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Easy potato pancakes are perfect for breakfast, lunch, or as an appetizer. They have crispy golden edges and a cheesy center!

Serve these pancakes as an appetizer alongside Bacon Wrapped Smokies, Spinach Puffs, and Queso Blanco.

Potato Pancakes on white plate
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Mashed Potato Pancakes

We love pancakes, but have you ever tried Potato Pancakes?

Potato pancakes are such a delicious way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. They have fluffy centers, golden edges, and a little cheese for extra flavor.

They’re great as a side dish instead of mashed potatoes or baked potatoes – but I also love them for breakfast instead of making hash browns.

We’ve always loved mashed potatoes and rarely have leftovers, but with this recipe we are sure to try and have some saved so we can make these mashed potato pancakes the next morning.

Potato Pancake balls in an ice cream scoop.

How to Make Potato Pancakes

I prefer using mashed potatoes without garlic – but if that’s all you have they’ll work too.

  1. COMBINE. Aa a little shredded cheddar cheese, parsley, eggs, and flour to the mashed potatoes. The eggs and flour help to bind the pancakes together. Adding the cheese and parsley add even more flavor. Mix all the ingredients together.
  2. SEASON. I always add a little salt and pepper for flavor – but this will depend on how much seasoning you added to your mashed potatoes.
  3. FORM. To form the batter into patties, I like to use a large cookie scoop or ice cream scoop to make potato pancakes that are around 3-4 tablespoons of batter each. Flatten out the patties with your palms so they’re about 1/3 – 1/2 inch thick.
  4. FRY. Then fry in a large frying or on the griddle until golden on both sides.
Crispy potato pancakes stacked on a white plate

Tips + Storing Info

I like to serve these with the same toppings as baked potatoes, which includes:

  • sour cream
  • green onion
  • bacon bits
  • and more cheese!

To FREEZE, wrap tightly in aluminum foil and place in a freezer-safe Ziploc bag. Place in freezer and store there for up to 3 months. Look at the notes above on how to reheat the pancakes if frozen.

REHEAT in the oven. To do that, preheat oven to 350 (or 400 for frozen potato pancakes). Place a baking rack on a baking sheet, arrange on top and bake for about 5 minutes (10 minutes for frozen potato pancakes).

Potato Pancake Recipe stacked on plate topped with sour cream

For more pancake recipes:

4.96 from 24 votes

Potato Pancake Recipe

By: Lil’ Luna
Easy potato pancakes are perfect for breakfast, lunch, or as a side. They have crispy golden edges and a cheesy center!
Servings: 12 pancakes
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Total: 20 minutes

Ingredients 

  • 3 cups mashed potatoes
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley
  • salt and pepper to taste to taste
  • vegetable oil for frying

Instructions 

  • Preheat a large frying pan or griddle to medium heat.
  • If your potatoes are cold from the fridge, I recommend warming them up slightly and giving them a second mash or beating with an electric mixer so they’re easier to work with. 
  • In a large bowl add the mashed potatoes, eggs, flour, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. 
  • Stir the ingredients together.
  • Grease the frying pan/skillet lightly.
  • Form the dough into patties about 1/4 cup of batter each. Flatten the patty between your palms.
  • Fry on the one side until golden (about 3-5 minutes), then flip and fry on the second side until golden.

Notes

*If your potatoes were already seasoned quite heavily, you may not need the salt & pepper. 

Nutrition

Serving: 12g, Calories: 103kcal, Carbohydrates: 16g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 2g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 36mg, Sodium: 57mg, Potassium: 187mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 94IU, Vitamin C: 12mg, Calcium: 44mg, Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

About Fiona

My name's Fiona and I love to bake and blog. I share homemade, from scratch, classic recipes for desserts & sweet treats including cakes, cupcakes, cookies and more.

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4.96 from 24 votes (11 ratings without comment)

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Recipe Rating




23 Comments

  1. Olivia says:

    5 stars
    My mom made these these for us as a small child. I dont remember what we called them but I remember that we liked them. A potato served as a patty with all the trimmings.

  2. Marie says:

    5 stars
    These are super delicious! Easy to make!

  3. misty says:

    5 stars
    i would never of thought to make pancakes with potatoes. They are so fluffy and taste good. They are great for leftovers too!

  4. Emma says:

    My mom would use leftover maShed potatOes, fOrm a pancaKe and fry Them in the Pan we’d just cooked bacon in. Ive Never seen a recipe fOr them until now. I loved the additional ingredIeNts you used. Sooo good!!!

  5. Joy says:

    5 stars
    How delicious!! I would have never thought to try these, but they looked so good & they were! They were so soft & adding sour cream on top, makes them the perfect little snack or dinner!

  6. Pam Dana says:

    5 stars
    These are seriously so good! I made them ahead of time and just reheated them when it was time i eat!

    1. Kristyn Merkley says:

      Yes, they are prefect for re-heating! Thank you for letting me know!

  7. Aimee Shugarman says:

    5 stars
    These are a childhood favorite 🙂

  8. Julie Blanner says:

    5 stars
    THese Look amazing! Can’t wait to try.

  9. Ashley F says:

    5 stars
    These are perfect! Such a great use for leftover potatoes!

    1. Angi says:

      4 stars
      I added some rosemary and thyme. Mashed taters already seasoned with onion, garlic and cheese. The flavors melted together and was fabulous! I only had a lil trouble getting the right consistancy since I did not have as many spuds leftover as called for in recipe. I also was able to reheat n eat them and was tastier than the 1st time. Thank you iron cooking makes everything better.

      1. Lil'Luna Team says:

        That sounds great!

  10. Lori says:

    5 stars
    We made this last weekend. Delicious!