Grilled New Potatoes With Browned Dill Butter and Crispy Capers

Grilled New Potatoes, Browned Dill Butter and Crispy Capers

It’s easy for the potatoes to end up as a bit player when the grill comes out. Someone throws them in foil, someone forgets to salt them, and suddenly you’re standing there with a heap of lukewarm filler that mostly exists so the plate doesn’t look empty. I think that’s a waste of one of summer’s best ingredients. New potatoes deserve better than that.

This version is my kind of side dish: simple enough for a weekday, but thought through enough to make people start by taking the potatoes first. We parboil them briefly, grill them until the surface cracks and then toss everything in browned butter with dill, lemon and crispy capers. It comes out salty, buttery, fresh and a little crunchy all at once. I’ve served it with fish, lamb, chicken and honestly just with a dollop of cold sauce and a glass of wine when the rest of the dinner was running late.

Recipe at a Glance

The recipe serves 4 people as a side. The new potatoes are parboiled for 10–12 minutes until nearly done, drained and left so the steam can escape, grilled over medium direct heat and then tossed with browned butter, dill, lemon and fried capers in a pan or bowl. The result has more flavor and better texture than ordinary foil-baked grill potatoes.

Why You Should Try This Recipe

• You get real grill flavor and a real crust instead of soft, steamed potatoes in a packet.
• Browned butter and dill feel spot-on Swedish without turning into a tired midsummer plate.
• The capers lift the whole dish with saltiness and crunch.
• This is a side that works with almost anything from the grill.

If you want to build a whole menu around vegetables and sides, BBQLovers has already collected loads of inspiration on the recipes page, but this particular potato dish is the kind of base I like to come back to when I want the plate to feel finished.

Ingredients

• 2 ¼ lb new potatoes
• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 2¾ oz butter
• 2 tbsp capers, drained and patted dry
• ¼ cup + 1 tbsp finely chopped dill
• 1 lemon, finely grated zest and 1–2 tsp juice
• 1 small garlic clove, finely grated
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced
• flaky salt to taste

How to Make It

1. Scrub the new potatoes but feel free to leave the skins on. Boil in well-salted water for 10–12 minutes depending on size. They should be almost done but still have a little core left.
2. Drain and let the steam escape from the potatoes properly. This is important. Wet potatoes grill poorly.
3. Toss the potatoes with oil, salt and black pepper. If you have smaller potatoes, feel free to put them in a grill basket or on a plancha.
4. Grill over medium direct heat for 10–15 minutes until they have patchy color and the skins have begun to crack a little. Turn now and then so they don’t get the same burnt side all the way through.
5. Meanwhile, brown the butter in a small saucepan or pan until it smells nutty and turns golden. Add the capers for the last minute so they get lightly crispy. Take off the heat.
6. Stir the dill, lemon zest, a little lemon juice, garlic and scallion into the browned butter once the heat has calmed down a bit.
7. Toss the grilled potatoes in the butter just before serving. Season with flaky salt and possibly a little more lemon juice.

Grilling Method: How to Succeed on the Grill

I like medium direct heat here, about 392–428°F at the grate. Too low a heat gives pale potatoes. Too high a heat gives a black skin and a soft inside with no control. On a gas grill, a plancha or grill basket is very handy. On a charcoal grill, the grate works well as long as the potatoes aren’t too small. If you want to bring in a little light smoke character, you can put on a small handful of mild smoking wood, but only a small puff. Potatoes should taste of potato first.

If you’re unsure when to choose direct heat and when to go indirect, grilling methods at BBQLovers is a good foundation to go back to.

Temperature, Time and Signs That It’s Done

Parboiling is half the job. It lets the potatoes become creamy inside without spending too long on the grill. After grilling they should have color in patches, a slightly crisp skin and a soft interior when you poke them with a knife. Total active grilling time usually ends up around 10–15 minutes after the boiling. If you use a plancha it can go faster because the contact surface is bigger.

• The skin should have clear roasted spots and a slightly cracked surface.
• The knife should slide in easily, but the potato is welcome to hold its shape.
• The butter should go on after grilling, not before, otherwise the dill and garlic burn.

Which Grill Works Best?

This is a recipe that works almost ridiculously well on a matte black Napoleon Rogue gas grill because you quickly get even medium heat. A Weber 57 kettle grill is great too, especially if you use a basket or plancha. A kamado works fine, but I tend to be a bit careful about putting too many coals under the potatoes because the ceramic likes to hold on to more heat than you’d think.

Serving Suggestions

Serve the potatoes with grilled fish, chicken, lamb or just with a cold herb sauce and a couple of lemon wedges. They’re especially good with dishes where you already have some smoke and need something that brings buttery richness and saltiness back. I also think they’re ridiculously good next to halloumi or grilled vegetables when you want to make a dinner that feels like summer without revolving around a big piece of meat.

If you like green sides with a clear grill flavor, the BBQLovers home page is right now a pretty good shop window for new vegetable recipes, including pointed cabbage and cauliflower, which play nicely with these potatoes.

Björn’s Tips

• Let the steam escape from the potatoes after boiling. That’s where you win the surface.
• Salt the water properly from the start, otherwise you’ll have to chase flavor afterwards.
• Stir the dill and lemon into the butter after it has finished browning, and they stay fresh.

Common Mistakes

• Putting raw new potatoes straight on the grill and hoping for the best. It’s almost always uneven.
• Using too much oil. The potatoes should grill, not fry themselves greasy and soft.
• Adding the garlic too early to the browned butter. Then it turns bitter.
• Forgetting the acid. The lemon is needed to lift the butter and capers.

Variations and Adaptations

You can swap the dill for parsley and chives if you want a softer herb profile. A little finely grated horseradish also goes nicely if the potatoes are going to be served with fish. If you want to make it even more grilled, you can let a few scallions go on the grate and chop them into the butter. For a heartier feel you can top with crumbled feta or aged hard cheese, but then I would cut back a little on the capers.

Why This Recipe Works

New potatoes contain a lot of water and relatively little starch compared with baking potatoes. That’s why they need help to get a really good grill surface without burning before the middle is done. The parboiling means the inside is already almost done and the steam can then leave the surface when the potatoes get to rest dry. Then the grill heat can do what it does best: create roasted, caramelized spots and a bit of chew in the skin.

Brown butter works as a flavor engine. When the milk proteins brown, you get nuttiness and depth that suits both dill and lemon incredibly well. The capers bring saltiness and umami, but also texture when they sizzle up a bit. The lemon cuts through the butter and makes the dish feel lively instead of heavy. It’s a pretty simple balance really: fat, acid, salt and crispness. But when everything lands right, it becomes the kind of side people start talking about as if it were the main event. Perfectly reasonable, if you ask me.

FAQ

Do you have to parboil new potatoes before grilling?

Yes, if you want an even result. Otherwise the outside risks getting too hard before the inside is done.

Can I make grilled new potatoes in a grill basket?

Yes, it’s one of the best ways if the potatoes are small or if you’re cooking on a charcoal grill with a wider grate.

How long should new potatoes be grilled?

After parboiling, 10–15 minutes usually does it over medium direct heat.

What goes with grilled new potatoes?

Fish, chicken, lamb, halloumi, cold sauces and green salads go very well.

Can I prepare the potatoes in advance?

Yes. Parboil them earlier in the day, let them cool and grill right before serving.

Can it be made without dill?

Absolutely. Parsley, chives or tarragon also work, but dill is hard to beat with new potatoes in particular.

This is the kind of dish that makes you wonder why you ever settled for foil packets and a random knob of butter. Once new potatoes have had real grill flavor, there’s not much desire to go back.