever I say I’m making these potato cakes for breakfast!
I love repurposing leftover food and coming up with fresh ways to enjoy leftovers, and these potato cakes are no exception. Whenever I make mashed potatoes for dinner in the Instant Pot, I almost always go ahead and make more than we need so that we can have potatoes cakes later in the week.
Crispy potato cakes also make a great addition to breakfast-for-dinner nights, or as a filling brunch idea!
Crispy Potato Cakes
I love using my cast iron pans for these potato cakes (and most other breakfast foods) because they heat so evenly and really help to get the perfect crispy crust on the potatoes.
For the meal pictured in this post (Mother’s Day breakfast), I used my cast iron griddle (on a glass-top stove! read the review here) to cook first the sausage, then the potato cakes, and then finally to quickly cook some eggs.
If you are unfamiliar with cast iron, or just want to learn how to use cast iron more effectively (including eggs that don’t stick), check out the 15 Things You Need to Know About Cast Iron.
5 Things to Know About Making Perfect Potato Cakes
1. The egg serves as a binder and the garlic powder gives it the best flavor! Don’t skip either.
2. Butter is KEY for achieving the perfect crispy crust. Go ahead and use a little more than you need to grease the pan.
3. Resist the urge to flip the potato cakes too soon. Flipping too early is only going to get you broken cakes and crust stuck to the pan. Let the crust get nice and brown and crisp, then use a thin spatula to flip the cakes.
4. Add MORE butter for the second side. You’ll get two crisp exteriors, and one hot delicious interior.
5. Do serve these crispy potato cakes with fried eggs at breakfast, sautéed greens at dinner, or as a part of some other delicious southern meal!
My Favorite Cast Iron Pans ::
- Reversible Cast Iron Griddle (pictured in this post)
- Round Cast Iron Griddle
- 10″ Cast Iron Pan
If you are a fan of delicious breakfast food (we certainly are!), then be sure to check out these other tasty breakfast recipes ::
- Stone-Ground Grits in the Instant Pot
- Amazing 30 Minute Cinnamon Rolls
- Blueberry Orange Breakfast Cake (gluten & dairy free, naturally sweetened)
- Back Pocket Pancakes
- Cinnamon Banana Pancakes (gluten & dairy free)
- Saturday Morning Waffles
Crispy Potato Cakes
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
Description
Crispy potato cakes are our favorite way to use leftover mashed potatoes! I regularly make extra mashed potatoes just so we can have potato cakes with our eggs for breakfast!
Ingredients
- 2–3 cups leftover mashed potatoes
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- butter
Instructions
- Mix together the leftover mashed potatoes and egg well. Add the garlic and salt, stir again. Form the potatoes into patties.
- Heat a cast iron griddle or skillet over medium heat until hot. Add a little butter (enough to generously coat the bottom) and move it around on the hot skillet until melted. Immediately place the potato cakes in the melted butter.
- Cook the potato cakes for about 5 minutes until the bottom of the cakes form a brown and crispy crust. (DON’T try to flip them before a good crust forms, or they will fall apart). Slide a spatula under the potato cakes, add more butter to the pan, and flip to cook the cakes on the other side.
- Serve hot!
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I love this recipe! Such a great use of leftover mashed potatoes and I appreciate that it doesn’t call for flour like some potato pancakes recipes.
★★★★★
This was hands down the worst recipe I’ve ever made. With no binder such as flour, these just dissolved in the pan. After the first three left a mess I added a 1/4 cup of sr flour and they fried up nicely. You’ll need some kind of binder such as flour or corn meal to get these right
★