Irish Potato Pancakes Recipe: Simple, Delicious, An Authentic Irish Expression!

Most Irish potato pancakes recipes include a combination of mashed potatoes and raw potatoes.  Typically made using leftovers from the previous day, this recipe hearkens back to the traditionally frugal Irish lifestyle.

Irish Expressions - Irish Potato Pancakes

Potato pancakes and their close cousin Irish Boxty are also a terrific meal for the days following a holiday meal, where there’s almost always a bit too much on the table!

Delicious Irish pancakes make a terrific light evening meal (evening tea). 

Or you can wrap them around a slice of meat for more substantial dinner or serve with jam or sugar for breakfast or a snack.

You can make one large pancake, with indentations for cutting in quarters, or make individual pancakes. They all taste delicious no matter how you serve them!

Irish Potato Pancakes Recipe:  Ingredients

  • 1 cups of leftover mashed potatoes
  • 1 cups of grated raw potatoes
  • 1 cups of flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 slightly beaten eggs
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ¼ C milk Butter or bacon grease for frying Bacon (optional)
  • Scallions (optional)
  • Pepper (optional)
  • Sugar (optional)

Irish Potato Pancakes Recipe:  Preparation

  1. If you’re using bacon grease for frying, fry three to four thick pieces of bacon in the skillet until bacon is crisp.
  2. Drain the bacon on a paper plate covered with a paper towel, leaving the grease in the skillet to fry the pancakes.
  3. Also, turn the oven on low, approximately 100 to 200 degrees.
  4. Lay a clean cotton towel on the counter and grate the approximately two potatoes onto the towel. Gather the sides of the towel to create a cloth ball around the grated potato and squeeze out the excess liquid over the sink.
  5. Mix the raw potatoes with the mashed ones. Add any optional extras such as bacon or scallions before mixing.
  6. Mix the milk and egg together. Mix it with the potatoes.
  7. Combine the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda and salt. If you’re using pepper, add it to the dry mixture. Whisk enough of the dry powder into the mashed potato mixture to make it a batter.
  8. Heat the skillet until a drop of water dances and sputters when you put it into the hot skillet.
  9. Pour approximately a fourth cup of batter into the pan for each pancake. Cook for about 4 minutes or until you brown the bottom and flip, cooking an additional four to five minutes on the other side.
  10. Put the finished pancakes in the oven to keep warm until you’re ready to serve.

A Few More Tips

You can add enough of the flour mixture to the batter to create dough, which you’ll roll out and cut into circles.

You can invert a glass onto the dough, to get perfect circles. These take slightly longer to cook than the batter pancakes do.

You can also cook the pancakes in bacon grease; it’s particularly good for an evening meal. Add the crumbled bacon used to create the grease and chopped scallions or onions.

For breakfast or tea, use butter and sprinkle with sugar, jam or syrup.

Craving an Irish Meal?

Sharing Irish food is one of our favorite ways to enjoy an Irish experience, wherever in the world we happen to be!  The flavors of an Irish meal, and the stories that come along with many Irish recipes, gives us a sense of connection with the Emerald Isle.

To help feed your Irish side, we have over the years created many downloadable, share-able Irish games, puzzles, recipes, songbooks, quizzes, and much, much more.

Want them right now?  Keep reading to learn about "Your Irish Expressions Playbook."

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