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If you’re looking for a side dish that’s crisp, savory, and packed with flavor, you’ve come to the right place. These Mayonnaise Roasted Potatoes are coated in a creamy herbed sauce that crisps up beautifully in the oven — and they come together in about thirty minutes with almost no effort. Once you try them, you’ll understand why they keep outshining whatever protein is sitting next to them.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
The mayo does something magical in the oven. It coats every potato in a savory, herby layer that crisps up on the outside while the inside stays soft and tender.
Five minutes of prep. Mix the sauce, toss the potatoes, spread and roast. That’s the whole recipe.
The texture contrast is everything. Crispy, golden skins on the outside and that soft, melt-in-your-mouth interior that good roasted potatoes are all about.
It works with everything. Chicken, steak, fish, a simple salad — these potatoes go alongside anything without complaint.
It’s a genuine upgrade from the usual. Not mashed potatoes, not potato salad — something with a little more personality and a lot more crunch.
The ingredients are pantry staples. Nothing obscure, nothing to track down. Just things you probably already have.
I resisted mayonnaise as a cooking ingredient for longer than I should have. In my house growing up it went on sandwiches and that was essentially its entire identity. The idea of coating potatoes in it and roasting them felt wrong somehow — greasy, too rich, I wasn’t sure. I was skeptical and I was wrong.
My sister made these at a family dinner and set them on the table like they were nothing special. I took one, then immediately took three more, then asked her what she’d done to them. Mayo and some spices, she said. I didn’t believe her. There’s something about the way mayonnaise behaves at high heat that transforms it completely — it crisps the exterior in a way that olive oil alone just doesn’t. The first time I tasted it I just thought something had gone wonderfully right.
These have been in my regular rotation ever since, and they disappear from the pan before anything else does. Every single time.
A Few Notes on the Ingredients
Baby potatoes are the right call here. They roast evenly, the skin-to-interior ratio is exactly what you want for maximum crispiness, and you don’t have to do any cutting unless you want to halve them for faster cooking. I usually leave them whole. Yukon Golds work beautifully if that’s what you have — they’re naturally buttery and hold up well to high heat. Russets are not what I’d reach for here; they’re better suited for mashing or baking whole.
For the mayo — use full fat. I know. But low-fat or light mayonnaise has more water in it and it won’t crisp the same way. This is not the recipe to make substitutions on that front. The whole technique depends on the fat content of real mayonnaise doing its thing at high heat.
The paprika adds color as much as flavor — that golden, slightly reddish tint on the finished potatoes is partly the paprika working in combination with the browning. Smoked paprika is a nice variation if you have it and want a subtle smokiness to come through.
Ingredients
3 pounds baby potatoes
1 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon dried parsley
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon paprika
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
How to Make It
Preheat your oven to 425°F. Wash and scrub the potatoes thoroughly and then pat them completely dry — and I mean completely. Any moisture left on the surface will steam the potatoes instead of roasting them, and steamed potatoes are not what we came here for. I usually spread them out on a clean kitchen towel and give them a few minutes after patting to make sure they’re really dry before they go near the mayo.
In a large bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and pepper until smooth and well combined. Taste it — it should be savory and well-seasoned, because this is essentially the only seasoning the potatoes are going to get. Add the potatoes and toss until every single one is well coated. Don’t rush this step. You want the sauce to coat each potato evenly, not pool at the bottom of the bowl.
Transfer everything to a rimmed baking sheet and spread out in a single even layer. This matters — crowded potatoes steam instead of roast. If your baking sheet is on the smaller side, use two rather than piling them up. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until the potatoes are fork-tender when you poke the largest one.
Then — and this is the step that takes them from good to great — switch the oven to broil. Let the potatoes go under the broiler for a few minutes, shaking the pan a couple of times, until the skins turn golden and crispy and just slightly blistered in spots. Keep an eye on them. Broilers work fast and the line between golden and burnt is closer than you think. Pull them when they look like something you’d order at a restaurant.
Toss with a little more salt and pepper right out of the oven and serve immediately. Hot, crispy potatoes wait for no one.
Variations Worth Trying
A handful of fresh chopped rosemary or thyme tossed in with the mayo sauce is excellent — it adds an herbal brightness that plays well against the richness of the coating. I’ve also done a version with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard mixed into the mayo, which adds a faint tanginess that’s hard to stop eating. If you want a little heat, a pinch of cayenne in the sauce does exactly what you’d expect.
Finishing these with a shower of freshly grated Parmesan right out of the oven is an idea I got from my neighbor and have never looked back from. It melts slightly onto the hot potatoes and adds a salty, nutty layer that is frankly excessive in the best way.
Storage
Leftovers keep in the fridge for up to three days. They reheat best in the oven or an air fryer — ten minutes at 400°F brings most of the crispiness back. The microwave will heat them through but the exterior goes soft, which is fine if that’s all you have available but not quite the same experience. I’ve eaten them cold the next day straight from the container and while the texture changes, the flavor is still completely there.
The thing about these potatoes is that they look like you did more than you did. Thirty minutes, one bowl, seven ingredients — and what comes out of the oven looks and tastes like something that deserved more effort. That’s the kind of recipe I keep coming back to, the ones where the results are just slightly disproportionate to the work involved. Make these once alongside something simple — a roast chicken, a piece of fish, even just a big green salad — and see if they don’t end up being the thing people talk about.
Mayonnaise Roasted Potatoes
Ingredients
- 3 pounds baby potatoes washed and scrubbed
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- kosher salt to taste
- black pepper freshly ground, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Wash and scrub the baby potatoes, then pat them dry.
- In a large bowl, combine the mayonnaise, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and pepper until smooth.
- Add the potatoes to the bowl and toss until they are fully coated with the mixture.
- Transfer the coated potatoes to a rimmed baking sheet and spread them in a single even layer.
- Bake for 20–25 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
- Switch the oven to broil and cook for a few minutes until the skins turn golden and slightly crisp, shaking the pan occasionally.
- Season with additional salt and pepper if needed and serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition