OK, I want to add a nice garlicy flavor to my fried potatoes. I have tried adding minced garlic but it isn’t achieving the flavor I want.
Any advice?
Garlic salt? A lot of people associate the processed versions with “garlicy” more than the fresh, which seems to be milder or more mellow than they like.
Alternatively, don’t add the garlic too early–as it cooks, the flavor gets milder and sweeter. (There’s also a risk of scorching it.)
I’m reluctant to add salt as I have high BP anyway.
I may be adding it too early, since I put it in right at the onset.
Garlic Powder?
And make sure you aren’t burning it. If it’s getting brown around the edges, it’s burning.
If you’re putting minced garlic in with raw potatoes at the same time, odds are you are burning it or just cooking it much too long. Or, well, what cher3 said. 
Try roasting it until it’s soft, then mix it in.
Garlic oil is pretty volatile. Add the garlic two or three minutes before the taters are ready.
I have finely minced raw garlic (and parsley) ready while the potatoes are frying. The instant I scoop the potatoes out onto paper towels to drain a bit, I sprinkle the potatoes with the garlic mixture. The high heat radiating from the just-cooked potatoes cooks the garlic a bit and the strong flavor saturates the hot potatoes. The little flecks of half raw/half cooked garlic sticking to each potato give you a memorable garlic experience. I haven’t made this dish for months due to the calories, and now you’ve got me wanting a batch!
Garlic powder has that same flavor without the added salt (check the ingredients, though).
Since you’re frying the potatoes, try adding the powder, minced garlic and other spices to the oil or butter as you heat it. You’ll want to remove the real garlic before it turns brown and bitter, but you can add it back in at the end, along with some uncooked garlic if you want.
I add garlic (with some butter) at the end, and cook about 30-60 seconds, tossing or stirring occasionally. If you cook garlic too long it won’t taste like garlic anymore. If you sprinkle a little chopped parsley on the potatoes, you won’t get stinky garlic breath (or so I have convinced myself).
I keep a jar of roasted minced garlic handy and add it to dishes after they’ve been cooked. What sort of fried potatoes - like french fries? Sprinkle roasted garlic bits over the potatoes as soon as you toss them into the strainer to drain the oil.
Press it in a garlic press or cut the the finest mince. Add that 4 minutes before service with a touch of oil… the homefries will have absorbed most of the oil at this point and the pan might be dry (fat is the great spreader of flavor and joy.)
But you must also make qualifications for the amount of garlic added if you fine mince or press the cloves, consider it 1/3 more potent. Or in other words, if the recipe calls for three smashed or chopped cloves, you need add only 2 pressed cloves (unless you really like garlic, then I’d add 5.)
What I do is put 42 cloves of peeled garlic in 26 ounces of olive oil and bring it just to a simmer. Let the oil simmer for 20 minutes or so, then let it cool overnight. Strain out the garlic and save it for mashing. The oil can be used for flavoring anything. The 26 ounces is only important because it’s the size of my garlic oil bottle, so in your case it may be different. The 42 cloves in only important because 42 is an important number. Try frying the potatoes in the garlic oil and see if you like that.
Garlic Lover’s Garlic. Salt-free.
Pan fried potatoes. Home fries.
Add garlic powder right after you remove the potatoes from the pan, just like you add salt at that time (no salt for you, though). It’s the best time for adding seasonings, as Emeril says, when they’re vulnerable.
I say don’t use processed garlic: no salt, no purée, no powder. They’re all very sulfurous and taste quite gross to me.
I suspect the flavor you’re missing is cooked garlic, so chop/mince it then fry it on a medium heat for a short while until it’s starting to brown - it’s easy to burn so be careful - then add it. Alternatively use katie1341’s advice.
Thanks for the advice guys. I waited until just before serving to add the garlic and it was very nearly what I was looking for. I will experiment with adding more and less and different times until I get it right. But it was a definite improvement. 
Apropos to this thread, I’ve just found two garlic presses. I bought my house from a friend in 2003. There’s a drawer in the kitchen that I’d assumed was just full of plastic shopping bags. They’re useful for lining wastebaskets, etc. The drawer is a handy place to keep them for recycling too. Only I’ve been keeping my plasic bag supply elsewhere and pretty much forgot about the drawer.
Well, I’ve been getting more kitchen gear and thought I’d expand into that drawer. I removed the bags, and all the way in back were some utensiles. One of the garlic presses is the typical kind you pick up at the supermarket: two hinged pieces. The other one is similar to this one, only smaller – the typical size one usually thinks of. It has a hinged plunger that goes straight down into a little cylinder. I’ve never seen one like that.
I haven’t used a garlic press in years. Normally I just mash the clove under a jar or heavy glass, remove the skin, and then mince it with a knife.
Damn, that sounds good.
Fresh garlic lover here- dried herbs, salts, powders, etc, just don’t have the flavor I’m looking for when I cook.