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How to cook potato grenaille

Name: How to cook potato grenaille
Prep time: 11 min
Cook time: 32 min
Total time: 43 min
Yield: 1 kg
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 1 kg potatoes; 4 tablespoons oil; 2 bayleaves; 2 sprigs thyme; 2 cloves garlic; Salt; Pepper

The French call very small potatoes "grenaille". This is a typical way of cooking them: the tiny potatoes are pan-fried in their skins and make an excellent accompanient for meat.

Grenaille can be made with any kind of potato; it is a question of size, rather than variety, though I think that firm-textured potatoes, such as rattes or charlottes, work best. I am using rattes in the photos.

The cooking is a combined method: boiling first, then frying. This is quicker than using a single method.

505 K 3.9/5 (180 reviews)658592

Duration

50 min.

Difficulty

Easy

Last modified on: October 17^th 2026

Step by step recipe Ingredients Duration Nutritional facts Cost Comments Support the site ❤️

For 1 kg, you will need:

1 1 kg potatoes
2 4 tablespoons oil
3 2 bayleaves
4 2 sprigs thyme
5 2 cloves garlic
6 Salt
7 Pepper
Total weight: 1,080 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation

15 min.

Cooking

35 min.

All in all

50 min.

Preparation 15 min.

Cooking 35 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around: ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Step 1 - ⌛ 5 min.

Prepare the grenaille

Thoroughly wash 1 kg potatoes of very small size in lukewarm water.

Step 2 - ⌛ 5 min.

Drain and transfer them to a large saucepan.

Use this opportunity to check each potato, trimming off any eyes and bad bits, and discard any black, green or damaged potatoes.

Step 3 - ⌛ 10 min.

First-stage cooking: boiling

Cover the potatoes with cold water and bring to the boil.

Boil until the potatoes are just barely cooked.

Step 4

Drain the potatoes.

Step 5 - ⌛ 2 min.

Second-stage cooking: frying

Heat a large non-stick pan on medium heat and add 4 tablespoons oil, 2 bayleaves, 2 sprigs thyme and 2 cloves garlic.

Step 6 - ⌛ 1 min.

When the oil is hot, add the potatoes and stir well to coat them with oil.

Step 7 - ⌛ 20 min.

Leave the grenaille to fry, stirring from time to time...

Step 8

...until nicely browned.

Salt and pepper.

Step 9

This is goes very well with grilled meat, for example.

Remarks

You can also try frying in clarified butter instead of oil.

Keeping: Several days in the fridge, covered with plastic film.

Source: Homemade.

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Nutritional information

	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats	Calories	Energy
Per 100 g	2 g RDI=3 %	18 g RDI=7 %	5 g RDI=7 %	127 kcal RDI=6 %	534 kJ RDI=6 %
Whole recipe	21 g RDI=33 %	196 g RDI=74 %	56 g RDI=77 %	1,373 kcal RDI=69 %	5,747 kJ RDI=69 %