What you need
Lynn runs the list on camera: four cut up yellow potatoes, one medium sized purple onion, a fourth of a cup of water, and one teaspoon of paprika (the first half of the list), then one tablespoon of garlic powder, one tablespoon of an all-purpose seasoning blend, one teaspoon of black pepper, one tablespoon of chives, and pink salt to taste (the rest of the list).
The fat is half and half. She melts half a stick of butter and adds about a fourth of a cup of canola oil, or whichever oil you keep, and says the butter is what gives the potatoes a good buttery taste (butter and oil, half and half). These are fried in a little fat rather than deep fried (fried, not deep fried). The onion is purple, but she says you do not have to use purple, use whatever you like (purple, or whatever you like).
Getting the potatoes ready
She peels four potatoes, saying she likes to get most of the peeling off without chasing every bit of brown, rinses them, and puts them straight into an ice water bath so they do not start turning brown in the little bit of time it takes to cut them (the ice water bath). Cut pieces go back into the water as she works (back into the water).
She cuts them around a quarter inch (about a quarter inch) and breaks the cut onion apart so it is not going into the skillet in big chunks (breaking up the onion). The potatoes get drained right at the last minute and go into oil that is good and hot and already sizzling (draining, then into the hot skillet).
How she seasons and cooks them
The seasonings get measured out and mixed together in the same bowl she used to drain the potatoes, then sprinkled over the top and tossed through (mixing the seasonings in the bowl). Salt is deliberately not in that mix. She scatters pink salt, or whatever salt you like, evenly over the potatoes afterward, as much as you want (the salt goes on separately).
Then they sit and cook on medium for about another seven to eight minutes (medium, seven to eight minutes). She opens a spot in the skillet to get the onions in and works them through (working the onions in). Once the potatoes start getting tender she tosses them to lift the good bits off the bottom of the skillet, but gently, because at that point they will break all up into little pieces (tossing them gently).
The step that makes them tender
This is what she made the video for. The fourth of a cup of water she measured out at the start goes into the skillet, which helps the potatoes steam and gets the little bits and pieces off the bottom of the pan (the splash of water).
The cover goes back over the top and they cook seven to eight more minutes, and that is what takes them from done to real extra tender. She says to be careful with them at that point because they will fall apart (covered, seven to eight more minutes). She says that before she learned to cook them this way it was hard to get the potatoes done through (what changed for her).
She serves them up alongside hamburger steak (how she plates them), and says whatever is left over is good the next morning with gravy and a biscuit (leftovers the next morning).