Oven Baked Amish Roasted Potatoes and Onions

These Amish roasted potatoes and onions are the kind of side dish that makes people ask what you did to make something so simple taste so good. Four ingredients, one pan, and the Oven does all the work — the potatoes get golden and crispy at the edges while the onions turn sweet and caramelized. It’s the definition of a Sunday supper staple, and once you make it you’ll wonder why you ever bothered with anything fancier.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Only 4 ingredients — potatoes, onions, butter, and salt. Nothing fancy, nothing to hunt down at a specialty store.
• Hands-off cooking — ten minutes of prep, then the oven does the rest. No standing at the stove.
• Tastes like way more effort than it is — the onions go sweet and jammy, the potato edges get deeply golden, and the whole pan smells incredible.
• Budget-friendly — two pounds of potatoes and two onions. That’s it. Feeds a crowd without spending much.
• Easy to scale — works just as well for a weeknight dinner for two as it does for a full Sunday table.

A Few Notes on the Ingredients

The potatoes: I usually use russets because that’s what I keep on hand. Yellow potatoes work too and they’re a little creamier, which is nice, but russets get crispier edges and I like that. Don’t peel them — leave the skins on. Less work and honestly better texture.

The onions: Yellow onions, the regular kind. I’ve tried sweet onions and they’re fine but they get almost too sweet for my taste. Cut them thick — thicker than you think. Thin slices will burn before the potatoes are done, and then you’ll have a pan full of crunchy black threads and half-cooked potatoes.

The butter: Real butter, unsalted, melted. This is not the place for margarine or olive oil. The butter is what does the trick.

Salt: I use kosher salt, about a teaspoon and a half, but I’ve made it with regular table salt and it’s fine. Just use a little less if you do.

What You’ll Need

• 2 lbs russet or yellow potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1-inch chunks (unpeeled)
• 2 large yellow onions, sliced into thick half-moons (about ½-inch thick; do not go thinner)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus a bit more for greasing the pan
• About 1½ teaspoons kosher salt (plus a pinch more at the end)

Let’s Make Them

Preheat and prep: Preheat your oven to 400°F. While it’s heating up, rub a little butter around the bottom and sides of your baking pan — a 9×13 metal pan is best, as metal bakes hotter and gives better Browning than glass.

Chop the potatoes and onions: Cut your potatoes into roughly 1-inch chunks so they cook at the same rate. Slice the onions into thick ½-inch half-moons.

Toss with butter and seasoning: Dump the potatoes and onions directly into the buttered pan. Pour the melted butter over the top, add the salt, and use your hands or a big spoon to toss it all together right there in the pan until everything is evenly coated. Spread it out as evenly as you can. Tuck the onion slices down in between the potatoes a little so they don’t sit on top and overcook first.

Bake (First round): Put the pan on the middle rack and bake uncovered for 25 minutes without stirring. Leaving them untouched helps get that good golden crust on the bottom.

Stir and finish baking: After 25 minutes, pull the pan out and stir everything around, scraping up those delicious caramelized bits from the bottom. Spread it back into a single layer and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes, stirring once or twice more. They are done when the potatoes are tender all the way through and the edges are a deep golden brown.

Season and rest: Taste and add a pinch more salt if needed before serving.

Variations,

If you like heat, a pinch of cayenne tossed in with the butter and salt works beautifully.

Dotting an extra tablespoon or two of butter over the top about ten minutes before they come out of the oven is a nice touch for a richer, more special-occasion feel.

I’ve added garlic a few times. Fresh cloves, just tossed in whole. They roast up sweet and soft and I liked it, but I keep coming back to the plain version — just the four things, no additions. There’s something to be said for not messing with a recipe that already works.

Leftovers & Reheating

If you have leftovers, they keep in the fridge for a few days. Reheat them in a skillet with a little butter to help them get crispy again. The microwave works but they will lose their crispiness and go soft.

My favorite leftover tip: Fry an egg in the same skillet and serve it right on top of the reheated potatoes. This has become a Saturday morning favorite for me.

I still make these pretty much every time I need a side dish that I know will work. There’s a comfort in that — in having a few recipes you can just rely on. The kind that don’t need improving, don’t need updating, don’t need anything but a hot oven and a little patience.