Perfect French Fries

by In The Kitchen With Matt in Cooking > Snacks & Appetizers

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Perfect French Fries

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In this instructable, I will show you how to make French Fries. This is and easy way to make amazing french fries. The result will resemble closely to the fries that you would get at a Five Guy's or other similar places. I love french fries! And I love making them at home, go out there and make your own! Let's get started!

If you have any questions or comments, put them down below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Follow the easy steps or watch the short video tutorial or do both!

Ingredients/Tools

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You may print the recipe here.

Ingredients:

  • Potatoes (I use Russets, they work really well)
  • Oil (I like to use peanut oil, but any high smoke point oil should work, lard works great too)
  • Salt
  • Cold water

Tools:

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Wash Them Potatoes

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Now let's wash our potatoes really well. After they are washed you can peel them if you like. I don't peel mine. It's just a personal preference.

Cut Them Potatoes

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Now it is time to cut the potatoes into our fry shape. I have a handy fry cutter that I really like. It saves a bunch of time, but you can certainly just use a knife.

Soak Them Potatoes

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Next we place our potatoes cuts into a large bowl with really cold water. Make sure to add a couple of tsp. of salt as well. Why do we do this? This process helps to remove that starch from those potatoes, resulting in a much tastier french fry. We want to soak them for about 20 minutes.

Heat Your Oil

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While our potatoes are soaking let's go ahead and get our oil started. I am using a deep fryer, which I really like, however a pot and candy thermometer will work just fine. We want to heat our oil for the "first fry" to 320 degrees F. (160 C)

Drain and Dry Them Potatoes

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Next we drain the water from the potatoes and place them on a paper towel. We use another paper towel to pat them dry. We want them fairly dry, because water and hot oil do not play nice together. :)

First "Low Temp" Fry Then the Freeze

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Now we place a small batch of potatoes into our deep fryer or pot and fry them on a lower heat around 320 degrees F (160 C) for 4 to 6 minutes until they are blonde in color. You will probably need to wait a few minutes after a few batches and let the oil come back up to temperature. Once they are done place them on a paper towel to dry, then in freezer bags or tupperware, so we can freeze them. If you don't have time to freeze them, you can go to the next step. I like to freeze mine so I can make a ton up front, and then freeze the ones I am not going to eat to fry up later.

High Heat Fry

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Now once we have frozen our fries, let's turn up our heat to 400 to 425 degrees F. (205 C to 218 C). Of if you deep fryer doesn't go that high, put it on its highest setting. Then comes our "Second" fry or "High Heat" fry. Take a batch of fries and place them in the hot oil, this time we will only be frying them for around a minute or so, until they turn a nice golden brown. Take them out and place them on a paper towel to drain the excess oil off and salt them fries up! We are done, enjoy!!

***Note about the "Two-Fry Method" This is not a new method, nor my own method, it has been around for ages. (The first fry will cook them almost completely without over browning them, the second fry will cook them the rest of the way and crisp them up.)

Video Tutorial

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Now watch those steps in action by checking out the short video tutorial!

You may print the recipe here.