Chorizo and Cheese Hash Browns
Breakfast | American
These aren’t your average hash browns. Crispy on the outside, cheesy in the middle, and loaded with chorizo.
I bake the potatoes for this recipe rather than boiling them, and that decision shapes the whole dish. Boiling saturates the potato with water, which you then have to squeeze out before getting any crispness at all. Baking does the opposite. It draws moisture out and leaves you with a drier, denser flesh that grates cleanly and binds well. Once grated and mixed with cornflour, melted butter, garlic powder and chorizo, the mixture comes together like a rough dough. A slice of mozzarella goes into the centre of each one before forming, which melts during frying into that stretchy, molten core.
Note: allow extra time for the potatoes to cool before peeling the skin, and then again before grating. Then allow for freezing time before deep frying the hash browns.
The frying is done in two stages. The first fry at 140°C is a gentle cook-through, not about colour or crust. At that temperature the oil sets the structure and cooks the potato all the way in without aggressively browning the outside. After that they go back onto the tray to chill and firm up again before the second fry at 180°C, which is where the deep golden crust develops. Before any of that happens, the shaped patties go into the freezer for 30 minutes. That brief freeze firms up the exterior and gives each patty the structural rigidity to survive the first fry without falling apart.
Ingredients
- 6 medium floury potatoes (Sebago, Russet), cleaned
- 40g (¼ cup) cornflour (corn starch)
- sea salt and white pepper
- 50g butter, melted
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 chorizo sausage, finely diced
- 60g mozzarella
- neutral oil, for deep frying
Directions
COOK THE POTATOES
- Preheat the oven to 200°C fan forced (390°F).
- Place potatoes on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Prick several times with a fork then bake for 35 minutes, until almost tender.
- Set aside until cool enough to handle.
PREP THE HASH BROWNS
- Slice the potatoes into quarters and scoop out the flesh in a large chunk. Chill until very cold. Reserve the potato skins for another use.
- Grate the potatoes into a large bowl. Mix in the cornflour, butter, garlic powder and chorizo. Season well with salt and pepper.
- Mix well until the potatoes come together like a dough.
- Slice mozzarella into 6 pieces, approximately 3cm x 6cm x ½ cm.
- Divide potato mixture into 6 portions and form into balls. Divide each into 2 and flatten 1 portion out in the palm of your hand, then top with a piece of cheese and cover with the other potato portion.
- Mould into an oval shape and flatten to 3cm high, smoothing the edges. Transfer to a lined tray and freeze for 30 minutes.
COOK AND SERVE
- Heat the oil in a deep frying pan to 140°C (285°F).
- Gently lower the hash browns in batches into the oil and cook for 3 minutes. Carefully transfer back to the tray and chill again until very cold.
- Increase oil temperature to 180°C (355°F). Cook hash browns again, in batches, for 5 minutes, turning to brown evenly, until very crisp and dark golden.
- Drain on a wire rack over a tray, season with salt and serve.
Recipe notes
Potatoes:
You want a high-starch, floury variety here. Sebago and Russet are my go-to choices in Australia, but King Edward, Maris Piper and Idaho all work well. High-starch potatoes have a lower water content and bind together well once grated, without needing a lot of extra help. Low-starch waxy varieties like Desiree, Dutch Cream or Kipfler hold too much water and won’t give you the same crisp, well-bound result.
Cornflour:
Cornflour does two things here. It absorbs residual moisture from the grated potato and acts as a binder that helps the mixture hold its shape during frying. I prefer it over plain flour because cornflour contains no gluten, which means the texture stays lighter and crispier. Plain flour introduces gluten development, which can make the hash brown slightly chewy. It also keeps the recipe gluten free as written.
Chorizo:
Use a Spanish-style cured chorizo here, not a fresh or raw sausage. Cured chorizo is already cooked and just needs to render its fat during frying, which distributes that smoky paprika and pork flavour through the hash brown. A raw sausage won’t cook properly in the time available and the texture won’t work. If you can’t find chorizo, diced ham or a smoked Kransky is a solid substitute. Avoid anything with a high water content, as it will prevent crisping.