The classic recipe for crispy McDonald's style fries at home. French fries are one of the most popular snacks out there, but not many folks know how to whip them up at home. Follow this recipe, and you'll end up with fries that are golden and crispy on the outside, yet soft on the inside! Just like the ones from your favorite fast-food joint.
First, let's peek behind the curtain and see how McDonald's makes their famous fries:
- They use only a few potato varieties with low sugar and starch content. Worldwide favorites are Russet and Shepody.
- The potatoes go through a sorting process, and only the big boys make the cut.
- They wash the spuds, give them a quick hot water bath to make peeling easier, and then peel them in a special machine.
- Next, workers manually trim off any visible damage or poorly peeled spots. No uglies allowed!
- The potatoes zoom through a tube at about 75 mph (120 km/h) and meet their fate at the cutting stations. This is how they get those perfectly shaped fries.
- A fancy machine then sorts through the cut potatoes, kicking out any that are too short, uneven, or skinny. Talk about picky!
- The soon-to-be fries get another wash and a sweet little treatment to ensure they'll brown up nicely.
- They partially fry the potatoes and then freeze them. It's like they're putting them into cryosleep!
- After that, they're packaged up and shipped off to restaurants.
- At the restaurant, they get their final fry, a sprinkle of salt, and voila - they're ready for your tray!
Now, we can't exactly replicate all these fancy processes at home, but we can definitely adapt the recipe for our kitchen. Trust me, it'll be worth it!
These fries pair perfectly with some Ranch or Garlic Mayo sauce. And if you're not keen on deep-frying, you can always bake them in the oven for a healthier twist.
Ingredients for 5 portions
- 2.2 lb Russet Potatoes (1 kg)
- 4 1/4 cup Vegetable oil for frying (1 l)
- 4 pinch Salt
How to make CopyCat McDonald's French Fries
Peel the large potato tubers and cut them into sticks with sides about 1/4 inch (5-7 mm) wide. You can slice the potatoes with a knife, a special grater, or using a food processor with a suitable attachment.
To make your homemade fast food indistinguishable from restaurant-style, you can shape the potatoes into rectangular blocks first, and then cut them into thick matchsticks.
To get rid of excess starch, we submerge the potato sticks in cool water and let them soak for 15-20 minutes. After that, we rinse the potatoes in fresh water and place them on a paper towel.
If you want, you can add sugar, salt, and vinegar to the soaking water, but personally, I find this step unnecessary.
For french fries, it's best to choose potato varieties with a low starch content. This way, the finished snack will keep its shape well, remaining crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. High-starch potato varieties tend to blacken faster when exposed to air, and during the cooking process, they become crumbly and loose.
We thoroughly blot the potato sticks with paper towels to remove excess water.
Water in hot oil tends to "spit" and splatter.
Place an empty pot on the stove and heat it up. This will eliminate any possible water droplets. Plus, the oil heats more evenly in a hot container. Pour in enough oil to completely cover the potato slices. Ideally, the potato pieces should be able to float in it.
Instead of a pot, you can use a saucepan, deep fryer, or a deep skillet. Remember, if the oil spills over onto a gas stove, it can ignite. So, the container should be tall enough to prevent this.
What oil should you use for making french fries? When choosing, pay attention to the oil's smoke point – the temperature at which it starts to burn. This temperature varies for each type of fat, and the more impurities it contains, the lower it is. It's better to choose refined oil or special frying oil. You can also mix several types of oils, which can help increase the smoke point.
For deep frying, you'll need about 4 to 5 cups (1 to 1.2 liters) of oil, depending on your pot size. Make sure there's enough to submerge the fries completely.
Heat the vegetable oil to 330°F (165°C) and carefully lower the prepared potato sticks into it in small batches. Blanch fry until the sticks float to the surface and fry them for 2-3 minutes until they develop a light, barely noticeable golden hue.
To check if the oil is hot enough, drop in a single potato slice. If it sizzles and immediately becomes covered in bubbles, the oil is ready for frying.
After the first frying, the potatoes should be pale in color and soft inside. They're already edible at this point, just missing that crispy exterior.
If you pick up a potato stick by one end, it should bend under its weight.
I use the double-frying method. The first fry makes the inside of the potato soft. The second fry creates a crispy, golden-brown crust on the outside. If you prefer, you can skip the initial frying and boil the potatoes in water instead. However, that would be a completely different recipe.
You can also fry the potatoes in one go, which takes much less time. These fries turn out crispy and tasty, but they have a denser crust and less juicy inside. 😉
Place the partially cooked fries on paper towels to remove excess oil. Before moving on to the next stage, the potato sticks need to cool down completely.
You can spread the prepped fries on a cutting board, leaving a little space between each piece, and put them in the freezer until they're fully frozen. After that, you can transfer the semi-finished fries to a suitable bag and store them in the freezer.
Some recipes recommend freezing raw potatoes, but in my opinion, that's not good advice. If you freeze potatoes without pre-cooking, the starch they contain will turn into sugar. As a result, you'll end up with a spoiled product instead of your favorite fast food treat.
Heat the oil to 340-350°F (170-175°C) and fry the potatoes until they turn golden, about 3-4 minutes. Keep an eye on the heat under the oil - if it's too high, the fries might start to burn.
The fries should turn out crispy on the outside, but soft and juicy on the inside.
If the fries burn despite low heat, or remain soft without developing a crispy crust, it's likely due to using an unsuitable potato variety.
Transfer the french fries to a paper towel and immediately, while they're still hot, sprinkle them with fine salt.
You can also add ground black pepper or other seasonings to taste.
Serve the finished McDonald's-style french fries hot with your favorite sauce or ketchup.
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