
We love fried chicken, especially the crispy, salty skin. When I was in Nashville a few years ago my husband stopped at a small diner to grab a bite to eat and instead of French fries on the side of our burgers we were served these delicious discs of potatoes that had an almost fried chicken coating on them. They were crispy, crunchy and salty on the outside, but soft and fluffy on the inside.
I’ve never had anything like them before and they were crazy good. I wanted to recreate something like that so today we have our Chicken Fried Potatoes! They’re sort of a hybrid between a French fry medallion and fried chicken, or a vegetarian friendly ‘fried chicken’. They’re so good and really addicting!

How to make Chicken Fried Potatoes
- Place all buttermilk ranch dipping sauce into a mixing bowl and whisk together. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. This will allow the flavors to merry together. Remove the dip from the refrigerator for about 10 minutes before serving. This will take the slight chill off the dip and really give you the best ranch dip experience.
- Place buttermilk, thyme, garlic, some salt, and some pepper into a mixing bowl and whisk together. Add the potatoes and toss together until well coated.
- While the potatoes sit, pour the flour, onion powder, mustard, paprika, and remaining salt and pepper into a shallow baking dish and whisk together.
- Spoon some of the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and stir together. This will create little patches of thicker fried “skin” in the dredging mixture, maximizing the flavor and crunch on the potatoes once they’re fried.
- Fill a large, deep skillet with a couple inches of oil and heat to 350˚F.
- In batches, transfer potatoes to flour mixture until fully coated, shaking off any excess flour and transfer to a cooling rack, in a single layer, until all potatoes have been coated.
- Fry the potatoes in small batches until golden brown on the outside and soft on the inside.
- Drain fried potato slices onto a baking sheet lined with paper towels and another cooling rack and season with salt.
- Repeat the last 2 steps until all potato slices have been fried.
- Serve fried potatoes with prepared buttermilk dipping sauce!










How to make Buttermilk Ranch Dipping Sauce



FAQs
You can make your own buttermilk by adding 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to regular dairy milk and allowing the mixture to sit for a minute.
This will create little pebbles in the dredging mixture, which will turn into thicker patches of fried coating in each piece of potato, which will maximize the flavor and crunchy texture once the potato rounds are fried.
While we prefer to make and eat this right away for the freshest experience, you can make this recipe ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator, in an airtight container, for up to 3 days.
When ready to reheat, place the pieces onto a cooling rack lined baking sheet and heat for 10 minutes in a oven preheated to 375˚F. The potatoes won’t get quite as crisp from when they were first fried, but will still be delicious and full of flavor.
Yes! The buttermilk sauce can be made up to 5 days ahead of time and can be stored in an airtight container, in the refrigerator.

Tips and Tricks for Success
- We like using a wide mouth skillet with taller sides like this Lodge one. It allows for you to fry more pieces of potatoes at once without the pieces sticking together.
- Although the skillet above is helpful, it’s still important not to overcrowd the pan so that the temperature of the oil doesn’t drop too much. Overcrowding will result in oily and soggy potato rounds.
- We like both placing the coated (pre-fried) potatoes and cooling the fried potatoes on a cooling rack lined baking sheet. This both prevents the un-fried coating from becoming gummy and also allows the fried potatoes to drip off any excess oil, while maintaining their crispy, crunchy texture! Placing the finished product directly on paper towels will create steam and make the fried potatoes soggy.
We both love fried chicken so much and this version of Chicken Fried Potatoes is such a delicious and fun vegetarian friendly version. They make really delicious appetizers and are always such a crowd pleaser. If you love this appetizer recipe, you’ll also love our Mini Crunch Wrap Supremes, our Hush Puppies or our Poutine with Waffle Fries! Enjoy!


