Patatas Bravas

Double-fried potato cubes under a smoky pimenton sauce — Madrid's bar staple.

25 min4 servingsSpanish273 kcal/serving8g protein
Patatas Bravas — Spanish recipe, finished and plated

Discover smart recipes

Sign up on Homecooked to cook this recipe as the chef intended, with parallel steps and built-in timers guiding you along the way. Stock your pantry to discover more recipes you can cook with the ingredients you have at home.

Join Homecooked

Ingredients

  • 800 g Potatoes
  • 400 ml Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp Tomato paste
  • 2 tsp Pimenton dulce (sweet smoked paprika)
  • 1 tsp Pimenton picante (hot smoked paprika)
  • 2 cloves Garlic
  • 1 tbsp Sherry vinegar
  • 1 tbsp All-purpose flour
  • 250 ml Chicken stock
  • 1 tsp Salt

Method

  1. Peel the potatoes and cut into bite-sized cubes.
  2. Mince the garlic.
  3. Warm a glug of olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Sweat the minced garlic until fragrant but not browned.
  4. Stir in the flour, then both pimentóns and the tomato paste. Cook until brick-red.
  5. Whisk in the stock and sherry vinegar. Simmer until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
  6. Heat the remaining olive oil in a deep, heavy pan to 160 °C (325 °F).
  7. First fry: cook the potatoes until tender but still pale. Lift onto paper towels.
  8. Bring the oil up to 190 °C (375 °F). Second fry the potatoes until deeply golden, then drain and salt.
  9. Pile the potatoes into a wide dish. Spoon the brava sauce over the top.

Nutrition per serving

273Calories
8gProtein
33gCarbs
14gFat
6gFiber

Estimated from ingredients; varies with exact portions and brands.

About Patatas Bravas

Patatas bravas is the quintessential Spanish tapa, a fixture of Madrid's bars where crisp fried potato cubes arrive under a smoky, faintly fiery sauce. The name comes from the sauce — brava meaning fierce or wild — and that salsa brava is what separates a real version from plain fried potatoes. Here it's built from a roux stained with both sweet and hot pimentón, deepened with tomato paste and sherry vinegar, and loosened with stock until it coats a spoon. The result is smoky and tangy with a controllable warmth rather than raw chili heat.

The technique that makes this version worth cooking is the double fry: a first pass at a gentler 160°C cooks the potatoes through and leaves them pale and fluffy inside, then a second, hotter fry at 190°C blisters the outsides into a hard, shattering crust. That two-stage method is exactly how bar cooks get interiors that stay soft while the edges crunch. Bravas are meant to be shared, speared with toothpicks alongside a caña of beer or a glass of wine, ideally as part of a wider spread of tapas. Because they're quick and use nothing exotic, they're an easy way to bring a bit of a Spanish bar to the table at home.

Patatas Bravas: frequently asked questions

How many calories are in Patatas Bravas?

One serving of Patatas Bravas has about 273 calories, with 8g of protein, 33g of carbs, 14g of fat and 6g of fiber. These are estimates based on the ingredient amounts in this recipe and will vary with your exact portions and brands.

Is Patatas Bravas gluten-free?

As written, no — it contains All-purpose flour. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for that ingredient to make it gluten-free.

How many servings does Patatas Bravas make?

This recipe makes 4 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.