These delicious grilled baby potatoes are crispy and slightly charred. The perfect grilling side dish that is so simple and easy with no precooking, they will become a standard on your grill.
Introduction and My Rating
Summer is here, and along with it comes grilling season. I have lots of meat recipes. After all, we are a "meatasaurus" household. But the question is always, what do we have with that? It is a never-ending attempt to avoid the "bag-o-chips." We do lots of veggies, some salads, but convenient side dishes has escaped us until now.
I have done various methods of potatoes on the grill, but most require lots of special attention or prep. They haven't worked well for me, mostly due to cooking flow issues. They were good and simple but just didn't fit well. This method flows with the cooking of most meat dishes on the grill.
It occurred to me; I cook cut up red potatoes in the oven for about 30 minutes, and get a nice crispy outside. I should be able to do that on a grill. I did my usual research. No help this time. They all want to cook the potatoes ( usually boil them) before grilling. No, no, no. Just grill them. As Thoreau said, "Simplify, simplify, simplify."
My Rating
I do love a good side dish—this one we will do over and over.
🥔The Potatoes
First, let's talk type of potatoes. While this would work with almost any potato, I prefer something small with a thinner skin. These come with various names, new potatoes, baby potatoes, or in my picture, they are labeled as little potatoes.
Due to the thick skin, russet potatoes are not a good choice.
Next size. You may think they are small already, but not small enough. You are trying to get the center of the piece to cook while not burning the outside all in a reasonable time. I want the size to be no more than ⅜ inch of any part of the potato to the outside of the piece. It might be round; it might be a disk, and more commonly a half of a circle. If this distance is more, the center may not get done.
♨️The Grill
The grill temperature. I suggest 450°-500°. Add in a nice stir occasionally, and you will be done in about 30 minutes.
This is the same temperature and approximate cooking time for pork tenderloin or many chicken recipes. So there is a method to my madness.
Final note. A done potato is about 210° internal temperature. You want that creamy inside with no crunch. To me, 210° is the target temperature, but 205° is OK, and less than 200° is just not acceptable.
📖Grilled Side Dishes
🔪Instructions
Preheat grill to 450° to 500° surface temperature. That is about medium-high on most grills. That temperature matches well with chicken, pork chops and tenderloins.
Wash your potatoes (about 1 ½ pounds) and cut into bite-size pieces with no more than ⅜ inch of any part of the piece to an outside surface. Mix with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, and ½ teaspoon garlic powder.
Place in a grill pan and close lid.
Stir every 5-7 minutes until an internal temperature of 200°-210° — about 30 minutes.
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📖 Recipe
Grilled Baby Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds baby potatoes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder - granular preferred
Instructions
- Preheat grill to 450° to 500° surface temperature. That is about medium-high on most grills. That temperature matches well with chicken, pork chops and tenderloins.
- Wash about 1 ½ pounds of thin skin potatoes and cut into bite-size pieces with no more than ⅜ inch of any part of the piece to an outside surface.
- Mix with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, and ½ teaspoon garlic powder.
- Place in a grill pan and close lid.
- Stir every 5-7 minutes until an internal temperature of 200°-210° — about 30 minutes.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- An easy recipe to scale up or down to your needs.
- There are two keys to this recipe, grill temperature, and potato size.
- The grill surface temperature needs to be 450° or a bit more. 500° max. This is the suggested grilling temperature for most chicken, pork chops, and pork tenderloins. Medium to medium-high on most grills.
- If your grill is too hot, the outside will be done before the center.
- The size of the potatoes is the second important issue. Cut up the potatoes so it is no more than ⅜ inch to the center of the piece. You need the heat to penetrate.
- Almost any potato will work if cut correctly but russets, that have thick skin, are not a good choice.
- I use olive oil but any oil is fine. With this grill temperature and the final temperature of the potatoes, smoking is not a problem.
- A potato needs to reach about 200° to be done. I like to use 210° as my goal.
Nutrition
Editors Note: Originally published May 30 2017. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Valerie Pickett
Love your recipes Dan! Thank you so much for sharing with the world!
Question on the grill pan, is the one you use just for the grill? It looks like from your pictures that the handle has been unattached? Curious.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Valerie,
That grill pan has a handle that will de-attach to get out of the way. Very easy to take off and to reattach when taking the pan off.
I have 5-6 different grill pans. I think that one was William-Sonoma but not sure. Any grill pan or basket should work for this recipe.
Dan
Beth
Trying this tonight. Quick questions - would this be indirect or direct heat (using a Weber grill so direct is over the flame, indirect not (obviously!). Thanks!
DrDan
Hi Beth,
Welcome to the blog.
Direct heat. The surface temperature is important. So this works well with chicken and pork but I cook beef at a high temperature and it will now work well if you are running a surface temperature of 550+.
Dan
Marsha
Great recipe - thank you!
One note: the icons on the left (for pinterest, email, etc.) aren’t off in a margin, at least not using an iPad. They cover up text and photos so I had to keep moving the page to read every thing. On-line iPad facsimiles sometimes lie, despite what developers tell you. Thanks!
DrDan
Hi Marsha,
Welcome to the blog and thanks for the suggestion. I have modified the settings of the plugin some. It is now 1/3 of the size. Hopefully, that helps.
I do this recipe over and over during the summer.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Kathy
Thank you for this great recipe! I bought some tiny farm fresh red potatoes and read through all the recipes saying to boil them first. Got out my grill pan, did 3 rounds of 7 minutes, put my sirloin steak on, dropped temp just a touch, 5 and 4 and everything came out perfectly! I did use a frozen garlic cube instead of my ancient powder- just gave it enough time to meld perfectly. Thank you so much for this simple recipe with no soaking skewers or boiling!
Ron
Great recipe Dan. I was looking for a good side for our BBQ this coming weekend. We're getting new (small) potatoes here in Sweden now, so I'll be using those. Thanks.
DrDan
Hi Ron,
Thanks for the note. All the other recipes boiled the potatoes ahead so I had to do my own technique.
Note to readers: Ron is a fellow food blogger. He is an American living in Sweden now. You can find his blog Lost In a Pot at https://lostinapot.com
Dan