Grilled Potatoes

Upgrade your cookouts

I don’t know why it isn’t more common to cook potatoes on fire. Potatoes are many people’s favorite vegetable—maybe even favorite food—but even though they often accompany all manner of grilled meat, they almost never see a grill themselves. This is an easily remedied tragedy of omission, and I’m here to give you a couple of key tips to ensure that your grilled potatoes succeed. When they do, they’re absolutely stunning. This dish is so good that I actually had the temerity to serve it to the great Francis Mallmann, the potato’s most famous apostle, when he came to my house a few years ago. He went back for thirds.

New potatoes are coming in where I live, and their small size makes them perfect for this treatment, but you can apply this method to potatoes of any shape, size, and color. It’s not quite as simple as tossing potatoes on the grill, but it’s not complicated. You just need the knowhow. Besides the three steps to perfect (and foolproof) grilled spuds, I’ve got a few suggestions for ways you can use them (besides simply serving them, as in the photo up top).

This isn’t a recipe, though I give details. It’s an easy, life-improving technique that I have perfected and which you can master in one attempt. You will never look at potatoes the same way again, and your friends and family will marvel at your savant-like skills with this most humble and popular of vegetables. And best of all, your grilling game will take a giant step forward, in ways that can include other roots and plants. Let’s get to it!