My Homemade Jo Jo Potatoes are crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside and they’re sure to become your new favorite side dish or game day snack! They can be baked or pan-fried.
Who’s obsessed with Jo Jo potatoes? What potatoes? Don’t feel bad if you don’t know what I’m talking about here! Just know that if you love potato wedges and fries, these babies are something that you’ve missed out on your whole life! Jo jo Potatoes – these are seriously GOOD. Tender on the inside, crispy on the outside, with a glorious coating of golden browned breading, baked or pan-fried to absolute potato perfection!
What are Jo JO Potatoes?
Jo Jo Potatoes are potatoes wedges that are (sometimes) preboiled, then coated in seasoned flour and a batter and fried to crispy, golden-brown perfection. The outsides are nice and crisp, the insides are fluffy like a perfectly baked potato.
These upgraded potato wedges make a wonderful side dish, TV snack, or a shared appetizer, and are typically served with lots of different sauces and condiments like plain or seasoned sour cream, ketchup, or barbecue sauce! Also so good with Ranch Dressing or any vegan Ranch Dip. I’ll list my favorite dips for this vegan version in a second.
You might find these special potato wedges as a gas station snack but they can also be part of any diner breadbasket of the midwest, upper midwest, and Pacific Northwest.
What is the difference between JoJo and potato wedges?
A true Jojo potato is a potato cut into eight segments, breaded with flour and batter – like fried chicken, and cooked in a pressure fryer. Well, I don’t have a pressure fryer and I bet you don’t either but that’s ok! You can either bake these in the oven or pan-fry them! Also, a true jo jo is served with ranch. In the tips section, I list my favorite vegan dips for these.
MORE FRIES AND SNACKS FROM THE BLOG
- firecracker Tofu wings
- Baked Sweet Potato Fries with vegan Chipotle Ranch
- Baked Garlic Fries with Garlic Tahini Sauce.
- Nashville Cauliflower
- Spicy Pepper Crisp Cauliflower bites with celery ranch
- Mango Sriracha Cauliflower Bites
Jo Jo Potatoes (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 2 Russet Potatoes
For the batter
- 1/3 cup of flour , use rice flour for Glutenfree
- 1 tablespoon rice flour or fine cornmeal
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 tsp of garlic powder
- ½ tsp of onion powder
- ½ tsp of black pepper
- ¼ tsp celery seed
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ½ cup Non-Dairy Milk
- 2 tsp oil Plus more for baking or pan frying
- 2 tsp hot sauce
Instructions
- Boil the russet potatoes: slice the russet potatoes into wedges and add to a large saucepan filled with cold water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and cook for 2-4 minutes or until a fork just about starts to get easily into the potato slices, not overcooked. Immediately strain. Wash with some cold water, and set aside.
- In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients, the flours, salt, spices and mix well. Add the potatoes to this bowl to coat in the flour mixture then remove the excess flour from the potatoes by tapping the potatoes and then place them on a plate.
- Make the batter by adding the oil, hot sauce, and 1/4 cup of Non-Dairy milk to the remaining flour mix, mix in. then add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture is a smooth batter, you don't want the batter to be too thick but also not too thin so that it doesn't stick to the potatoes. You might or might not need more milk depending on how much flour stuck to the potatoes and was left
- Take your flour coated potatoes and dip in the batter. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet or a greased baking dish if you're planning to bake them.
To bake:
- Bake at 425 degrees F (215 c) for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and crisp on the outside.You can brush some oil after a 15-minute mark to make them crispier. Lighter colored potatoes in post pics are baked
To Pan Fry:
- Heat about two tablespoons of oil in a cast-iron skillet or any thick bottom skillet. Once hot add your battered potatoes and cook until golden brown on all sides.
- Serve with ranch, or ketchup, or hot sauce.
Notes
- For slicing, I usually slice them about an inch thick but you can make thinner slices or thicker slices.
- You can adjust the flavor to preference, and add more salt and spices if you like to the batter for additional flavor.
