What self-respecting food site would ignore a post about creating the perfect french fry? This technique is almost too easy to prep, makes consistently crispy fries with creamy interiors, and is remarkably easy to clean up. That makes it dangerously delicious.
The best fries are traditionally cooked in two stages: a first fry to cook the potatoes for a creamy inside, and a second fry to perfectly crisp them on the outside. The key to this technique is the first fry starts with a crowded pot of potatoes in cold oil that slowly heats up and cooks without a lot of fuss. A quick second fry of smaller batches finishes the job.
You do need some tools, but they are all things that should be in your kitchen anyway and they are not expensive:
An Enameled Cast Iron 6-quart Pot. Le Creuset is the gold standard, but there are also other excellent choices—like this one from Lodge— for a quarter of the cost. You need cast iron to hold the heat.
A Foldable Steamer/Fryer Basket. It folds flat for storage but expands into a mesh basket that has a lot of uses—including frying in the enameled pot! It is a useful addition to your aluminum baskets and costs less than ten dollars.
10-in-1 Vegetable Chopper/Mandoline/Grater set. There are lots of variations on this product. Here is the set I bought for around $25. The blades are VERY sharp—watch your fingers!—and you can chop potatoes into piles of perfect uniform fry shape and size so quickly you have no excuse for using something out of a bag from the freezer. Plus, there are dozens of other uses for this inexpensive tool, from prepping veggies for a stir-fry to slicing fresh salad-makings.
Metal Tongs to move the first fry of the potatoes into the basket for the second fry. They can also be used to give the fries a stir to keep them from sticking together.
An Instant-Read Thermometer. A cheap one will do, but the best one for your kitchen is the Thermapen from ThermoWorks. At $89 (on sale) it is a bit pricey but lasts forever and is the only kitchen thermometer you will ever need.
INGREDIENTS
6 medium sized Russet potatoes (about three pounds)
6 cups frying oil (canola, vegetable, corn or peanut oil)
Table salt
Wash, clean, and dry the potatoes leaving the skins on. (You can peel the potatoes if you want, but I prefer the skins left on.) Using your chopper and either the smaller or larger checkerboard blade, cut the potatoes the full vertical length. The hinged chopper top might need a little help to close. If so, use the plastic guard to slowly and carefully push the potato part of the way straight down. Chopping all six should take less than a minute. Put the cut potatoes in a bowl with lots of cold water and let them sit for ten minutes, agitating them occasionally to remove starch.
Prepare the pot by adding 6 cups of a high smoke-point oil such as canola, corn or peanut oil, but don’t turn on the heat.
Drain the potato water and use tea towels to dry off the potatoes. Place all the potatoes in the basket. Gently lower the basket into the pot, shaking it to distribute the potatoes into the cold oil. They will crowd the pot and need some rearrangement to fit them completely into the oil. Although most cooks might be aware that putting too much food into the oil is a bad thing, in this instance it is the exact thing that will yield a great french fry.
Turn on the heat to high and let the potato-filled oil warm up to a frying temperature of about 270°F. After about 10 minutes the potatoes will noticeably begin to cook and the oil will bubble. Using heat-proof gloves, shake them by raising and lowering the basket a bit with the handles. After a few more minutes the potatoes will start to have some browning in spots but won’t be finished cooking. The first fry is finished.
Remove the potatoes from the oil. The basket makes it easy to pull them all out at once and to shake off the excess oil. Dump the potatoes onto a lipped cookie sheet to cool for a few minutes and move the basket back into the oil.
When the oil heats to 375°F it’s time to finish the fries. Prepare a tray lined with newspapers or paper towels. Grab one-third of the fries with the tongs and drop them into the oil. Shake the basket to agitate the potatoes so they cook evenly. In a minute or two they will become golden on the outside. Lift the fries out of the oil with the basket and place them onto the paper towels. When they are just out of the oil, sprinkle table salt to taste. Repeat with the other two batches.
Eat immediately (almost impossible to resist!) or keep warm in a 200°F oven.
Because the potatoes don’t shed any bits, the oil stays really clean and will be good for two or three more uses. In fact, some cooks think it works better after the first fry. Buy a 48 oz. bottle of oil to use just for fries and you can filter and pour the oil back in the bottle once it cools.
