These smoky roasted fingerling potatoes are hands down one of my favorite potato recipes! They’re crispy, creamy in the middle, and perfectly golden brown.
I serve these roasted fingerling potatoes as an appetizer and as a side. They are super flavorful, and I love the potato dipping sauce. It’s inspired by the sauce we use when making potato salad (trust me, it’s incredible!).
I cannot wait for you to try these crispy fingerling potatoes! For more potato recipes, see our basic roasted potatoes, these roasted sweet potatoes, and our crispy smashed potatoes with bacon.
Key Ingredients
- Fingerling Potatoes: I love these thin-skinned potatoes. They taste rich, nutty, and buttery, and since they are a bit more starchy than other potatoes, they hold up really well when roasted. There are several varieties of fingerling potatoes, including Russian Banana, French, La Ratte, and Purple Peruvian. Colors can range from yellow to intense purple/blue. Use any variety or combination in our recipe.
- Garlic: Since I’m already roasting the potatoes, I love roasting a few garlic cloves alongside them. Then, I stir the roasted garlic into our dipping sauce.
- Smoked Paprika and Apple Cider Vinegar: To make the most flavorful potatoes, I roast them with salt, pepper, and oil. Then, right as they come out of the oven, I toss them with smoked paprika and apple cider vinegar. Try it. It’s a game-changer!
- Dipping Sauce: Roasted fingerling potatoes are already delicious, but I love serving them with a dipping sauce (their long shape makes them perfect for serving as an appetizer). Homemade garlic aioli is a good option, or use my potato salad inspired dipping sauce (it’s so good). I make it with sour cream, mayo, apple cider vinegar, dill pickles, dill, and a hard-boiled egg.
How to Make Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
You can roast fingerling potatoes whole, but I love extra crispy roasted potatoes, so I cut them in half lengthwise. This allows me to get the cut side of the potatoes crisp and golden brown.
I toss my potatoes with oil, salt, and pepper and then place them, cut side down, onto a baking sheet or into a wide oven-safe skillet. In our photos, we’ve used our 12-inch cast iron pan for roasting the potatoes. Our cast-iron pan is a workhorse in our kitchen, but you can always use a baking sheet for these potatoes if that’s all you have.
You’ll roast the potatoes until tender and golden brown. I hold back on tossing the potatoes during roasting since I love getting that golden brown crust on the cut side of each potato.
Then, toss the roasted potatoes with vinegar and smoked paprika as they come out of the oven. When the potatoes are still hot from the oven, they absorb flavor like crazy. The vinegar and paprika transform pretty good potatoes into outrageously tasty potatoes. Trust me!
The potatoes are delicious served as-is, but when feeling feisty, I make our delicious potato salad dipping sauce. We’ve had our potato salad recipe on Inspired Taste for a long time. We never considered using the dressing as a dipping sauce until we were in Seattle for Happy Hour and ordered an appetizer of fingerling potatoes.
When they came out, they were next to a creamy dipping sauce resembling the sauce we use to make potato salad. It was mayo-based with herbs, pickles, and eggs. I know it sounds simple, but holy moly, it was genius (and delicious). And that’s how this potato dipping sauce was born!
Perfect Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
- PREP
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- TOTAL
These roasted fingerling potatoes taste smoky, creamy, and are perfectly golden brown. We love serving them with our ridiculously tasty potato salad inspired dipping sauce (shared below). Think of these fingerlings as the perfect appetizer for serving friends or as a flavorful side dish to meats, fish or other vegetables. To roast the potatoes, use the largest oven-safe skillet or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or foil.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
For the Potatoes1 ½ pounds (680g) fingerling potatoes, scrubbed, halved lengthwise
2 to 3 small unpeeled garlic cloves, optional
2 tablespoons avocado oil or vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika, or more to taste
Flaky sea salt for serving
Potato Dipping Sauce1/4 cup (56g) mayonnaise, see homemade mayonnaise
1/4 (56g) cup sour cream
1 teaspoon Dijon or yellow mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 medium dill pickle, see homemade dill pickles
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 large hard-boiled egg, chopped small, optional
Directions
1Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). If using a cast iron pan, place it in the oven to warm while you prepare the potatoes. If using a baking sheet, line it with parchment paper or aluminum foil and slide it into the oven to warm up.
