What Are Potato Flakes? Learn How To Use Them In Cooking

Instant potato flakes may not be at the top of your must-have grocery items, but don't let their humble reputation fool you. While they may be best known for their ability to whip up creamy mashed potatoes in a pinch during colder months, they have many other culinary uses that are often overlooked. Crafted from cooked, mashed, and dehydrated russet or Yukon Gold potatoes, these versatile flakes can serve as a thickening agent for soups and gravies, like potato starch. They can add a crispy texture to chicken, lend a fluffy touch to focaccia, and moisten meatloaf. However, their potential continues beyond there. Keep reading for innovative ways to incorporate potato flakes into your cooking.

Add extra crunch to chicken, fish, or meat with potato flakes

First, dip your chicken breasts or tenders, fish fillets, or thinly pounded meat chops in an egg wash. Then, coat them in a mixture of potato flakes, Parmesan cheese, and your preferred seasonings, and either bake or fry them until they are a beautiful golden colour. The potato flakes give your meat a delicate and crispy texture while retaining its juiciness. Plus, if you're avoiding gluten, this is a fantastic substitute for breadcrumbs or crushed crackers.

Crispy nuggets, PC: Pexels

As a crispening element

Use potato flakes instead of panko when creating crispy, juicy oven-baked chicken or baked fish sandwiches. Use flakes instead of fine breadcrumbs when making crispy, juicy schnitzel.

Prepare meatloaf that is both juicy and soft

Use quick potato flakes for the traditional binding ingredients of meatloaf, such as breadcrumbs, rice, or oats. The flakes keep the meat juicy and tender and easily blend into the mixture. Use flavoured potato flakes, including butter and herb, to boost the meatloaf's flavour quickly.

We recommend subbing this for the fresh breadcrumbs in our traditional meatloaf recipe. Swap out the dry breadcrumbs in our simple skillet or French onion meatloaf for this.

Create some creamy soup

You got some fresh seasonal produce to experiment with? You'll get a nutritious soup by combining your newfound ingredients with some potato flakes. They are great for making a hearty and comforting soup for a light dinner.

A bowl of creamy soup, PC: Pexels

Make some gnocchi as light as a feather

Using dehydrated cooked potato flakes allows you to use less flour for your gnocchi dough, resulting in gnocchi that is less sticky and more delicate. Furthermore, you can bypass the arduous cooking process and ricing whole potatoes.

To ace cooking with it, rehydrate the instant potato flakes using boiling water until they become a somewhat crumbly mixture. Afterwards, stir in the egg, flour, and salt, and follow the directions in our effortless gnocchi recipe.

Bake pillowy cookies, rolls, and focaccia

Whether baking dinner rolls or a sheet pan of focaccia bread, adding starchy instant potato flakes to the dough will give it a light, airy texture and help the baked goods stay fresh for days. The yeast will rise more quickly because of the potatoes' potassium, so you can start eating even sooner.