Chicken Fried Potatoes
INGREDIENTS
- 3 medium russet potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced (about 1/8” thick)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon minced thyme
- 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons salt, divided
- 1 teaspoons cracked black pepper
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 ½ tablespoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons dry mustard
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
buttermilk ranch dipping sauce
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon chives, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon minced thyme
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- salt and pepper to taste
for frying
- vegetable oil
INSTRUCTIONS
buttermilk ranch dipping sauce
- Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisk together until well combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Before serving remove from refrigerator and allow to sit at room temp. for about 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings and stir.
chicken fried potatoes
- Place buttermilk, thyme, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper into a mixing bowl and toss together until well combined.
- Add potatoes and allow mixture to sit for 15 minutes.
- Place flour, onion powder, mustard, paprika, remaining teaspoon salt, and pepper into a shallow dish and stir together.
- Spoon about 1/2 cup buttermilk mixture into flour mixture.
- In batches transfer potatoes from buttermilk and dredge in flour mixture.
- Fill a large, deep skillet with 1 ½ to 2 inches of oil and preheat to 350˚F.
- Shake off excess flour from potato slices and transfer to a cooling rack, in a single layer, until all potatoes have been coated.
- Fry potatoes in small batches for 6 to 8 minutes or until golden brown and potatoes have cooked through. Drain onto a baking sheet lined with paper towels and a cooling rack and season with salt.
- Serve chicken fried potatoes with dipping sauce.
NOTES
- What if you don’t have buttermilk? You can make your own buttermilk by adding 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to regular dairy milk and allowing the mixture to sit for a minute.
- Why add some of the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture? This will create little pebbles in the dredging mixture, which will turn into thicker patches of fried coating in each piece of potato, which will maximize the flavor and crunchy texture once the potato rounds are fried.
- Can this be made ahead of time? While we prefer to make and eat this right away for the freshest experience, you can make this recipe ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator, in an airtight container, for up to 3 days. When ready to reheat, place the pieces onto a cooling rack lined baking sheet and heat for 10 minutes in a oven preheated to 375˚F. The potatoes won’t get quite as crisp from when they were first fried, but will still be delicious and full of flavor.
- Can the sauce be made ahead of time? Yes! The buttermilk sauce can be made up to 5 days ahead of time and can be stored in an airtight container, in the refrigerator.
- We like using a wide mouth skillet with taller sides like this Lodge one. It allows for you to fry more pieces of potatoes at once without the pieces sticking together.
- It’s important not to overcrowd the pan so that the temperature of the oil doesn’t drop too much. Overcrowding will result in oily and soggy potato rounds.
- We like both placing the coated (pre-fried) potatoes and cooling the fried potatoes on a cooling rack lined baking sheet. This both prevents the unfried coating from becoming gummy and also allows the fried potatoes to drip off any excess oil, while maintaining their crispy, crunchy texture! Placing the finished product directly on paper towels will create steam and make the fried potatoes soggy.
Did you make this recipe? We want to see!
tag @SpoonForkBacon and #SpoonForkBacon on Instagram
I just came upon this recipe today. These look just like the “Mojo Potatoes” that are served at Shakey’s Pizza! I can’t wait to try!
Do you soak the starch out of the potatoes before frying?
I do not. Since the potatoes are sliced so thin and they’re given a flour coating the results still make a crispy exterior with a soft interior :)
What if you cover the slices with grated cheese right out of the grease!
it would probably be very delicious and you should do it!
Oouuuu I can’t wait I’m making this tonight definitely. with fried chicken ofcourse.
This looks absolutely delicious! I can’t wait to try it!
Ooh yum! Fried potatoes with homemade ranch? I can probably devour a bowl of these.
You had me at Chicken Fried. Looks incredible.
I’m totally going to make a gluten-free version of these with some millet flour! Maybe even adding some cheese to he dredge – yum! Thanks for the inspiration:)
These are very similar to Indian pakoras – the batter uses chick pea flour, which is gluten free
http://morewish.blogspot.com/2012/07/aaloo-kay-pakora-potato-pakora.html
Oh my word, YUM!! These look and sound amazing :)
Oh my gosh, I bet this is just incredible!
This sounds freaking ridiculous. In the best possible way.
the recipe looks great but why the name? I kept looking thru the recipe to find chicken mentioned.
It’s called chicken fried potatoes because it’s coated and cooked liked fried chicken… similar to “chicken fried steak” which is a beef cube steak, dredged in a flour mixture and fried! Hope that clears it up for you! :)
Can you substitute butter milk for anything else?
If you don’t find buttermilk, you can add a little lemon juice to your whole milk and you’ll have made your own buttermilk! :)
Oh my goodness, this has to happen.
Get in my belly!!!!
I hate-love you guys for recipes like this!
Yum!
“….’cause you’re an adult, and you can do what you want!” Classic!
Hello, Super Bowl finger foods! Much better than buying pre-made crap, and undoubtedly tastier, too!
Wow.wow.wow.
For a second there, when I read the title of he recipe, I thought the spuds were actually fried in chicken skin. Now that thought won’t leave my mind. It has to happen. Thanks for the inspiration guys, I would eat a con-so-de-rab-le amount of these right now!