2In a large bowl, toss the halved potatoes and unpeeled garlic cloves (optional) with the oil, salt, and pepper.
3When the oven is hot, and the potatoes are well tossed, carefully add them to the cast iron pan, then use kitchen tongs to arrange them into one layer with all cut sides facing down. If you run out of space, it’s okay if a few potatoes pile up the sides or on top of each other.
4Roast the potatoes for 15 minutes, and then check for browning. If the potatoes have not yet turned a golden brown on the bottom, place them back into the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes. When the potatoes are mostly golden brown on the cut side, stir them around the pan, moving any potatoes that have no color on them into the middle of the pan (where it is hottest), and then continue to roast until the potatoes are fork tender and golden brown (watch our video for reference).
5While the potatoes roast, make the dipping sauce. In a medium bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, 1 tablespoon vinegar, minced pickles, dill, egg, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of pepper. Taste and adjust with more vinegar, salt, and/or pepper. For an extra smoky kick, stir in a pinch of smoked paprika.
6If you roasted garlic cloves alongside the potatoes, when the potatoes are finished, and the garlic cloves are cool enough to handle, squeeze the soft roasted garlic out of the peel and mince with a knife. Stir the minced roasted garlic into the sauce.
7To finish the potatoes, when roasted and while still hot in the oven, toss them with the vinegar and smoked paprika. Taste, then adjust with additional vinegar and paprika. Finish with a little flaky salt sprinkled on top.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Potato substitutes: You can substitute fingerling potatoes with small waxy potatoes like baby potatoes (creamers/New Potatoes), Red Bliss potatoes, or an all-purpose potato like Yukon Gold.
- Garlic: After roasting the whole cloves, we stir the soft roasted garlic into the dipping sauce. This is optional but delicious!
- Smoked paprika: It adds a deep, smoky aroma and flavor. Unless noted on the packaging, it isn’t typically hot (spicy). It’s usually mild and a bit sweet.
- Hard boiled egg: It is optional, but I love it in the dipping sauce. See how to make hard boiled eggs on the stove or our Instant Pot hard boiled eggs.
- Storing the sauce: You can make the sauce up to 3 days in advance. Store it in an airtight container in the fridge.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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I have made these several times now and they are oh! so good! I really enjoy the, with the sauce, but I love them without it too, just fresh from the oven and tossed with the vinegar and smoked paprika. Thank you, both of you, for such a wonderful find!!
I just made this and loved it!! The minute I put the smoked paprika on you could smell the spice starting to bloom from the heat of the potatoes. And the dipping sauce was a great complement.
This is also my first time leaving a comment on a recipe. The sauce with those potatoes was EPIC. Also loved the addition of the vinegar and smoked paprika on the potatoes. We have a bit of sauce left over today so plant to make some shrimp for lunch and use the sauce with those. Thank you for sharing. IT was SO delicious!
My first time reviewing any recipe, but I had to because this was so delicious! My whole family loved the potatoes and the dipping sauce. (We’ll except my daughter they were gone before she got home. No worries I’m already making them again the next day). We had quite a few fingerling potatoes to use up, so I looked up a recipe to use. I’m glad I found this one!
I enjoyed this recipe, especially the dip (dipped my salmon in it too)! Thank you all for this easy all-ingredients-on-hand recipe! You two never disappoint ?!
This was the perfect combination of sophisticated roasted fingerling potatoes deconstructed with the most perfect potato salad dipping sauce of all time. The perfect marriage of haute cuisine with a Midwestern flavor profile. It was absolutely ideal…the best of both worlds.
So easy and oh so very tasty!!! I didn’t have all the ingredients for the dip so I made just the potatoes. Thank you for sharing your delicious recipe!
So happy l found you guys. Can’t wait to try out some of these wonderful recipes.
Absolutely wonderful!<3 Easy and enjoyed by all! Who doesn't love potatoes?! Great recipe, thank you! P.S. I love the taste of onions with potatoes. Any thoughts of roasting a few onions with the potatoes? Not sure if it would combine well.
So glad you loved the recipe. Roasted onions with the potatoes is a great idea!
Very yummy dip sauce. Love your recipes!