How to Make Baked French Fries

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Matt’s cravings for french fries are unbelievable. So when we began living a more healthful, natural lifestyle, we had to find an alternative to restaurant french fries cooked in hydrogenated oils.

So we went on a mission to experiment until we created a simple yet amazing DIY french fry recipe. And lucky for you (and us) we were successful.

These fries from our own kitchen are baked, not fried. And they pair perfectly with a grass fed burger!

Baked French Fries

Homemade Baked French Fries

(Makes 4-6 servings)

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Wash potatoes and peel if desired. (We leave skins on.)

2. Carefully slice potatoes into fries using a french fry cutter (like this one).

3. Fill a large bowl with filtered water and add about 1 teaspoon of sea salt. Add raw fries to bowl of water and allow to soak for 20 minutes. (This soaking will remove some of the starch, giving you a crispier french fry.)

Baked French Fries 2

4. Drain water off fries and rinse well.

5. Prepare another bowl of salt water and soak fries again for an additional 20 minutes.

6. Drain, rinse well, and pat fries dry with a clean towel.

7. Grease a baking stone or baking sheet with oil or fat of your choice. Arrange fries in a single layer on pan and sprinkle with salt. (Add any other seasonings you like on your fries.) Toss fries to coat.

8. Bake in a 425° oven for 12 minutes. Carefully remove from oven and stir fries around on pan, then cook for another 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Season with more salt if needed.

Baked French Fries 3

Allow your homemade french fries to cool for a few minutes before eating. Dip in a great homemade ketchup and enjoy with your favorite fry-worthy meal! (Stay tuned for Matt’s upcoming book on Homemade Condiments, he has an awesome ketchup recipe that will be featured!)

Baked French Fries 4

We like to cut more fries than we need and freeze them for the next burger night.

That allows us to pull the raw fries out of the freezer, season to our liking, and throw in the oven.

If you have a healthy way to make french fries at home, share with the community!

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Avatar photo

About Betsy Jabs

Betsy holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Master's degree in Counseling, and for nearly a decade worked as an elementary counselor. In 2011 she left her counseling career to pursue healthy living. She loves using DIY Natural as a way to educate people to depend on themselves to nourish their bodies and live happier healthier lives. Connect with Betsy on Facebookand Twitter.

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Comments

  1. Avatar photoJoy says

    Does anyone know about this microwave potato chip maker?
    I don’t know where to put this question, sorry…but I thought
    someone would know?
    It looks like a white plastic ring dish but with slots for
    thinly cut potatoes.

    These I THINK are then cooked in the microwave
    for about 5 minutes. Then if I remember, spices can
    be added.

    But I can’t remember if you could put oil, spices first
    on them. I know you don’t put salt.

    Does anyone know about this?

    If not, I will have to try it, hope it doesn’t melt the
    plastic or whatever.

  2. Avatar photoKatie says

    French fries speak straight to my soul! Cannot wait to make these buggers – I haven’t had too much success making fries at home but now I know some extra tips to make them perfect! Now just need to make some lacto-fermented ketchup… 🙂

    Thanks!
    Katie

  3. Avatar photoJoy says

    Since such a small amount of any oil is needed,
    wondering about Peanut oil, since it has a very high
    decomposition point? Not sure how high coconut oil is,
    either.
    Potato fries to be crispy should be cooked at 400′ or
    even 425′ from my experience.

    And not sure if you should turn them or not.
    Because we put so much on them, we don’t.

  4. Avatar photoJessO. says

    Perfect timing again! My husband and I were just talking about making our own fries with the huge bucket of potatoes we got at Farmer’s Market, but weren’t sure how to go about it. Can’t wait to try this!

  5. Avatar photoDave says

    Thanks for the clarification and the resource–good to know. I took five minutes to dig a bit. From this site, there is a big chart of temps, some listed under two temperatures, and interestingly, the various types of olive oil have different smoke points (where the fat isn’t as healthy, I believe). Olive pomace oil (from grinding up the olive pits along w/ other remnants of the pressings) has a smoke point of 460 F., safe enough to keep this cookie monster relatively healthy.

  6. Avatar photoL says

    No Dave, “rape seed” is the term for an older version of “canola.” Grape seed oil is just that…from grapes, not weed “oil” seeds (which is what rape seed and canola seed are).

    The best high temp oils are: ghee, grape seed oil, then olive oil. Ghee having the highest smoke point. However, these too only have so high of a temp. rating. If you read Lorna Vanderhague’s book, “Healthy Fats,” it explains it all in there. Good reading, well documented.

  7. Avatar photoRoxann says

    If you coat the fries with egg white and a little salt, then bake them they taste great and have a nice coating too. You could even roll them in something like crushed corn flakes to give them a bit of a crispy coating.

  8. Avatar photoDave says

    My understanding is that olive oil, very healthy when used raw or in lower temperature food prep, is no longer a “good” oil/fat. Using grape seed oil (also called rape seed) solves this problem…and I don’t have time to do a bit of research to add more info on this. Perhaps some other readers or the moderators can look into? D.

    • Avatar photoMari says

      Grape seed and rape seed oil are two totally different things. Canola oils is rape seed oil. (using the word rape was not PC hence the word canola). In New Zealand we can get both Rape seed oil (grown in my area) and grape seed oil.Rice bran oil is another very good one and does take the heat.

      I never use oil or soak my oven fries. I put some baking paper on the tray and sprinklethem pepper and garlic sea salt and pop them in the oven at 180C. They cook and crisp beautifully in about 10 mins

  9. Avatar photoFarm Mom Corinne says

    Love it! We’ve done the fries before, and I’m telling you our absolute favorite “addition” is…Real Salt, garlic & Truffle oil. Add the garlic & salt during the last 10 minutes of baking and drizzle the truffle oil on after you take it out of the oven.

    OK, so we don’t do the truffle oil all that often since it’s too darn expensive, but thinking that it may be back on the menu for Valentine’s Day. Alternately, use EVOO.

  10. Avatar photoJoy says

    Hi, wanted to say ‘thanks a whole lot’ of french fries!! Love them also.

    What we also love (and takes less time)…when you’re hungry, you know?,
    is slice potatoes thinly, put whatever spices, herbs on potato slices,
    put on greased cookie sheet (we like the organic olive oil spray),
    and bake in fairly hot oven for about 20 minutes, but watch,
    and maybe at 375 or 400 …depending on oven.

    We like to use powdered garlic and onion, paprika, and oh, many
    other things. Hard to find the potatoes after a while, but yummy!!
    I better make some soon!!

  11. Avatar photoLindsay says

    Love it! We make fries by cutting with a knife, and out the olive oil, sea salt, and fries in a gallon bag and shake it all around. Seems to coat it all pretty well

    • