Easy Homemade French Fries

So you are stuck at home and have a craving for some real French fries. I mean, the restaurant style fries that have a nice crunch on the outside and soft bite on the inside. We’ve got you covered with our easy homemade French fries recipe that you can make from whole potatoes. In a hurry? Use frozen fries.

Guilty pleasure? Sure, but we all deserve those sometimes. And really, French fries do have good nutrition and fiber to boot. If you fry at the right temperature, the potatoes don’t soak up excess oil. And if you don’t want the mess of frying or the calories of oil then try our Baked Boardwalk Fries (see last section under You May Also Like for the recipe).

How To Make Easy Homemade French Fries

Heat oil in a heavy 5-6 qt pot to 325 degrees. Cast iron is great for frying anything. I like a deep Dutch oven to keep the splattering oil at bay, but a skillet can be used. Typically a medium flame will get you there, but it all depends on how large and how deep the oil is. Use either vegetable, canola or peanut oil.

Wash and dry russet potatoes. If you don’t want the skin then peel the potatoes (personally I keep the skin on, totally a personal choice). Cut in half lengthwise. If you are lucky enough to have a mandoline then it is super handy here. Slice into ¼” fries, see section below about how to cut the French fries.

Rinse in water until the water runs clear. This step helps remove the excess sugars and keeps the fries from turning dark too quickly. Dab dry with a paper towel.

Fry in bathes so you don’t overload the pot for about 4 minutes, stirring the oil gently every couple of minutes. Remove fries with a spider, a mesh strainer or slotted spoon to paper towel lined baking sheet. Dab excess oil.

This first fry is not for color, it just starts the cooking process and ensures that eventually you’ll have crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside easy homemade French Fries.

Drop fries on another paper towel lined baking sheet in a single layer. Blot dry. Once you are finished with all of the batches, turn up the heat and get the oil to 375 degrees.

Drop the semi-cooked fries in the hotter oil, again in batches, until they are a beautiful golden color. Don’t over do it. About 2-3 minutes.

If the fries are taking longer or shorter than I’ve indicated, then adjust the temperature of the oil. Unless you’ve decided to make skinny shoestring fries (shorter time) or thick steak cut fries (longer time), then your timing should align more or less with mine.

After the second fry you want to season the easy homemade French fries immediately. That way the salt will stick to the fries better. Good ole kosher or sea salt is a great choice here. Or use a seasoned salt that will taste more like Arby’s fries. Old Bay is a favorite among North east people, especially along the eastern shore of Maryland or Virginia.

Easy Homemade French Fries Tip

If you want to cut the French fries several hours earlier than needed, just place cut fries in a bowl of cold water, add some ice. If you cut them the night before then put the bowl in the refrigerator. This will keep the potatoes from turning brown.

You can actually go through the first frying step and then leave out on a paper towel lined baking sheet for a few hours before doing the second fry.

Most dipping sauces can be made at least a day ahead of time, keep in refrigerator.

Should I Use a Mandoline To Make French Fries?

A mandoline makes perfectly cut easy homemade French fries like you see at restaurants. The length may differ, but the thickness will be consistent and therefore the cooking will be consistent.

When using the mandoline make sure to use the food holder. And no, it’s not nerdy to use a food holder, it just keeps you with five working fingers instead of four. It’s super easy to slice and cut yourself if you don’t use the food holder.

If you don’t own a mandoline (put it on your wish list, they save sooooo much time), then use a sharp knife and try to keep the thickness of the fries the same so that they cook evenly.

I use an OXO mandoline(ADDLINK) using the straight blade and dialed down to ¼ inch for classic French fries. If you want shoestring fries dial down even further to 1/8 inch.

Using the food holder, press firmly and slice down. It may be hard. I sometimes have to quickly slice the potato, then pick it up and put the potato back at the top of the mandoline.

If you don’t have a mandoline then no problem, it’ll just take a little more elbow grease and time. Cut potato in half lengthwise. Then place each half on it’s side and cut into ¼” slices. Now place cut side down and slice into ¼” fries.

To Peel or Not To Peel the Potato For French Fries

It’s a personal choice.  The cutting and cooking of the easy homemade French fries doesn’t vary either way, with or without skin, peeled or not.

Keeping the skin on has some benefits. According to Idahopotato.com, the skin has more nutrients than the inside of the potato and tons of fiber. About half the fiber of the interior of a russet potato.

