How to Make the Best French Fries at Home
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By Rochelle Bilow
(Photo: Marcus Nilsson)
If it’s comfort food you’re after, there’s nothing quite like a pile of hot, fresh, salty French fries. It also happens to be just the sort of cooking project we love: Easier than it looks, and more satisfying than placing an order at a diner or restaurant. Fry purists may insist on starchy russet potatoes, vegetable oil, and a shower of kosher salt. While we love a good classic fry, we’re also not ones to shy away from new spins on old favorites. These are our favorite fry hacks, from umami-packed mushroom salt (great) to duck fat (insane).
Skip the Potatoes
Nobody said that French fries have to be made from potatoes. At least, we’re saying it. Any starchy root vegetable will do in place of traditional potatoes: Think parsnips, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, kohlrabi, and celery root. These baked parsnip fries with rosemary are just as satisfying as potato fries while nailing that whole savory-sweet thing.
Recipe: Baked Parsnip Fries with Rosemary
(Photo: Romulo Yanes)
Recipe by Rozanne Gold
2 1/2 pounds parsnips or carrots, peeled, cut into about 3x1/2-inch strips
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary, plus 5 sprigs rosemary
1 large garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
½ teaspoon (or more) ground cumin
Preheat oven to 450°. Mix parsnips, chopped rosemary, garlic, and oil on a large rimmed baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Spread out in a single layer. Scatter rosemary sprigs over.
Roast for 10 minutes; turn parsnips and roast until parsnips are tender and browned in spots, 10–15 minutes longer. Crumble leaves from rosemary sprigs over; discard stems and toss to coat. Sprinkle ½ tsp. cumin over. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and more cumin, if desired.
Switch Up the Shape
So maybe you can’t DIY smiley face-shaped fries. But with some handy knife work or a little help from a mandoline slicer, you can change up the shape, thickness, and size of your fries. Slice them extra-thin for shoelace-style fries that are all crunch. Prefer an equally creamy-crispy ratio? Go for a standard shape and width. Crave the soft and smooth innards of freshly fried fries? Be extra generous with your slices and aim for steak fry or potato wedge-shapes. They’re your fries, and you can shape as you want to.
Use an Alterna-Fat
Many home fry cooks and restaurant chefs alike prefer vegetable or canola oils for their high smoke point and cost-effective price. Some fats are not fit for frying (butter and extra virgin olive oil’s low smoke points and delicate flavor come to mind). But we might like lard- or duck fat-fried potatoes even better than their veggie oil-alternatives; they’re heartier and meatier. These fats are semi-solid and spreadable at room temperature, but once you heat them to optimal frying temperature (in the 350-degree range), they melt into a golden-colored liquid with an intoxicating fragrance. Warning: Once you try duck fat fries, you may never go back.
Related: Spiced French Frieds
(Photo: Gentl & Hyers)
Get Salty
No French fry should ever go without salt but when it comes to the type of salt you use, the sky’s the limit. Add a little funk with a salt spiked with a DIY mushroom salt made with porcini powder, or brightness with a citrus zest salt. Fennel seeds, flecks of dried garlic, and finely chopped herbs all add oomph to ordinary salt. Other great combinations include chipotle-lime, coffee-paprika, and sichuan-sesame. If you’re a fan of sea salt, check out these American-sourced varieties that are really worth their, uh, salt.
Related: 8 American Sea Salts Worth Sprinkling on Lots of Foods
Go Old School with Old Bay
Old Bay is an iconic seafood seasoning loved for its salty, smoky, and sweet flavor. With paprika, mustard, black and red pepper, and savory spices like mace, cloves, and allspice, it also sounds like the sort of thing that’d be perfect on, well, just about anything fried and crispy. Old Bay fries are a restaurant cult-favorite, but there’s no reason you can’t make them at home. Shake some Old Bay over fries as soon as you remove them from the hot oil (or lard, or duck fat). For oven-baked fries, add the seasoning before you cook them.
Related: Sweet Potato Fries with Sriracha Crème Fraîche
(Photo: Laura Loesch Quintin)
Upgrade Your Dip
There’s nothing wrong with a little ketchup, but let’s talk about how awesome a little ketchup with a lot of Sriracha would be. The sweet heat of spicy ketchup is a perfect foil to the fatty-salty-crispy flavor profile of the fries. To make your own, swirl a few squirts of Sriracha into ketchup (Hey, no one claimed this would be rocket science.) We also love the creaminess of mayonnaise—hat-tip to the Brits and Europeans for that one—or crème fraîche with our fries. Take a cue from your spicy ketchup and mix hot sauce into either. Other awesome mayo add-ins: chopped chives, caramelized onions, cracked black pepper, lemon zest, and, if you’re rolling deep, pieces of black truffle. And, just throwing this one out there: ranch dip plus Sriracha.
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