Potato pancake (Crique Ardéchoise)
Appetizers & Snacks, Side Dish, Snacks
October 9, 2025
Potato pancake (Crique Ardéchoise)
The crique Ardéchoise is a rustic and authentic potato pancake from the Ardèche region in France. These golden, crispy galette is simply made from grated potatoes, garlic, parsley, and cooked slowly in olive oil and butter until perfectly crunchy outside and tender inside!
October 9, 2025
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I love potatoes in every form, but this one has a special place in my kitchen. A crique ardéchoise is a potato pancake from the Ardèche: grated potato, garlic and parsley, fried in French butter until crisp outside and soft inside. If you’ve ever had latkes, you’ll recognise it straight away! I discovered it through my neighbour and knew I had to make it.
It’s lovely on its own with a green salad, as an apéro with a bowl of crème fraîche and chives, or next to eggs or a bowl of soup for an easy supper.
Table of Contents
Where crique ardéchoise comes from
The Ardèche is a corner of France has much to offer: volcanic plateaus, deep gorges and chestnut forests. Its food is like its landscape, simple and honest. Farmhouse cooking here had to be filling, cheap and made with what was already in the cellar and the garden, which leads us to potatoes, garlic, parsley.
The funny thing is, the Ardèche had potatoes long before most of France. In 1600, Olivier de Serres, the man we call the father of French agronomy, was already growing them on his estate at Le Pradel in the Ardèche. He wrote about them in his big book on farming, calling them “cartoufle” and comparing them to truffles! Most of France only came round to potatoes almost two centuries later, thanks to Parmentier, you know, the guy from Hachis Parmentier?
And the latkes? They’re the potato pancakes of Ashkenazi Jewish cooking. Same idea, different country. The big difference is the shape. Latkes are small cakes. A classic crique ardechoise is one big “galette” or potato pancake, flipped with a plate and cut into wedges at the table. I usually make small ones, because you get more crispy edges per person. But a big golden crique is a lovely thing to put on the table when you have guests.
Ingredients
- Potatoes — floury ones, with plenty of starch, since that’s what holds the crique ardechoise together. In France, Bintje is the classic. In the UK, use Maris Piper or King Edward, and in the US, russets. Waxy salad potatoes won’t really hold.
- Garlic — finely chopped or crushed. After the potato, it’s the main flavour, so be generous.
- Parsley — flat-leaf, finely chopped. In the US, it’s often sold as Italian parsley.
- Butter and olive oil — the butter for flavour and that golden colour, the olive oil so the butter doesn’t burn during the long cooking.
- Salt and pepper — to season. The salt goes in at the very last minute, since it draws water out of the potato.
How to make crique ardéchoise
1. Grate the potatoes
Peel the potatoes and grate them on the medium holes of a box grater. Not too coarse, not too fine: you want strands long enough to hold together, but fine enough to release plenty of starch. Work quickly, because grated potato starts turning grey as it sits.
2. Squeeze out the water, keep the starch
Grated potato gives off a lot of liquid, and water stops it crisping. Squeeze the potato over a bowl, by handfuls or in a clean tea towel. Now here’s the trick: let the liquid stand for a minute and you’ll see white starch settle at the bottom. Pour off the water and scrape that starch back into the potato. It’s free glue!
3. Season
Mix in the garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, and get it into the pan straight away.
4. Heat the pan properly
Melt a generous knob of butter with a good splash of olive oil over medium heat. The mixture should sizzle the moment it hits the pan. If it doesn’t, wait.
5. Cook slowly and leave it alone
For one big crique, spread all the mixture in the pan and press it into an even layer. For small ones, drop in spoonfuls and flatten them. Then don’t touch it. No nudging, no lifting to peek (I’m guilty of that one). A big crique needs about 15 minutes on the first side, small ones 4 to 5 minutes. It’s ready to turn when the edges look firm and golden and the smell in the kitchen becomes impossible to ignore.
6. Flip and serve
Small ones just turn with a spatula. For a big crique, slide it onto a plate, put the pan upside down on top and turn the whole thing over in one go. Add a bit more butter and oil if the pan looks dry, then cook the second side until golden, about 10 to 15 minutes for a big one, a few minutes for small ones. Slide it onto a board, cut it into wedges and serve straight away, while it’s still crisp.
Tools for this recipe
Check out my favorite kitchen essentials and cookware!
- Use a stainless steel frying pan, around 24 to 28 cm so the crique browns evenly and comes away when you flip it.
- Use a box grater on the medium holes or a food processor to grate the potatoes.
- Use a clean tea towel to squeeze the potato. It gets much more water out than your hands.
- Use a large flat plate, wider than the pan, to flip a big potato pancake.
Tips for success
- Choose floury potatoes: waxy ones don’t have enough starch, and the crique falls apart.
