These creamy and crunchy bubble potato pillows are the next best thing to French fries.
Raise your hand if you don’t love potatoes.
Hardly anybody?😜
I love how you can always make regular potatoes into something cool and scrumptious. From fries and nuggets to taters, this humble vegetable is game for makeovers.
After all, millions of foodies (88 millions and counting) have viewed my bubble potato pillows Tiktok video. Hundreds of people have gone ahead and recreated it during the holidays and shared their videos and photos with me.
Simply boil 2 big potatoes, peel, mash and grate them. You make the crispy nuggets by adding some flour and spices.
Shape and fry them and all that is left for you is to enjoy them with your favorite dip or good old ketchup.
What is bubble potato pillow actually?
I wanted a new and fun way of using leftovers and keeping them soft, creamy and crispy.
Because it’s so delicious, cute and easy to make, this recipe has become popular on TikTok. In fact, Good Food magazine interviewed me and included this dish as one of the five most trending Christmas food on Tiktok.
And some famous food bloggers (Such as Emmymade, Tasty…)have tried or recreated this recipe with their own twists.
Is My Bubble Potato Pillows Like Fried Gnocchi?
If you see gnocchi everywhere, all I can say is stop going to that cozy Italian diner every weekend!
Tater tots is made with its raw or half-baked gratings. I cook the potato by boiling it, dip it ice water, and mash and grate it in my recipe.
What’s the secret behind the crispy nuggets?
This recipe uses sticky rice flour or glutinous rice flour for binding everything together. If you skip the glutinous rice flour, there is a chance for your potato pillows to fell apart in the oil. The cornstarch and all purpose flour give structure to the grated potato.
If your pillows are soft, then it’s most likely your second frying temperature isn’t high enough to create a crispy coat for the potatoes.
Can I add some fillings?
The recipe gets its heat kick from the chili powder and black pepper. I think this is enough for Mr He and ME, and perhaps for most of us.
Potatoes taste and smell good by themselves.
But you can always eat them with your favorite dipping sauce, let’s say, ketchup? 😜
Since so many of you suggested me to add cheese to my potato pillows, I decided to give it a try!
50% of my potato pillows with the cheese filling leaked or exploded in oil, which could be quite dangerous🤕.
Therefore I personally don’t recommend adding any fillings to these little pillows. Unless you use an air fryer instead of deep frying them.
Can I Air Fry my Bubble Potato Pillows?
Some of you may want a healthier option to deep fried.
How about oil-free, air fried cheesy bubble potato pillows?
You can air fry these potato nuggets at 350F for about 18 minutes
And For those who complained that this recipe looked too oily, there’s no need to spray oil on potatoes if you make them with an air fryer.
Now let’s start cooking my MOST POPULAR dish – bubble potato pillows~~
Ingredients
- 2 Large Potatoes about 300g
- 2 tbsp Glutinous Rice Flour (all purpose flour also works)
- 1 tbsp Cornstarch/Potato Starch
- 1/3 tsp Salt
- 1/3 tsp Pepper
- 4 cup Cooking Oil (Vegetable oil, corn oil, or canola oil)
- 1 tsp Chili Powder or some ketchup (optional)
Instructions
1. Wash the potatoes. Make a shallow cut around the waist of each potato. With this step we can easily peel off the potato skin after.
2. Boil the potatoes for at least 30 minutes until the potatoes turn soft.
3. Transfer the potatoes into iced water. Peel off the potato skins easily with your hands! (It’s similar to the egg peeling trick. We soak boiled eggs in iced water so that we can peel off the eggshells much easier.)
4. Mash the potatoes with a garlic press, a fork, or a potato ricer.
5. Mix mashed potato with glutinous rice flour, cornstarch/potato starch, salt & black pepper. Knead the mashed potatoes into a dough.
6. Separate the dough into two portions. Roll each dough into a log and cut into pillow like shape. Use a fork to make a gnocchi-like pattern.
7. Heat up 4 cups of cooking oil in a pot over medium heat for 5 minutes; deep fry the potato pillows for 5 minutes until they turn light golden; take them out of the pot.
8. Heat up the cooking oil over high heat for 3 minutes; deep fry the potato pillows for another 30 more seconds until they turn golden brown; take them out of the pot.
9. Serve with chili pepper power, ketchup, BBQ sauce…
Notes:
1. Instead of peeling the potatoes after cooked, you can also peel them with a peeler when they are raw, cut them into small chunks, then steam them over high heat for 20 minutes until soft.
2. You can use whatever you like to mash the potatoes, it doesn’t have to be a garlic press.
3. The double frying technique is necessary when we want a crispy outside and a creamy inside.
My other Potato Recipes you will also like:
Bubble Potato Pillows
Equipment
- 1 Pot For boiling and deep frying
- 1 Fork
Ingredients
- 2 Large Potatoes about 300g
- 2 tbsp Glutinous Rice Flour all purpose flour also works
- 1 tbsp Cornstarch/Potato Starch
- 1/3 tsp Salt
- 1/3 tsp Pepper
- 4 cup Cooking Oil Vegetable oil, corn oil, or canola oil
- 1 tsp Chili Powder Optional
- Some Ketchup Optional
Instructions
- Wash the potatoes. Make a shallow cut around the waist of each potato. With this step we can easily peel off the potato skin after.
