Cheesy Ranch Smashed Potatoes

I love an easy but unique recipe, with high flavor payoff. This is a super easy side dish for any night (even for company). Boil potatoes, toss with olive oil and ranch seasoning, smash them, add some cheese, bake them and finish off with a drizzle of ranch dressing. Big flavor, small effort, just the way we like our recipes. My picky eater actually LOVED these.

Smashed Potato Recipe

Smashed potatoes are as simple way to amp up a regular old potato recipe. Boil them in some salted water, season and smash. The end result is a tender interior, with a crisp exterior that browns perfectly like baking.

Ranch Potato Recipe

Smashed potatoes are great on their own, but RANCH potatoes? Something about a crisp brown potato exterior, with a gooey cheesy topping, zesty ranch flavor, combined with a pillow soft potato just really does it for me.

Ingredients Needed:

• Baby Potatoes (any color, or a variety works; Yukon golds, little reds, even baby purple potatoes, helloooo blue zones!)
• Olive Oil (or avocado oil)
• Ranch Seasoning (you can purchase it, or make your own with this recipe)
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• Ranch Dressing

Serving Idea: If you want to turn these into BLT smashed potatoes, you can top them with bacon, shredded lettuce, and chopped tomatoes. Yum!

Making Smashed Potatoes (with Cheese & Ranch)

This is an easy recipe. Don’t let how good these look make you think they’re complicated!

• The first step is to boil the potatoes. But before that…Make sure to wash them well, and try to use potatoes that are similar sizes, so they cook evenly!
• Place the potatoes in a pot of cold, salted water, and then boil them until they are fork tender.
• Once the potatoes are fork tender, drain them in a colander, and place them on an 18×26 inch sheet pan. The potatoes will still be warm, so any residual water on them will quickly dry.
• Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes, followed by the ranch seasoning.
• The olive oil and the ranch seasoning will coat the potatoes (which also means you don’t need to spray the pan with nonstick!). Next, use a flat bottom cup, and smash each potato gently, until it is like a smashed potato pancake.
• Sprinkle some cheese on top, and bake for about 25 minutes.

Serving, Storing and Tips for this Recipe

Serving

You can serve this recipe as a snack, or as a side dish! It works great with salmon, or chicken. It even works great with meatloaf!

Storing

If you have leftover potatoes, simply store them in a lidded container for up to 3 days. The best way to reheat them is honestly in an air fryer to retain the crisp exterior, but you can microwave them as well.

Tips & Variations

For this recipe, don’t be scared to season the potatoes generously. Just be cautious of how much salt the ranch seasoning mixture you use has! Some brands can be overwhelmingly salty.

Variations:

• If you like the tangy ranch flavor, you can also drizzle these with some BBQ sauce for added flavor.
• Sprinkle with jalapeños if you like a kick.
• Add bacon for added flavor, along with hot honey.

If you like this recipe, you’ll also love our Lemon Potato Salad, and our Parmesan Chicken with Roasted Potatoes.

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Tag us @GigglingFork on Instagram or use #GigglingFork. We love to see your recipes!

Cheers! – Kathi and Rachel