These Crispy Homemade French Fries are the best and only require 3 ingredients. Quick and simple to make and better than fast food.
French fries are about the perfect food. I am always in the mood for French fries. Potatoes in general are great in just about everything, but frying them is probably one of my favorite ways to eat them.
This recipe is special because I used to make these French fries in culinary school and me and my partner would make a huge batch and add a whole bunch of seasonings to it to make it special. The winners were salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a tiny pinch of cayenne.
Whenever I make these at home, I am reminded of those happy memories and it makes it all the more special.
Here I share all my tips and tricks, so you can make your own homemade French fries.
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Ingredients
There isn’t a lot of ingredients involved in making homemade french fries, but each carries an important role.
- Russet Potatoes. These in my humble opinion make the best potatoes. They taste the best and have a high starch and low moisture content. The low moisture content helps making crispier French fries.
- Frying oil. You can use any neutral oil with a high smoke point. I use canola, but you can use vegetable, peanut oil, safflower, sunflower, etc.
Alternatively you can bake these. After boiling the potatoes, pat dry and bake in 425 F oven for 15-20 minutes.
- Salt. You want to use this to season the potatoes internally and outside the potatoes as well.
- Water. Soaking your potatoes in water will remove most of the starch from the potatoes. Starch makes it harder for the potatoes to crisp up.
Procedure for Homemade French fries
There is essentially 4 steps to make deliciously crisp homemade French fries.
First, cut and soak your potatoes. Peeling your potatoes are up to you. Sometimes I like to do it and sometimes I don’t. Either way you do it, make sure you have a bowl of cold water handy. This is because cut potatoes can oxidize quickly and turn a weird pinkish purple. To stop this, soak it in cold water.
This has a dual effect. It also washes the starch off the potatoes. Many recipes say to soak it over night, or at least for a couple hours. But since we are par boiling it before frying, then you don’t have to soak it for that long.
Next, boil it briefly. This partially cooks the potato on the inside and seasons it. It’s important to not over cook it at this step or it will fall apart and be mushy. You want it to be slightly opaque.
The purpose of this step is to decrease the amount of time you have to fry it and decrease the likelihood you will burn the outside and the inside will be undercooked. Also this removes more starch from the potato.
Pat dry and heat oil to 275 F. Add your potatoes to the oil and fry for 5-7 minutes until completely cooked and white. Remove and pat dry of excess oil.
Finally, crank the oil up to 375 F and cook until golden and crispy. This is all about cooking the outside and making it extra crispy for perfect fries. Once cooked, season with salt and any other seasonings you desire. Serve hot and fresh! I like to have it with vegan chicken nuggets or a sandwich.
This may seem like a long process, but these fries can be done in under an hour and I have had the most consistent fries with this process.
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Crispy French Fries
Materials
- 5 russet potatoes
- 2 tsp kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling after frying
- oil for frying preferably an oil with a high smoke point and neutral flavor, like canola, vegetable, peanut, or sunflower oil
Instructions
- Peel and cut your potato into sticks. You want them relatively the same size and not too big or small. Use a knife or French fry cutter.
- Soak your potatoes in a bowl of cold water for at least 15 minutes. This will stop oxidation and rinse off starch.
- Drain the potatoes and put into a pot with cold water. Bring water to a boil and then add salt. Boil for 3-5 minutes, until potatoes are opaque, but not falling apart.
- Drain and pat the potatoes dry with paper towels.
- In a separate pot, heat your oil to 275°F. Place your potatoes in batches until they mostly cooked through, but not falling apart. Should take 5-7 minutes. Remove and pat dry.
- Heat oil to 375°F. Place potatoes in and cook until golden brown in color. Another 5 minutes.
- Remove fries from the oil and season with salt and any other seasonings you want. I like black pepper and garlic powder.
I hope you try this recipe. If you tried this recipe, let me know in the comments below.
i never boiled potatoes before frying but doing that makes them much better because of soft interior texture. o usually use coconut oil but canola i will try. do not like sunflower oil (allergic)
Truffle oil also good but very expensive.
Excellent texture, flavor and nutritional. I especially enjoyed the Krispy Kreme donuts.
Excellent texture, flavor and nutritional.