Brunede Kartofler Danish Caramelized Potatoes

Brunede Kartofler or Caramelized Browned Potatoes is a delicious Danish side dish that my husband introduced me to. He lived in Denmark for a couple of years and fell in love with the food. We have this every year with our Traditional Danish Christmas dinner and I love having different Christmas celebrations! This brunede kartofler also goes really well with pan-roasted pork chops, pork tenderloin, roast duck, juicy tenderloin, and ham, and is a staple at most dinner tables in Denmark, especially on special occasions. They end up tasting kind of like your favorite sweet potato recipes, with a sweet caramelized coating on every potato.

Ingredients in Brunede Kartofler

You won’t believe how just a few simple ingredients come together to make such a tasty side dish for so many Danish meals. Home chefs like you and me can do this easily and can really wow our guests! The caramelized sauce is a staple for Danes in much of their cooking. Here’s how to create this dish in your own kitchen:

Small new potatoes – you can find these in a can with canned veggies. You’ll want about two cans of these bite sized potatoes for this recipe. Sugar – regular white cane sugar is perfect for this recipe Butter – some like to use margarine. I like use the best quality butter for this recipe. The mixture of butter It really helps create that sugary caramel sauce that is the perfect combination of sugary potatoes.

Learn Some Danish Words While Cooking

Danish chefs have a list of common words they use and you can learn some of those words while you cook this dish! Learn some Danish words while you learn some culinary tips that you may have not known before.

Brune kartofler- caramelized brown potatoes Lækker- delicious Opskrift- recipe Karamel- caramel Smag- taste God tid- good time Kartoflerne- the potatoes Glaedelig jul- Merry Christmas Julemiddagen- Christmas dinner Sukker- sugar Smør- butter Kog- boil Pande- pan Varme- heat Gryde- pot Vandet- the water

Brunede Kartofler the Old Fashioned Way

If you have a bag of baby new potatoes you can make this crowd-pleasing dish the old fashioned way by boiling the potatoes and peeling them yourself. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil, then reduce to medium heat. Boil potatoes for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes, until the potatoes are cooked until almost tender (just barely under done). Place the potatoes in ice cold water. You should be able to peel the potatoes easily by scraping them with a knife. Pat the potatoes dry and place in an airtight container and chill in the fridge for at least an hour and up to overnight. Remove from the fridge and start with step 2 of the recipe below.

Tips For Making Danish Caramelized Potatoes

Depending on the price of potatoes, it’s totally okay to use canned “new potatoes”. It is SO much easier than peeling all the little regular potatoes and then boiling them for just the right amount of time. Trust me, we have tried it all the ways. Getting the canned, pre boiled smaller potatoes are so worth it. Leave the sugar alone. When cooking the sugar, you will want to let it caramelize without stirring it. If you mess with it too much, it will get clumpy. Follow the recipe for the perfect buttery mixture of caramelized sugar that makes the most tasty potatoes. The recipe below is the authentic way of making the caramel for really good caramelized potatoes. However, if you read the notes below the recipe, you will find we have found an easier way to make these satisfying morsels that tastes the same with the same preferred level of caramelization. Either method works great, it’s totally up to you how you want to prepare it!

Variation Suggestions

While these ideas stray from the traditional Brunede recipe, you can switch things up to accommodate different dietary needs and tastes:

Add salt and pepper for additional flavor. Toss the potatoes in a bowl with a little olive oil, garlic and salt for a more savory flavor. Add a sprinkle of parsley on top for garnish. Use red potatoes, russet potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, any type of potato chunk, as long as they’re all the same size. Season with fresh herbs, thyme, basil, rosemary or oregano. Serve leftovers alongside eggs for a delicious breakfast.

Other Danish Recipes

We have a tradition of cooking a Danish dinner the night before Christmas Eve. It is a dinner that we look forward to every Holiday season because all the food is a special treat and is perfect to serve a group of hungry Danes. This traditional side dish is always on the menu! Some of our other favorite Danish dishes we love to make are:

Thick and Beefy Danish Goulash Ris a La Mande (Danish Rice Pudding) Aebleskiver This Rødkål (Danish Red Cabbage) Frikadeller (Savory Danish Meatballs)