How Do You Dice a Potato? Planks, Sticks, Then Cubes

A whole potato is round, a little slippery once it’s peeled, and happy to roll away from the knife. Most of dicing is stopping the roll. After that you make straight cuts in three directions.

How do you dice a potato?

To dice a potato, trim a thin slice off one long side and lay it on that flat face. Cut the potato into even planks, stack a few planks and cut them into sticks, then cut across the sticks to make cubes. The thickness of your planks sets the size of the dice.

1. Wash it, and peel it if you like. Scrub off any dirt. Peeling is up to you and the dish. Skin-on cubes hold together a little better and look rustic.
2. Make a flat side. Slice a thin piece off one long side. Turn the potato onto that cut face so it sits still on the board.
3. Cut planks. Slice down through the potato lengthwise into slabs of the same thickness. That thickness is the size your cubes will be.
4. Cut sticks. Stack two or three planks and slice them lengthwise again, at the same thickness, so you get square sticks.
5. Cut cubes. Line the sticks up side by side and cut across them at the same spacing. Each cut gives you a row of cubes.
6. Sort the odd pieces. The rounded ends and edges won’t be perfect cubes. Cut them to roughly the same size and cook them with the rest, or save them for soup.

A sharp knife is safer than a dull one, since it goes where you aim it instead of slipping off the skin. Curl the fingertips of your holding hand under, so the knife meets your knuckles and not your nails. A damp towel under the cutting board keeps the board from sliding.

Diced potatoes are a side, so the main decides how you cut them. For this post I ran Today’s Mealow, which I build, from downtown Seattle: a bold Western dinner, eaten at home. It came back with pepperoni pizza, a BBQ bacon cheeseburger and spicy buffalo wings from places nearby.

I’d pair the cheeseburger with a pan of potato cubes, in place of fries. Pizza doesn’t need a potato on the side, and wings already fill the plate.

How big should diced potatoes be?

Diced potatoes come in three common sizes. Small dice is about a quarter inch, for hash and skillets. Medium dice is about half an inch, for roasting and home fries. Large dice is about three-quarters of an inch, for boiling, stews and potato salad. Pick the size by how you’ll cook them.

Small pieces brown fast and turn crisp all over, which suits a breakfast hash or a skillet with onions and peppers. Medium dice gets a crisp outside and a soft middle in the oven. Large pieces hold their shape in a pot of liquid instead of falling apart into it.

Keep one size in each pan, even if it isn’t the exact size a recipe asks for. If half the cubes are small and half are large, the small ones burn while the large ones are still hard. When you’re unsure, a die from a board game is a fair picture of medium dice.

What is the difference between diced and cubed potatoes?

Diced and cubed potatoes are cut the same way: planks, then sticks, then cubes. In recipes, “cubed” usually means bigger pieces, around three-quarters of an inch or more, while “diced” means smaller, neater ones. Chopped is the loose version, with pieces of roughly similar size.

So how do you cut potatoes into cubes? Follow the same steps as dicing and make your planks thicker. If a recipe says cubed and doesn’t give a size, aim for bite-sized pieces you could eat in one forkful.

Do you dice potatoes before or after boiling?

Dice potatoes before boiling when they go into a potato salad, a soup or a stew, or when you want them to cook faster. Boil them whole when you’ll mash them. Cooked potatoes are softer and can crumble under the knife.

Start diced potatoes in cold water, then bring it to a boil, so the outside and the middle cook together. Check them with a fork or the tip of a knife. They’re done when it slides in with no push back. If you boiled them whole and want cubes afterwards, let them cool first, and they’ll cut more cleanly.

Can you dice potatoes and then microwave them?

Diced potatoes can go straight into the microwave. Put them in a covered microwave-safe bowl with a little water, lid left ajar. Cook in short bursts, stirring between them, until a fork slides in easily. They come out soft, not crisp.

For crisp cubes, use the microwave as a first step. Soften the cubes there, then brown them in a hot pan with a little oil, and they crisp up without a long wait. The same trick works for a weeknight side next to microwave corn.

What should I eat with diced potatoes tonight?

Diced potatoes go with burgers, steak, roast chicken, pork chops, sausages and fried eggs. Crisp skillet cubes fit a breakfast-for-dinner plate. Roasted cubes fit next to grilled meat. Boiled cubes belong in a stew or a potato salad beside barbecue.

Once the main is chosen, go back to the size. A burger wants small or medium cubes, crisp like fries. Roast chicken or steak suits medium cubes from the oven. A stew wants the large ones.

Potatoes diced, main still open? Today’s Mealow asks six questions, from the meal to how you’re feeling, then picks 3 dishes from real places near you.

Find the main dish

Torn between cooking the main and ordering it? The kitchen test settles that. On nights when even dicing feels like too much, the lazy dinner ideas lean on food that comes ready to use.