- Boil the potatoes for at least 30 minutes until the potatoes turn soft.
- Transfer the potatoes into iced water. Peel off the potato skins easily with your hands! (It's similar to the egg peeling trick. We soak boiled eggs in iced water so that we can peel off the eggshells much easier.)
- Mash the potatoes with a garlic press, a fork, or a potato ricer.
- Mix mashed potato with glutinous rice flour, cornstarch/potato starch, salt & black pepper. Knead the mashed potatoes into a dough.
- Separate the dough into two portions. Roll each dough into a log and cut into pillow like shape. Use a fork to make a gnocchi-like pattern.
- Heat up 4 cups of cooking oil in a pot over medium heat for 5 minutes; deep fry the potato pillows for 5 minutes until they turn light golden; take them out of the pot.
- Heat up the cooking oil over high heat for 3 minutes; deep fry the potato pillows for another 30 more seconds until they turn golden brown; take them out of the pot.
- Serve with chili pepper power, ketchup, BBQ sauce…
Video
Notes
- Instead of peeling the potatoes after cooked, you can also peel them with a peeler when they are raw, cut them into small chunks, then steam them over high heat for 20 minutes until soft.
- You can use whatever you like to mash the potatoes, it doesn’t have to be a garlic press.
- The double frying technique is necessary when we want a crispy outside and a creamy inside.
wondering if I can fry this in the air fryer…
Hi, yes you can! I have a video showing you how to make it in the air fryer. https://www.tiktok.com/@msshiandmrhe/video/7047951364156181806?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id7048791281477207557
Why did mine became soft and mushy? Any tips for a crispy outcome? Thanks
You can add 1/2 tsp of baking powder to the dough for an extra crispy texture. And make sure you double fry them over a high oil temperature.
Hopefully it’s helpful!
Can we keep the dough in fridge for later use?
Yes sure!
Can I use a regular flour?
Ms shi you’re recipe is amazing!! Me and my family really loved it !! I didn’t have cornstarch so instead I added another tbsp of rice powder and 1/2 tsp baking powder. The dough became really tough and I was worried that it might not work. But in the end it came out really well 😊!!
Omg wow this tasted really good! Thank you for the really amazing and tasty recipe!!
very clear and good article easy to understand. Thank you
Hello there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it is truly informative. I am going to watch out for brussels. I will be grateful if you continue this in future. Many people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
Got your name from Evalyn in the comments of a Pinterest video by Healthfulniss for these as the original video for this recipe, and wanted to thank you, because I tried this recipe based on the video, using AP flour instead of rice (forgot to buy some), and it came out pretty great, so thank you so much for sharing 🥰❤️💯!!! I’m electronically inept so no videos, and I was late with dinner (new Baby Girl makes my schedule so My Sons weren’t up for me trying to take pics), but I made a version of a Nacho Fry Bell Grande with mine, and loved it ❤️🤤!!! Thanks again!!!
I, also, wanted you to know you more have a new follower on here, Pinterest, and TikTok ☺️!!!
Just made this! It looks and tastes so yummy! My mom and dad loved it! I was so nervous while making this because I barely cook but your recipe is so easy, even I could nail it 🙂
[…] delicious pasta dish is ideal for any occasion and for pillow potato dumplings. 1/2 cup Ricotta cheese and 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese can be added to make potato […]
Hello there 🙂 I tried these before and they were always a success thank you for sharing this recipe with us!! I wanna make them again today and was wondering what I can serve alongside with them? Is there anything you’d recommend? Maybe something that’s as easy as this recipe? Thank you ^^
Hi, Bella. Step 9 foe the recipe says “Serve with chili pepper power, ketchup, BBQ sauce…” so based on that you could probably serve these with any kind of dipping sauce you like. To add: Ranch, mustard, maybe an aioli/mayo type dip, etc.
hi i have question, can i bake them?
It won’t be as crispy and tasty but yes, you can cook it for 30 minutes in 180 degrees.
Really good! I used a normal mashing potato method which was till nice!
Nice! I decided to use my deep fryer for the first time for this recipe. I did the first frying at 325, and the second one at 375, and they turned out quite crisp on the outside, and soft on the inside. I used sunflower oil.
I also didn’t bother peeling my potatoes, which might have only worked because I used yellow potatoes. The skins weren’t noticeable at all though.
I skipped the chili because my family doesn’t love spicy stuff, but maybe I’ll add some paprika next time.
Lovely recipe, thank you for sharing!
What type of potatoes do you use?