How To: Make Perfectly Crispy Hash Browns at Home with This Trick

Delicious hash browns are ridiculously easy to make at home. So skip the diner and save your money—use this salad spinner trick instead to make crispy and seasoned hash browns quickly and with ease.

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Remove Excess Water Before Cooking

Most recipes will tell you to rinse your shredded potatoes and dry them before baking or frying. If you've ever wondered why, it's because the rinse removes most of the starch from the potatoes. Starch-free potatoes won't clump together, which allows potatoes to get crispy quickly in the oven or stove.

A cheesecloth or paper towel is usually recommended to squeeze out the excess water; both methods work just fine, but they are messy and time consuming. Enter the salad spinner.

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Just throw your shredded potatoes into your salad spinner and crank it to get all of the extra water out. If you enjoy salt, pepper, or other seasonings, add it to the salad spinner after the initial spinning and spin a few more times. The salad spinner distributes the spices evenly and saves time.

The salad spinner also comes in handy for making other thin potato recipes, including tater tots, latkes, and even potato sticks.

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The Proof's in the Picture

It's easy for me to claim that the salad spinner makes the difference, but it's another thing entirely to show the difference—it's easy to doubt information you can't verify, after all.

To prove my point, I made two different hash browns. The first hash browns (on the left) weren't spun in the salad spinner: they clumped together, crispy on the outside and a little mushy on the inside. The hash browns spun in the salad spinner (on the right), however, cooked much more evenly—and look delectably crispy and golden!

So, next time you want hassle free hash browns... reach for the salad spinner and enjoy.

More Potato Hacks:

• How to Make Truly Crispy Roast Potatoes in the Oven
• 4 Tasty Reasons to Not Throw Away Your Potato Skins
• 7 Steps to the Best Baked Potato You'll Ever Have
• The Potato Ricer Is a Multipurpose Marvel
• How to Make Hasselback Potatoes