Battle of the Breakfast Potatoes: Are You Team Hash Browns or Team Home Fries?

Ordering breakfast at a diner is rife with decisions. Fried or scrambled eggs? White or wheat toast? Pancakes or waffles? But the most daunting choice facing patrons might just be the potatoes: hash brown or home fries.

Even once you order your side of choice, it’s possible the potatoes on your plate aren’t exactly what you pictured. That’s because no two breakfast potatoes are the same. We asked six chefs who specialize in breakfast to define hash browns and home fries. While their answers varied slightly, they all agreed on a few things that exemplify these beloved diner sides.

What are hash browns?

Hash browns come in two distinct forms, but they are always fried until they’re golden brown and crispy. If you’re ordering hash browns at a diner or café, they’re most likely going to be made with shredded or finely chopped potatoes (“hash” comes from the French word “hacher,” meaning “to chop”). 

“When I make hash browns at home, I just grate the potato and mush it down in the pan,” says 2022 F&W Best New Chef Caroline Schiff, who is opening a diner in 2026. “I let it get really brown and crispy, flip it over, and season it with a little salt. I keep it very simple.”

Chad Conley, co-owner of Palace Diner in Biddeford, Maine, refers to this hash brown method as “Waffle House-style.” “It’s soft on the inside, and then crispy around the edges,” he says. To make crispy, diner-style hash browns at home, start by soaking shredded russet potatoes [in cold water] to remove some of the starch — this helps them fry up nice and crunchy. 

Other hash browns consist of potatoes that are diced and shaped into a patty before getting deep-fried. The result is akin to a large, flat tater tot. “You can pick up the whole thing and dip it in ketchup,” says Conley. While the outcome will be delicious, making your own hash brown patties can be laborious and time-consuming. Many chefs, like Jackie Carnesi at Kellogg’s Diner in Brooklyn, New York, will opt to source them frozen and ready-to-fry so they’re nearly identical to what you’d get at McDonald’s. Why mess with perfection?

What are home fries?

If you ask 100 people what home fries look like, odds are they’ll all have a slightly different answer. Cubed or sliced, mushy or crispy, with peppers or without — the variability is never-ending. Differences aside, most chefs can agree that to make them, the potatoes must be cut (not shredded), par-cooked, and griddled. 

“Home fries are par-cooked, chunked up potatoes with the skin on or not, heated up on a griddle, either crisped up or not, and seasoned or not,” says Conley. When Carnesi makes her home fries at Kellogg’s, she blanches then roasts the potatoes before heavily seasoning them; Schiff prefers to prepare them on a griddle with onion and peppers.

For homemade home fries that are crisp and golden on the outside and tender on the inside, boil the potatoes before crisping them in a pan, then finish them with butter, chili powder, and garlic.