I like the taste, texture and visual appeal of keeping the skin on the fries.

Interesting nutrition information for a russet potato according to potatogoodness.com is that a potato has about 110 calories, is a better source of potassium than a banana and is rich in vitamin C, Vitamin B6 and is fat, sodium and cholesterol free. How’s that for Mother Nature?

What To Serve With French Fries

What’s the first thing that came to your mind? A nice all-American juicy burger, didn’t it?

How about fish and chips?

Or hotdogs, grilled sandwiches, hot wings or paninis.

Sriracha Ketchup and Other French Fry Sauces

What goes hand in hand with easy homemade French fries? Ketchup of course. And these days not any old ketchup will do.  Flavored ketchups are in favor right now. We’ll have a post on that soon.

Sriracha ketchup is my favorite flavored ketchup for fries. It gives just the right amount of heat.

Sriracha Ketchup

½ cup favorite ketchup

2 Tablespoons favorite sriracha sauce

Ketchup – plain or flavored

Mayonnaise – yep, mayo. Lots of people like dunking their nice hot fries directly into mayo. Or do like Heinz does and mix the ketchup and mayo. Or try putting one part pesto to four parts mayonnaise for pesto mayonnaise, delicious!

Special Comeback Sauce – this is really a version of Russian dressing. When you see a pinky orangey sauce on restaurant menus labelled “special sauce” it will most likely be a variation of Russian dressing. Try this special Russian dressing sauce recipe, I think you’ll like it.

Ranch dressing, what’s not great with Ranch dressing? You won’t believe how easy it is to make your own Ranch Dressing, recipe here. Or buy already made at the grocery. Ranch is perfect if you happen to be serving the French fries with hot wings.

Or do like the boardwalkers in Maryland do and dip in apple cider vinegar. Sounds weird but it’s really delicious.

Best Homemade French Fries – Baked or Fried?.

Alright, let’s end the debate. Fried foods just taste great. There, I said it.

With that said, there are advantages to both.

Baked fries have less calories and are easier to make plain and simple. Here’s our baked Boardwalk fries recipe. And baked French fries taste great. There is a group of people that prefer baked over fried. So even though I prefer the taste and texture of fried, I usually make baked French fries mainly because of the convenience factor. The only time I actually fry the potatoes is if I’m frying something else, like fish and chips.

Fried, if done right, are crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.  Restaurants have deep fryers which makes consistency much easier. Since most of us don’t own a fancy deep fryer, invest in a good thermometer to test the oil temperature. If you fry at the right temperature then excess oil isn’t absorbed by the food and makes it healthier than many people think.

I just bought a nice new Thermopen that can measure the temperature of the oil. But you can get others much less expensive. Or use my “bread cube” test. Toss a one-inch piece of fresh bread in the heated oil. You want it to brown perfectly within one minute. Alter the temperature according to how fast the bread browns and crisps.

What Kind Of Potato Do I Use For Homemade French Fries?

Russets are my choice for flavor as well as texture. A russet potato is what you usually think of as a baked potato, brown, about 4-5” long and 3” in diameter roughly.

How To Cook Frozen French Fries

The easiest way is to follow the package instructions for baking. If you take the extra effort to fry in oil then the potatoes will taste just like a restaurant.

Some frozen fries have trans-fat and/or additives. If that bothers you then some good choices would be Alexia brand fries or Trader Joe’s brand which have fairly clean ingredients.

Alexia fries(ADDLINK) have potatoes, oil, salt, apple juice concentrate to promote browning and citric acid to promote color retention. All good ingredients.

Trader Joe’s French fries(ADDLINK) have potatoes, vegetable oil, salt and dextrose. Dextrose is a sugar that adds sweetness as well as shelf life. My guess is that Trader Joe’s is going for the shelf life over sweetness by using dextrose.

You May Also Like:

For Northerner’s try our White Castle Sliders, for Southerners try our Krystal Burgers

General Muir Burger has thick cut pastrami, caramelized onions and Gruyere cheese. Incredible!

Wings, Sticky Asian Wings or Original Hot Wings from Anchor Bar or Easy Grilled Wings

Baked Boardwalk Fries save the mess of frying and are taken up a notch with Old Bay seasoning and apple cider vinegar