Nutrition
Ingredients:
- potatoes: we are using baking or Russet potatoes, they have a lot of starch in them
- For the batter, we use a mix of all-purpose flour and rice flour or cornmeal
- the spice mix is a blend of salt and Southern condiments like paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, celery seeds and cayenne.
- baking powder for that crispy coating
- Non-Dairy Milk for thinning out the batter
- oil – anything that has a high smoking point
- hot sauce – your favorite kind. Frank’s works great and isn’t too spicy
Tips:
- For slicing, I usually slice them about an inch thick but you can make thinner slices or thicker slices.
- You can adjust the flavor to preference, and add more salt and spices if you like to the batter for additional flavor.
- Serve these with vegan ranch, or my cilantro lime dip. Another great dip for these would be my vegan chipotle ranch or my garlic tahini dip.
How to make Jo Jo Potatoes
Boil the russet potatoes, slice the russet potatoes and add to a large saucepan filled with water, bring to a boil and cook for 2 to 4 minutes or until a fork just about starts to get into the potato slices, not overcooked. Immediately strain. Wash with some cold water, and set aside.
In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients, the flours, salt, spices and mix well. Add the potatoes to this bowl to coat in the flour mixture then remove the excess flour from the potatoes by tapping the potatoes and then place them on a different plate.
Make the batter by adding the oil, hot sauce, and 1/4 cup of Non-Dairy milk, then add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture is a smooth batter, you don’t want the batter to be too thick but also not too thin so that it doesn’t stick to the potatoes.
Take your flour-coated potatoes and dip them in the batter. Place on a parchment line baking sheet or a greased baking dish if you’re planning to bake them.
To bake Jo Jo Potatoes:
Bake at 425 degrees F (215 c) for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and crisp on the outside.You can brush some oil after a 15-minute mark to make them crispier
To Pan Fry Jo Jo Potatoes:
Heat about two tablespoons of oil in a cast-iron skillet or any thick bottom skillet. Once hot add your battered potatoes and cook until golden brown on all sides.
Serve with or ketchup, or hot sauce.
Fabulous! Just what I was hoping for to round out a dinner of zucchini pancakes! You nailed it, Richa! I remember these potatoes from my youth. Sadly, usually fried in the same fat as chicken.
As I was making these, I thought it was way too much effort for a handful of potatoes. Couldn’t possibly be worth it, right?
Wrong.
These things are amazing. I’ve never heard of a Jo Jo Potato before and that’s a crying shame. 10/10 will make again and again and again.
Thanks for another great recipe!
Love JoJo potatoes I worked at factory that made pressure cookers for chicken sold to kfc church’s etc they would do testing and make chicken & JoJos with packaged Flavor Crisp batter. Everyone would come running for the food.
good story!!
I could eat Jo Jo’s 7 days a week. The best Jo Jo’s I ever had use to be sold at the Deli department in a Pathmark located in Livingston, New Jersey. Yummy!
Do you think air frying would work?
Yes
Amazing potatoes with a little crunch.
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Yumm
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I’d like to make these but first I have a question about the instructions on how to prepare the potatoes.
You say, “Boil the russet potatoes, slice the russet potatoes into wedges and add to a large saucepan filled with cold water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and cook for 2-4 minutes or until a fork just about starts to get easily into the potato slices, not overcooked. ”
These first two sentences tells us to boil the potatoes twice. Is that correct? I’m confused.
No, it’s boil the potatoes : title for how to boil. I’ll update it.
Thank you for the speedy reply, Richa. I thought as much but I just wanted to make sure I did things correctly. Guess what I’m fixing for supper tomorrow night!
THis turned out amazing!! I was a little confused about the directions but then decided that you wanted the leftover flour mixture mixed in with the milk mixture. Not sure if I did it right but they still came out amazing. i also used yukon potatoes because that is all that I had.
Awesome! Yes batter of the remaining flour mixture
I haven’t even made these yet, but the recipe is so good, my mouth is watering. On a rainy day like today these will be gone in a heartbeat. Thankyou, they look fabulous. Dinner tonight.
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Thank you Richa. I love Jo-Jo’s! I never knew how they were made, now I know! I’ll have to buy some Russets, and will definitely try these!
Yay