- Grate on the medium holes: too coarse and it won’t hold, too fine and it turns to paste.
- Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze: water steams instead of crisping.
- Keep the starch: pour off the potato water, but scrape the starch back in.
- Salt at the last minute: salt pulls water out of the potato, so add it just before cooking.
- Don’t be shy with the fat: that’s where the crispy crust comes from.
- Leave it alone: let the first side set properly, or it breaks when you turn it.
How to store it
- Best fresh: a potato pancake is at its best straight from the pan, while the edges are crisp.
- Keeping it warm: making lots of small ones? Keep the first batches on a rack in a low oven while you cook the rest, so they stay crisp.
- In the fridge: leftovers keep covered in an airtight container for a day or two. Reheat them in a hot pan or the oven, never the microwave, which makes them soggy.
- In the freezer: small cooked criques freeze well. Freeze them flat on a tray, then bag them in a silicone reusable bag, and reheat in a hot oven straight from frozen.
- The raw mixture: don’t make it ahead. Grated potato turns grey and watery as it sits, so grate just before cooking.
More side dishes recipes to try
Variations
- With an egg: a beaten egg makes it easier to flip, especially as one big potato pancake. Not purist, but plenty of families in the Ardèche make it that way.
- With shallot or onion: a finely chopped shallot or a little grated onion, for something closer to latkes.
- With chives: instead of the parsley, or with it, for a softer, oniony freshness.
- With cheese: a handful of grated Comté in the mixture makes it richer.
FAQ
What is a crique ardéchoise?
It’s a potato pancake from the Ardèche, made from grated raw potato, garlic and parsley, fried in butter and oil until crisp and golden. Traditionally it’s one big galette, cut into wedges.
What’s the difference between crique and latkes?
Latkes usually contain onion, egg and a little flour or matzo meal, and are made as small cakes. A purist crique uses only potato, garlic, parsley and salt, and relies on the potato’s starch to hold it together.
What’s the difference between crique and rösti?
Rösti is Swiss and often made from parboiled potatoes, usually without garlic. Crique uses raw grated potato, with garlic and parsley.
Why does my crique fall apart?
Usually the potato was too wet, the wrong variety, grated too coarsely or flipped too early. Use floury potatoes, squeeze them well, keep the starch and let the first side set properly.
What do you serve with crique ardéchoise?
In the Ardèche, it comes hot from the pan with a green salad and a simple vinaigrette. That’s the traditional way, and honestly, the best one.
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Appetizers & Snacks, Side Dish, SnacksFrench
Potato pancake (Crique Ardéchoise)
The crique Ardéchoise is a rustic and authentic potato pancake from the Ardèche region in France. These golden, crispy galette is simply made from grated potatoes, garlic, parsley, and cooked slowly in olive oil and butter until perfectly crunchy outside and tender inside!
Ingredients
- 6 firm-fleshed potatoes
- 1 cloves garlic
- 1 handful flat-leaf parsley
- 80 gr unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt and black pepper
Equipment
Instructions
Prepare the potatoes
- Peel the potatoes, rinse them well under cold water and dry them with a clean tea towel. Grate them coarsely into a large bowl. Don’t rinse them after grating, because the starch is what helps the mixture hold together.
Add the garlic and parsley
- Finely chop the garlic and parsley and add them to the potatoes. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then mix well with your hands so everything is evenly spread.
Rest the mixture
- Leave the mixture to rest for 10 to 15 minutes, so the flavours come together and the starch helps it bind. If you’re using an egg, stir it in now until just combined.
Heat the pan
- Heat a generous layer of olive oil with a little butter in a wide frying pan over a medium heat.
Cook the criques
- For one large crique: Tip all the mixture into the pan and press it down gently with a spatula to about 1.5cm thick. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until the bottom is deep golden. Turn it over using a plate or spatula and cook the other side for another 10 to 12 minutes, until crisp and golden.For small criques: Drop heaped tablespoons of the mixture into the pan and flatten each one slightly. Cook in batches for 5 to 7 minutes per side, pressing them gently with the spatula so they stay thin and crisp.
Serve
- Drain the criques on kitchen paper if needed. Serve them hot, scattered with extra chopped parsley, with a green salad on the side, the way they’re eaten in the Ardèche.
Notes
- One large or several small: Traditionally, the mixture goes into the pan in one go to make a single thick crique. Smaller ones give you more crispy edges and individual portions. Both are made in the Ardèche; the difference is the texture and the way you serve them.
- Egg is optional: Traditional criques are made without flour or egg when the potatoes are fresh, but an egg gives a firmer texture.
- Butter and olive oil: The oil stops the butter burning, and the butter adds flavour and colour.
- Be patient: Cook them slowly over a medium heat. That’s what makes a crique crisp all the way through rather than burnt outside and raw inside.
Made it? I’d love to know!
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