Golden Breakfast Potatoes

Three ingredients, plus oil. That's all it takes for breakfast potatoes that are crisp and golden outside and creamy inside. Yukon Golds do most of the work: they hold their shape and have a buttery flavor russets just don't.

Cook them before you cook them

Raw potatoes on a griddle are a losing game. By the time the middle is done, the outside is either burnt or you've given up and served them half-raw. So pre-cook them.

The best way is to bake them the night before, cool them in the fridge and dice them in the morning. Cold, cooked potatoes brown beautifully. If you didn't plan that far ahead, dice them raw, add a few tablespoons of water and microwave on high for two minutes. It works fine.

Heads up

Leave them alone. Five minutes undisturbed, then flip, five more, then toss, five more. If you keep poking at them, they'll never get a crust.

Weight and heat

A steady 375°F and a steak weight pressed on top get the most surface flat against the steel. The weight is optional, but it's the difference between "browned" and "golden."

When they're done, you can slide them to a cool corner of the griddle to hold while the eggs cook. They go with just about everything, from How to Make Eggs to a full Irish Breakfast.