Make McDonald’s Style Hash Browns at Home

Potato Love: A Family Favorite

Is potato your family’s vegetable of choice too? It sure is a staple in our kitchen. I cook a variety of dishes with potatoes throughout the week – from khagina omelet to potato and meat stew to lemon basil baked potatoes. Especially during the pandemic lockdown days, this humble but versatile vegetable has been a major source of carbs for us.

How to Make McDonald’s Style Hash Browns at Home

We haven’t been eating out at all since the COVID-19 situation started, not even getting takeaways and home deliveries. The problem is not with food, since many scientific research sources have reassured people that food is safe. Our problem is with the handling of food. You can never be sure about how many unsafe hands touched it till it reached you.

Now among the few things that we used to enjoy a lot eating from outside was getting hash browns from McDonald’s for our Sunday brunch. My younger one was especially missing her favorite breakfast treat. Since this is her birthday month and we can’t throw her a party with her friends due to social distancing, as we used to before, I decided to cook for her some of her favorite foods this entire month. That’s how I got to experiment and make McDonald-style hash browns at home.

The Secret to Perfect Crispness and Texture:

Now I’ve been making potato hashbrowns before at home too, I even make them as base for mini pizzas or replace burger buns with hashbrowns and waffles with slightly liquidish batter in a waffle maker. The challenge this time was to recreate the light and crispy version with texture that we get at McDonald’s.

I thought of combining rice flour with cornflour/starch because that’s the winning combo that gives the crispest crust to most things I deep fry. I decided to mix that with potatoes. Grating the potatoes and keeping them in cold water helps a lot in getting that particular texture so don’t miss out on those steps. Finally, pressing the mixture firmly and cooling to set the hash browns before frying are also important so that they don’t crumble in your hands or disintegrate in the oil.

Lockdown or not, this recipe is a keeper to enjoy very delicious and hygienic hashbrowns at all times. If you try and make McDonald’s Style Hash Browns At Home, don’t forget to rate and comment. 😉

Ingredients for Hash Browns:

• 1 kg potatoes
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup rice flour
• 3 tablespoons corn flour/starch
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• Salt to taste
• Black or white pepper to taste

Step-by-Step Instructions

• Wash and peel potatoes.
• Grate them into a bowlful of ice-cold water with a large hole grater.  Or fit your food processor with a large hole grating blade and grate, then dip in ice-cold water.

• Leave in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile fill a deep pan 3/4 with water or enough to immerse the grated potatoes. Add 2 tablespoons sugar to the water. Bring it to a boil.
• Scoop out grated potatoes from cold water and add them to boiling water. Boil for only 2-3 minutes. Potatoes should retain some texture.

• Place a muslin cloth over a sieve or big bowl.
• Strain potatoes through the muslin cloth.
• Pour cold water over them to bring them to room temperature.
• Make a bundle of the muslin cloth and squeeze out as much water as possible.

• Add rice flour, corn flour, onion powder, salt and pepper to the grated potatoes and mix. If the mixture is too dry to come together, you can add a little water (1 tablespoon at a time) and mix .
• Scoop out enough potatoes to fill a round cookie cutter or icecream scoop (a little more than 1/4 cup). 
• Press down the mixture firmly.
• Then place on a lightly greased board and make oval shapes.

• Keep in refrigerator for 2-3 hours or until set.

• Fry in medium hot oil for 5-6 minutes or till golden and crisp.

Storage Tips: 

You can shape and store the hashbrowns for later use. They stay good in refrigerator for 3-4 days. Just lightly grease a dish or tray, spread them out and cover with a plastic wrap.

For freezing, layer them in an airtight container with plastic sheets or butter paper between layers (so that they don’t stick together). Freeze them for 2-3 months.

Makes 12 hashbrowns.