Roasted Potatoes with Lemon and Thyme

Here is a warm and wintry potato side dish brightened with the juice of half a lemon and seasoned with thyme. These potatoes would be equally at home served alongside a roast chicken as they would with some poached eggs for breakfast.

I love this recipe because, well, I love potatoes in pretty much all forms. But these potatoes are so delightfully crispy. And it is a fresh dish that uses ingredients that we usually have on hand. It didn't hurt that my toddler who is normally meh on potatoes (she must have been switched at birth) ate fistfuls.

Key points to remember for getting fabulously crisp potatoes: (1) preheat your oiled castiron skillet (or rimmed baking sheet), and (2) stir once while roasting. That's it really. This is a pretty darn easy recipe.

Roasted Potatoes with Lemon and Thyme

• 3 c. chopped potatoes (in large bite-sized pieces)
• 1 heaping teaspoon dried thyme (or fresh if you can get it)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• generous drizzle of olive oil (approx 3 Tbsp)
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 425 F. Drizzle a little olive oil into a cast iron skillet (or rimmed baking sheet) and let the skillet preheat inside the oven. Drizzle the chopped potatoes with olive oil, salt, and thyme. Mix well, then juice the half a lemon over the potatoes.
Remove the preheated pan from the oven, dump the potatoes into the pan, toss in the squeezed lemon half, and put back in to bake for 35 minutes. Stir once halfway through to ensure more than one side of each potato gets golden brown.