How to Freeze Shredded Potatoes Quickly and Easily

When it comes to the at-home preservation of potatoes, I don’t think anything beats freezing. Freezing is straightforward and simple, it provides excellent shelf life, and in my experience, it results in the best flavor and texture when preparing your batch of spuds.

My very favorite way to freeze potatoes (there are a few others) is by shredding them first. This makes them really convenient for whipping up later as hash browns for a hearty breakfast or in a wide variety of casseroles.

But if you just grate and freeze, you’ve probably noticed that your potatoes turn out a bit bitter, brown, and generally off.

Follow the step-by-step method I’ll share with you in this article, and your frozen shredded potatoes will be crisp, flavorful, and golden!

What You’ll Need
You need a couple of special kitchen tools that will make this method extra easy, but otherwise, you should have everything that’s required, I’ll bet.

Potatoes: You’ll have to have potatoes, of course! Whether you grew them yourself in your own garden or brought them home from the grocery store, the results will still be excellent.

Peeler/Paring Knife: Use a vegetable peeler or a paring knife, if you prefer, for removing the skin from your potatoes. Either works fine, but if you’re making a big batch, then a peeler will save you a lot of time.

Box Grater: A common box grater is ideal for shredding your potatoes into the right size and shape for hash browns.

Most have multiple sizes, though, so make sure you use the larger holes. If you don’t have a box grater, you can use a handheld grater, but it’s going to be a lot more work.

Large Pot: You’ll need a lot of water to properly blanch your potatoes prior to freezing, so grab a large stock pot for this job.

Blanching Basket: This is a specialized kitchen tool that will keep your shredded hash browns from floating away and make it easier to lower them into and remove them from the boiling water.

They have a long handle that ensures the contents will be fully submerged in the water compared to something like a sieve or fryer basket.

Colander: A colander is helpful for chilling the potatoes once we’re done blanching them in the boiling water. I strongly recommend a metal version rather than plastic here.

Large Bowl: A large bowl, big enough to hold the colander above, will be useful for soaking the potatoes and then for chilling them after blanching. Any kind will work here, but glass or metal is best.

Kitchen Towels: Clean, thin kitchen towels are needed for squeezing excess moisture out of the potatoes prior to blanching and then for patting them dry once they are done chilling, immediately before freezing.

Paper Towels (optional): If you don’t have or don’t want to use kitchen towels in this procedure, you can get away with using sturdy, lint-free paper towels. Viva is one of the best that I have found for this task, but be advised that you’ll need quite a few.

Water: You’ll need lots of water to prepare your potatoes, both for soaking, boiling, and then chilling. Use filtered tap water if you can and be ready to change the water as needed. I’ll go over that in the step-by-step section.

Cutting Board: A large cutting board is recommended for patting your shredded potatoes dry immediately before putting them in the freezer.

Baking Sheet: A sizable baking sheet will allow you to quickly and easily freeze the potatoes once we are finished blanching and then drying them.

Freezing them in a single layer will make portioning a lot easier, improve quality, and make them more convenient for subsequent storage.

Freezer Bags: I strongly recommend freezer bags for storing shredded potatoes in the freezer since you’ll be able to stand them upright in nice, tidy rows to prevent them from sticking together. However, you can use any freezer-safe container you want.

Spatula: Helpful for popping your potatoes off the baking sheet when they come out of the freezer initially.

Okay, that’s all you need. I’ll tell you what you need to do in the following section.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Properly freezing shredded potatoes is easier than you might think, but even so, I urge you to read over all of these steps before you begin.

There are a couple of time-sensitive operations you’ll need to perform, and it’s best if you know what’s coming so you can act quickly at the right time.

Step 1: Fill pot and bowl with water, start pot to boil over heat. Fill the large pot and bowl with water. In the pot, you’ll need about a gallon for every pound of potatoes you’ll be processing.

This will prevent the temperature from plunging when you add them and ensure that they are blanched properly, not cooked.

Make sure you leave room for displacement! If your pot won’t hold enough water, make a smaller batch or get a bigger pot.

Place it on the burner and turn it on high while you prepare the potatoes because it will take a little while to boil.

Step 2: Peel potatoes. Grab your peeler or paring knife and start peeling your potatoes after you give them a good rinse. A few little scraps of skin left aren’t a big deal, but we want them fully peeled for the best quality since we are freezing them.

