Why are my roasted potatoes pale and not crispy?

 Why are my roasted potatoes pale and not crispy? I boil them beforehand.

You’re only part of the way done.

To make them crispy and brown, you either need to use a deep fried or roasted method. But instead, by boiling it, sure you get the temperature, but none of the Maillard Reaction chemical reaction needed to get the amino acids to kick in with the heat, brown the potatoes and get it crispy.

(from Martha Stewart)

You see, boiling is an entirely different chemical reaction, and you’ll never get them crispy (or at least not easily). You would need to roast them at a REALLY high temperature to dry out the skin first before it even starts roasting. All the parboiling stage does is when you take it out, you add a lot more texture to the potato for the oil to cook.

The British do something along those lines by parboiling first, and you would need a waxy potato like the Russet, the King Edward or the Dutch Cream to work with.

This is what you need to do.

1. Cut your potatoes, and soak for 20 minutes in salted iced water.
2. Boil for 5–7 minutes TOPS. You want a fork to go into easily but gets harder to do so in the center.
3. Drain the water in a strainer and give it time for it to dry. Say about 15 minutes. Shake the strainer after that to drain any excess water.
4. Put a light coating of olive oil and add some thyme and roast the potatoes on a baking sheet at 350 F. It’ll take a little time, but you’ll get that crispiness in about an 45–50 minutes. Around the 25 minute point, flip the potatoes.
5. Another option instead of oil, which  reminded me of, is to use duck fat. It’ll be super rich and tastes incredibly good, BUT it will be decadent.