Whether it’s for salad, soup, or casseroles, boiled potato is the essential ingredient you’ll need. Boiling potatoes is not something that you have to be a master in! With some basic steps, you can perfectly boil the potato on your cooktop.
So, how long does it take to boil potatoes? It’s one of the basic things that the beginner or intermediate cook wants to know. Indeed, we’ll cover this in this article. Before that, let’s know the uses of the boiled potatoes.
Firstly, boiled potatoes go excellently with broccoli, carrots, onions, and many other vegetables. Seasoning with the fresh and dried herb, boiled potatoes also make a delicious salad.
Furthermore, along with the chicken and meat, the boiled potato also makes a tasty item.
After having so many uses, you must eagerly want to have the boiled potatoes. Luckily, on the cooktop, the potatoes normally take only 12-30 minutes to boil perfectly. Conversely, it takes only 6 to 8 minutes in the microwave to boil potatoes.
How long does it take to boil potatoes?
Are you trying to boil potatoes on the cooktop? It’s not that complicated to do, nor do you have to expert in boiling simple potatoes. That’s because boiling is actually one of the necessary cooking skills.
Still, it’s necessary to know how long it takes to boil potatoes perfectly. Let’s have a glimpse of the potatoes boiling time-based on its size.
| Type of potatoes | Size of potatoes | Boiling time |
| Baby potatoes | 1 inch | 12 minutes |
| Small potatoes | 2 inches | 15 minutes |
| Medium potatoes | 3 inches | 20 minutes |
| Large potatoes | 4 inches | 25 minutes |
| Extra-large potatoes | 6 inches | 30 minutes |
Apart from potato size, some other factors also affect the boiling time of the potatoes. Let’s discuss those factors in a brief.
If you try to boil the cubed, red, or new potatoes, you can effortlessly do it within 15 minutes. Conversely, the larger and older potatoes will consume more time to boil than 15 minutes. You’ll have to give 20-25 minutes to boil the large potatoes on the cooktop.
Whether you’re boiling in a regular pot or a microwave, it also affects the potatoes cooking time. Regardless to say, the microwave saves a lot of your cooking time than the cooktop.
If you don’t have a microwave but want fast boiling, use a cover with the pot.
What are the factors affecting the boiling time of the potatoes?
All types of potatoes carry almost the same nutrition and vitamin. Nevertheless, not all of the potatoes take the same time to boil properly. So, here we have come with some critical factors that highly affect the potatoes’ boiling time. Let’s start!
Potato types
When you go to the US market, you’ll find more than 200 species of potatoes. These species are divided into seven types of potatoes –white, red, russet, purple/blue, yellow, petite, and fingerling.
Verily, the difference in starch and moisture into these types affects the photos boiling time.
Potato size
From our given table, we already know how the potatoes’ sizes affect the cooking time. To boil the potatoes in lower time, purchase the baby size potatoes.
Otherwise, you can slice your larger potatoes into small sizes to quicken the cooking speed.
Potato boiling method
Using the microwave and oven are the faster methods of boiling potatoes. Conversely, cooking on cookstoves consumes some more time. Furthermore, it’ll need a lot of time to boil water if you use the slow cooker to boil potatoes.
Heat of cooktop
Indeed, cooking on a stove and slow cooker takes a higher time than microwave and oven. But you can reduce the cooking time a lot by increasing the heat of the cooktop.
That’s because the cooktop’s heat is another crucial factor that affects the potato’s boiling time.
How to boil potatoes in a stove quickly and perfectly?
Indeed, it doesn’t take a long time to boil potatoes; still, the larger potatoes take some extended period. If you want to boil the large potato within the lower time, follow our guidelines here.
Step 1: Prepare the potatoes for boiling.
Boiling potatoes needs proper preparation before placing them over the cookstove.
Firstly, clean the dirt and debris with a brush that is persistently stuck with the potatoes. Each potato needs to brush separately. Rinse the potatoes again and again in the water so that no dirt is left.
Step 2: Peel the potatoes
There’re lots of arguments about whether you should peel the potatoes or not. Some people state that peeling potatoes makes it outside strong and unable to eat.
Nevertheless, in order to save the necessary nutrition, peel the potatoes prior to boiling.
Step 3: Cut the potatoes into a smaller piece
When you’re boiling the small-sized potatoes, it will easily be cooked within a few minutes. But the larger sized potatoes need spare time to boil properly.
If you want to lessen the boiling time, cut the big-sized potatoes into 1 inch. Make the potatoes in cube size when slicing so that the steam of water easily enters into it.
Step 4: Put the potatoes into a pot with cover.
Take a large cooking pot and fill it with the water. Mix one or two spoons of salt with the water and put the pot on high heat.
Place the cubed potatoes onto the water when it begins to boil. Cover the pot for faster cooking and let the potatoes boil for 15 to 20 minutes.
Step 5: Check the potatoes
After 20 minutes of boiling, bring out a cube of potatoes from the pot. Try to smash the potato with a spoon. If it gets smashed easily, then your potatoes have boiled perfectly.
Let the potatoes for some more time, if it doesn’t get smashed swiftly.
Step 6: Serve the boiled.
When the potatoes get boiled perfectly, bring out the cooking pot from the stove. Let the hot potatoes cool for at least 15 minutes before storing and making any dish with it.
To make the cooling process easier and quicker, you can put some ice into the pot of the potato. Now, try your favorite potato-related dishes with boiled potatoes. Fried mashed potatoes, potato salad, Gruyere-Garlic, etc. are the tastiest food that is made with the boiled potatoes.
Step 7: Store the boiled potatoes
You can store the boiled potatoes for about three months in the freezer and five days in the fridge’s temperature. Whether stored in the fridge or freezer, you need to put the boiled potatoes in an airtight container.
What to make with the boiled potatoes?
There are versatile types of recipes that are possible to make with the boiled potatoes. The potatoes hold their firmness, and shape is suitable for making the potato salad, gratins, and casserole. The potatoes, which become soft and starchy, are a perfectly good option of making fluffy mashed potatoes.
Can you reheat the mashed potatoes?
Certainly, yes! The mashed potato is possible to reheat after taking out from the fridge or freezer. Remember, if you have the mashed potatoes in the freezer, bring it out before a couple of cooking hours. This process will hold the flavor of the mashed potatoes even after reheating.
Should I peel potatoes before boiling?
If you want to hold some nutrition in the potato, peel it before boiling. Otherwise, you better not peel it. That’s because the skin of the potato doesn’t let it absorb too much water while boiling. You can easily peel the potatoes after boiling in case you don't like to eat potato skin.
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The sum up!
If you don’t want nutrition from your food, boiling is one of your greatest methods. It doesn’t give the food too much nutrition when it is done. Plus, it is the easiest method of cooking food that requires less time.
So, how long does it take to boil potatoes? If you’re going to boil the potatoes, you must know the exact time it consumes to be done. Indeed, you won’t overcook or get raw potato after ensuring the accurate boiling time of potatoes.