Step 3: Grate potatoes, transfer to cold water until all are done. Once all of the potatoes are peeled, start grating them using the box grater. As you finish each, dump the shreds into the bowl of water to let them soak.

Soaking is critically important for the best quality frozen potatoes since it removes the excess starch. As you finish each one, just keep adding them to the bowl.

Step 4: Squeeze excess moisture from shredded potatoes. Once all of them are grated and added to the bowl of water, give them one more minute to soak, then remove them, placing them on one of your kitchen towels.

Fold the towel up and over them like a sack and then gently squeeze out as much water as you can back into the bowl. This way you’ll squeeze out as much of the starchy water as possible. Once the dripping stops, move on.

Step 5: Load basket; blanch. Place the squeezed potato shreds into your blanching basket. Once the water in the pot is at a rolling boil, carefully lower the basket into the water so the potatoes are fully immersed.

If the water stops boiling, wait for it to come back up to a boil and then set a timer; blanch the potatoes for 3 minutes; do it for 4 minutes if you’re at over 5,000 feet in altitude (source). In the meantime, pour the water out of your bowl, give it a rinse, and then refill it with fresh, cold water.

Step 6: Transfer to colander; cool potatoes in fresh, cold water. Once the 3 minutes have passed, turn off the heat and remove the strainer basket carefully from the boiling water.

Work quickly but carefully and transfer the potatoes to your colander before immersing them in the bowl of cold water. You’ll let them chill for the same amount of time that you blanched them—three minutes.

Step 7 (optional) Pre-chill your baking sheet. Simply pop the empty sheet in the freezer for 10-15 minutes so the whole surface is frozen. This will give you a head start and make shorten the duration for the actual freeze.

Step 8: Drain well and pat dry on cutting board. Once the 3 minutes are up, lift the colander out of the cold water and shake out the excess over the bowl or over your sink.

Set the colander aside for a moment, place a kitchen towel or your paper towels over your cutting board, then dump the shredded potatoes onto the cutting board.

Spread them out into a single layer and use more towels to gently press them flat and pat them dry. Use as many towels as you need to get as much moisture as possible off of the potatoes.

Step 9: Spread potatoes on baking sheet. Once the shredded potatoes are as dry as you can make them, transfer them from the cutting board to your baking sheet.

Spread them out in a single layer, aiming for a layer that is no more than a quarter inch thick. Work in batches or use an extra baking sheet if you have too many.

Step 10: Freeze until completely solid (between 1 ½ and 3 hours). Pop the baking sheet into your freezer and let your potatoes freeze solid.

Usually, this will take about an hour and a half, though it might take 2 or even 3 hours – depending on the actual temperature in the freezer.

It would also be a good idea to check that your freezer is at the right temperature before you start, which should be at or below 0°F (-18°C).

Check on them periodically. When they are frozen completely solid, they will snap in half, not bend. You can also press a piece with rour fingers: if it feels rock hard, they are probably done!

Step 11: Transfer to freezer bags, squeeze out excess air, and seal. Once the potatoes are frozen solid, remove the trays from the freezer and place them back on your counter, then use your spatula to pop them off of the baking sheet.

By removing the starch earlier and making sure they’re very dry prior to freezing, they should come off easily. If you left lots of moisture in them, they might be stuck fast to the baking sheet and will need to be carefully pried off.

Place the frozen potatoes in your freezer bags or other containers. If you do use freezer bags, squeeze out as much excess air as you can before you seal. This will help keep the potatoes fresh and brightly colored.

Step 12: Place in freezer, and done! Now, simply stick your potatoes back in the freezer, and you’re all done. If using freezer bags, you should be able to stand them up vertically to save space and help prevent the bags from sticking to each other.

Should You Thaw Them in the Fridge Prior to Cooking?

You might think this is a good idea because you’ll avoid having mushy potatoes… but it’s not really necessary. Some recipes actually call for the potatoes to be thrown into boiling water straight from the freezer. Only thaw them if the recipe mentions it specifically.

How Long Will Your Shredded Potatoes Keep?

At least 8 months with excellent quality, and I’ve kept shredded potatoes prepared this way in the freezer for a year with absolutely no ill effects.

But as with all frozen veggies, if you constantly get into your freezer, then freezer burn will be more of an issue. Sudden temperature changes and condensation are the enemies of long-term storage.

If possible, consider keeping your hash browns in a chest freezer that you access less frequently compared to the one in your kitchen if you want to maximize shelf life.