Turn Your Leftover Mashed Potatoes Into Irish Boxty

I’ve eaten many potato pancakes in my life—from rösti to kartoffelpuffer, latke to gamja-jeon—but had never tried Irish boxty until recently. It’s surprising that boxty isn't something I grew up with, given my mom’s Irish roots reach back hundreds of years.

Now that I’ve tried Irish boxty and seen how simple and versatile they are, they’re a staple for long weekend breakfasts. I’ll never have to wonder what to do with leftover mashed potatoes again.

What Are Boxty?

Boxty are traditional Irish potato pancakes, sometimes called poundy or poundies. There are lots of different ways to make them, resulting in boxty with various shapes and textures, from dumpling-like boiled boxty to baked boxty bread. The most common boxty are flat and griddled in butter, like pancakes.

The main ingredients in boxty are mashed potatoes (most commonly leftover) and grated potatoes with buttermilk, flour, egg, and baking soda to hold them together in pancake form. If you’ve never had one, the best way to describe this Irish potato pancake is a buttermilk pancake that swallowed a hashbrown.

What To Serve With Boxty

Versatile enough to go sweet or savory, boxty are most often served on the side of the Irish version of a full English breakfast with bacon, sausage, fried eggs, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, and white or black pudding. If you don’t want to commit to the full fry-up, serving boxty with a poached egg, smoked salmon, and some sour cream is also highly recommended.

They can also be served similar to a stuffed omelette, wrapped around your favorite cooked meats and vegetables with cheese. If you want to serve them for dinner, pair with a rich beef or lamb stew. Top with butter and jam or honey for something more along the lines of French crêpes or simply sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Delicious Additions

The recipe below is for a blank canvas of a boxty that you can adapt to your own taste. To lean into the savory side and give more flavor to your potato pancakes, add some sliced scallions and/or grated cheddar cheese to the batter. Caramelized onions, minced fresh herbs, crispy bacon, or pepper jack cheese would be great, though untraditional, additions.

Prep the potatoes:

Chop about half of the peeled potatoes roughly and add to a small pot. Add enough cold water just to cover the potatoes, then add the salt. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat and let cook until very tender, about 12 minutes.

In the meantime, carefully use a box grater to grate the remaining potatoes over a clean kitchen towel. Bring together the sides of the towel and squeeze the grated potatoes a few times over the sink to remove any excess liquid. Add the squeezed grated potatoes to a large bowl and set aside.

Make the batter:

Drain the boiled potatoes well in a colander and add to the bowl with the grated potato. Use a fork or potato masher to mash the potatoes together, then add the buttermilk, flour, baking soda, and pepper. Season with salt and additional pepper to taste, then add the egg. Mix well to combine into a thick but spoonable batter.

Preheat the oven to 150°F.

Or as low as your oven will go.

Fry the boxty:

Heat a large non-stick frying pan (preferably a well-seasoned cast iron) over medium heat. Once hot, add about 1/4 tablespoon of butter, then spoon about 1/4 cup of the boxty batter into the frying pan, lightly flattening into a pancake shape. Repeat to fill the pan with evenly spaced apart pancakes; the number you can fry at once depends on the size of your frying pan.

Fry until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes, then flip and fry until golden brown on the other side, 3 to 4 minutes more.

Keep warm and finish frying:

Once the boxty are golden on both sides, transfer to a baking sheet and pop in the preheated oven.

Add another 1/4 tablespoon of butter to the frying pan and repeat until you use up all the boxty batter. Adjust the heat during this process as needed between low and medium to keep the pan hot enough to fry but not so hot that the boxty burn before they’re cooked.

Serve:

Once all your potato pancakes are made, remove from the oven and serve as desired.

Leftover boxty can be stored in an airtight container or wrapped tightly in plastic wrap in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave or in a dry non-stick frying pan over medium heat, flipping occasionally, until hot all the way through.

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