| Total: | 1 hr |
| Prep: | 30 min |
| Cook: | 30 min |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- Peanut or other vegetable oil, for frying
- 2 pounds baking potatoes, like russets
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- Pour oil in a deep fryer or heavy saucepan to reach halfway up the sides of the pan. Heat to 325 degrees F, use a deep fry thermometer to determine this. While the oil is heating, peel the potatoes and push through a French fry cutter to form uniform sticks. As you go, place the cut potatoes in a bowl of ice water to release some of the starch and to keep them from browning.
- Dry the potato strips thoroughly, this will keep the oil from splattering. Fry the potatoes in batches so the pan isn’t crowded and the oil temperature does not plummet. Cook for 3 minutes until they are soft but not browned. Remove the potatoes with a long-handled metal strainer and drain on brown paper bags.
- Bring oil temperature up to 375 degrees F. Return the par-fried potatoes to the oil in batches and cook a second time for 4 minutes until golden and crispy. Drain on fresh brown paper bags then place in a serving bowl lined with paper towels. Salt and serve immediately.
Reviews
I added onion powder seasoning and used red lobster fish fry to bread them. And man I tell ya!!! It was smacking good!!!! 10 star rating!!!!
I like to change every recipe that I read and then comment on my changes.
I just made these. Toss in flour before dropping in to oil and kick up the texture to the next level. Best fries I’ve ever had.
Excellent! Not greasy to the touch. I made way more than the 2 pounds so started waiting for oil to reheat between batches, but lost patience and they still turned out perfectly!
Okay, I’m not an expert fry cook. But these came out PERFECT! Only thing I sort of learned is that the temperature in the oil drops fast (particularly on the first cooking). It went from like 335 to 285 and then slowly back up. So I’d get the oil to about 350+ then drop the fries (I loaded up each batch on my large mesh fry spoon thing and lowered it into the oil). When you crank it up to 375 in “part 2” of this process the temp only drops about 10-15 degrees so get it to about 385. And in about 3-4 minutes the fries will be ready. Salt right away. And I definitely recommend laying them on paperbags (lined in a cookie sheet). Seems to work really well. The fries were not greasy at all.
I had heard that two stage frying was the way to go, and I suspect that the ice water bath to let some starch wash off makes a difference.
This worked the first time. In the first frying stage the oil got down to 250, but I wasn’t worried, I believe its actually important not to have it too hot. In the second stage I was careful to use small batches so the oil was at 360 or higher for good browning.
The taste was pure strong potato.
Very easy recipe to follow and the fries were PERFECT. I’ve seen Alton Brown do this technique so I knew it would be great. I served my fries alongside my own cuban chicken sandwich and topped them with fine and coarse kosher salt and fresh cilantro garnish. These would be delicious with malt vinegar, fry sauce, plain or any other way. Fabulous!
There is not a store bought or restaurant cooked fry that can compare to these!!!
I usually don’t go in for fried stuff but these had to be the best. The trouble was worth it. They were really crisp and stayed that way.
These turned out great. My husband wanted me to make these for dinner the next night too! Crispy and delicious–worth digging out the fryer for.