Butter Steamed Baby Potatoes are super easy to make in one skillet on the stovetop. Enjoy buttery, melt-in-your-mouth potatoes in 35 minutes!
This is the perfect potato recipe when you want something different from Mashed Potatoes or Roasted Potatoes. It’s an easy Side Dish of tender potatoes with a delicious butter flavor. Give this amazing side a try tonight or on your next Easter gathering!
Sabrina’s Butter Steamed Baby Potatoes
When you hear steamed food, you might immediately picture leafy green veggies or some healthy, not necessarily overly flavorful, diet recipe. Don’t worry, though, there is nothing bland about these amazing potatoes steamed in butter! Each pillowy, buttery bite of Steamed Potatoes will have you wondering why you’ve never cooked your potatoes like this before.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter
- 2 pounds baby Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1-inch sized)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons parsley , chopped
Instructions
- To a large, heavy-bottomed skillet add the butter on medium-low heat.
- Add the potatoes, lower the heat to low, and shake to coat the potatoes.
- Cover with a lid and cook for 30 minutes, shaking the pan every 5 minutes.
- Garnish with parsley to serve.
Nutrition
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Table of Contents
About this Recipe
Steaming potatoes is an easy cooking process that’s actually much faster than boiling or baking potatoes. Plus, they turn out incredibly tender and delicious with this cooking method. Best of all, steaming them with melted butter in the pan makes the finished potatoes extra rich and flavorful.
Chef’s Note
While these buttery potatoes taste decadent and rich, they are actually a fairly light potato dish compared to creamy, heavier dishes like Potatoes Au Gratin. It’s a potato recipe that leaves you perfectly satisfied!
Ingredients
- Baby Potatoes: For this recipe, you need 2 pounds of gold baby potatoes. If you want to make a bigger batch, you can add more potatoes. You just have to make sure there’s enough room in the pan, and you use enough butter for them to all be coated in melted butter as they cook.
- Butter: The cooking butter not only acts like oil to cook the potatoes in, but it also gives them a rich, buttery flavor and helps the seasonings stick to the potatoes.
- Seasonings: For flavoring, all you need is salt, pepper, and fresh parsley. Make sure you use kosher salt, and not just table salt. Kosher salt is in larger salt flakes and works better for cooking.
Kitchen Tools
- Skillet: This recipe needs a large enough skillet to be able to shake the potatoes to keep tossing them in butter easily. If it is too small, they won’t really move, so you’ll have to remove the lid to stir them, and you’ll lose all the steam.
- Lid: You definitely need a lid for your skillet that fits snugly to trap all the steam to make these potatoes. If you don’t have a lid, you won’t be able to create steam, and a poorly fitting one might come off when you are shaking the potatoes and let the steam out.
Cooking Tips & Tricks
- Keep the Skillet Covered: Much like when you make rice, you do not want to remove the lid until the cooking time is up. If you remove the lid too soon, the steam will escape, and the potatoes could burn on the outside but not cook through because there isn’t enough liquid to make new steam.
- Make Sure to Shake Occasionally: It’s important to keep the potatoes coated in butter so it steams around them and you don’t want all the butter burning off on the bottom of the pan. So make sure to shake the pan to re-coat the potatoes about every 5 minutes or so.
How to Store
- Serve: After cooking, don’t leave your Butter Baby Potatoes recipe at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Cool the potatoes, then store in an airtight container. They’ll stay good in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Reheat: It’s best to reheat your baby potatoes in the oven so they don’t dry out. Spread the potatoes on a baking sheet and cover with foil, then bake for about 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven.
- Freeze: If you want to store them longer, let the potatoes cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Keep them in the freezer for up to 6 months. You can thaw them in the fridge before reheating or just pop them in the oven and heat from frozen.
Ideas to Serve
- Garlic Butter Sauce: To make a garlic butter sauce, add ⅓ cup butter and 1 clove minced garlic to a small saucepan. Cook for 1-2 minutes over low heat. Then add ¼ tablespoon dried basil and 2 teaspoons dried oregano to the browned butter sauce. You can use the sauce to dip the potatoes in and drizzle it over your main dish.
- Tarragon Sauce: To make this buttery herb sauce, add 3 tablespoons lemon juice, ½ cup white wine, and half the shallot to a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil. Then take it off heat, and stir in 1 tablespoon cream. Strain the solids out of the sauce. Then add 1 tablespoon of butter, and melt over low heat. Stir in 3 teaspoons chopped tarragon, and serve fresh tarragon sauce over the buttery potatoes and chicken.
Frequent Questions
It should only take about 25-30 minutes for your baby potatoes to steam all the way through and be tender. If after 30 minutes your potatoes aren’t tender, add some water to the pan to add extra steam then cover and cook another 5 minutes or so.
You can absolutely make this recipe with regular potatoes, you’ll just want to cut them into small 1-inch pieces. It’s best to use Yukon potatoes or russet potatoes because they will absorb more of the butter and get more tender than waxy red potatoes.
Yes, you can steam them for too long and they will begin to break down and crumble. You want to make sure your potatoes are even in size so you don’t overcook small ones waiting for the larger ones to cook through.
Variations
- Fresh Herbs: To experiment with the flavors, try using a different blend of herbs like fresh sage, fresh dill, rosemary, or oregano.
- Garlicky Potatoes: For some bold garlic flavor, you can either add minced garlic cloves to cook with the potatoes, or you can sprinkle garlic powder over the buttered potatoes.
- Vegan: You can easily make this a Vegan potato dish by swapping the butter with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Since the potatoes are cooked at a low heat, you don’t have to worry about the smoke point and you can use a good quality extra virgin olive oil with lots of flavor!
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