Basic Breakfast Potatoes

Basic Breakfast Potatoes is a recipe appearing in The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.

Official description
This is one of those basic, unadorned, cowboy-friendly staples of my cooking repertoire that's so utterly versatile, I just can't help but love it. Called Breakfast Potatoes by some, Skillet Potatoes by others, they can be enjoyed in their simplest form or dressed up in any number of ways to suit whatever you're doing. And they're perfect for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - equally at home besides bacon and eggs or a juicy, grilled rib-eye steak. And they're totally customizable in terms of seasoning and adornments: add in some garlic if you're feeling adventurous, or onions and peppers, or even some chopped jalapenos if you're really looking for trouble. These basic potatoes open up a whole world of possibilities. I just love it when potatoes do that.

One thing I love to do is make up a whole slew of breakfast burritos, adding in these potatoes with the eggs and sausage and cheese and salsa. Gives 'em a real stick-to-your-ribs quality. And sometimes I'll spoon a nice helping of potatoes into small, individual iron skillets, then top them with a couple of fried eggs - watch a cowboy dig into that sometime. Still other times, I just keep 'em simple, adding in only chopped onion and serving them with bacon, burgers, or steak. And then I sit back and watch them disappear. It usually doesn't take long.

Recipe

 * 4 to 5 red or other potatoes
 * 1 large onion, cut into large, rough dice
 * Vegetable oil for frying
 * Bacon fat (optional)
 * Salt
 * Black pepper

Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake in a 375*F oven for 45 minutes, or until fork-tender.

Place the hot potatoes on a cutting board and dice them into 1-inch-ish pieces. Inch-ish. Say that five times fast. Just for kicks. My goal in life is to tack 'ish' onto as many words as possible. Possible-ish.

Heat a skillet over medium-low to medium heat. Next, put a little vegetable oil in the pan. A tablespoon is good.

Scrape the pan you used to make bacon earlier this morning. You all made bacon this morning... right?

Then, because I usually straddle the fence between ridiculousness and utter foolishness, I add a tablespoon of bacon fat to the skillet. 'Cause it tastes goooooood, that's why.

Go ahead and make peace with yourself, then add the onion.

Saute until it starts to turn brown.

Next, throw in the cooked, diced potatoes. Now, sometimes I'll remove the onions first and wait to add them back in when the potatoes are brown. But I happen to like the onions to get all dark and burny, so I'm going to leave them in.

Salt and pepper the potatoes, then stir them around, then slightly press/pack them in the skillet. Cook without stirring for several minutes. You want to make sure the pan is hot enough to crisp the potatoes, but not hot enough to char the poor dears.

After several minutes, use a spatula to flip the potatoes over to the other side.

Be sure to thoroughly salt and pepper the potatoes. Because no matter how you slice it, potatoes must have seasoning. Lots and lots of seasoning.