🥔 SIDE
Batatas a Murro (Portuguese Punched Potatoes)
Small potatoes roasted in their skins on coarse salt, given a punch to crack them open, then drenched in hot olive oil with garlic, the partner of roast salt cod.
Portuguese · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 55 min
~505 cal · 5g protein · 44g carbs · 35g fat · 6g fiber · 2g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Batatas a murro, "punched potatoes", are the side dish that goes with bacalhau assado, roast salt cod, all over Portugal. Small new potatoes are roasted in their skins, traditionally in the oven or in the embers alongside the fish, until the skins are wrinkled and the insides fluffy. Then each one gets a light blow with the fist, a murro, which splits it open so it can soak up the olive oil.
The dressing is where the flavour is: plenty of good Portuguese olive oil, often warmed with sliced garlic, poured over the cracked potatoes. In the Ribatejo the classic version is made in late autumn, when the new season's olive oil arrives, and the whole dish of roast cod, onions roasted in their skins and punched potatoes is dressed with garlic, a little vinegar and a great deal of that fresh oil.
Many cooks bed the potatoes on coarse salt in the tin, which dries and crisps the skins. Besides cod, they go with grilled fish and roast meats.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 1 kg small new potatoes, scrubbed, skins on
- 3 tbsp coarse sea salt, for the roasting tin
- 150 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped, optional
Instructions
- 1Heat the oven to 200°C. Scatter the coarse salt over the base of a roasting tin and set the damp potatoes on it in one layer, rolling them so some salt sticks to the skins.
- 2Roast for 45 to 50 minutes, until the skins are wrinkled and crisp and a knife slides easily into the middle.
- 3Lift the potatoes off the salt onto a serving dish. Cover each one with a clean tea towel and give it a firm punch with your fist, just enough to crack it open without mashing it.✎ Chef’s noteBrush off any thick crust of salt before punching; a little on the skin is what you want.
- 4Warm the olive oil with the garlic in a small pan over low heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant and just starting to turn golden.
- 5Pour the hot garlic oil over the potatoes, scatter with parsley if you like and serve at once with roast salt cod, grilled fish or meat.
Portuguese tradition, served with roast salt cod.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Lisbon. Bacalhau is dried and salted cod that has to soak for a day or more before it can be cooked at all, which is part of why the repertoire around it is so large: it had to be worth the trouble. Portugal buys most of the fish from the North Atlantic rather than catching it off this coast.
🗺️
Portugal. Two things follow the ships home. The pastel de nata came out of the Jeronimos monastery at Belem and went commercial in 1837, and only the Belem shop's version may be called pastel de Belem. Piri-piri is a round trip: American chillies planted in Mozambique and Angola, then brought back as a Portuguese seasoning.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Portugal
Pastéis de NataBlistered puff-pastry cups filled with silky cinnamon-scented custard, Lisbon’s daily miracle, best warm.
Bacalhau à BrásShredded salt cod tangled with straw-thin fried potatoes and softly scrambled egg, dotted with olives.
Torrada com GalãoThick toasted bread drenched in butter, served with a tall glass of milky galão coffee.
Browse all Portugal recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Mould or tin.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
Make it a Portugal meal
GinjinhaDrink
Pastéis de NataDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Batatas a Murro (Portuguese Punched Potatoes)?
Small potatoes roasted in their skins on coarse salt, given a punch to crack them open, then drenched in hot olive oil with garlic, the partner of roast salt cod.
Where does Batatas a Murro (Portuguese Punched Potatoes) come from?
Batatas a Murro (Portuguese Punched Potatoes) is a Portuguese dish from Lisbon, Portugal.
Can Batatas a Murro (Portuguese Punched Potatoes) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Batatas a Murro (Portuguese Punched Potatoes) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Batatas a Murro (Portuguese Punched Potatoes) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Batatas a Murro (Portuguese Punched Potatoes) take to make?
About 65 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 55 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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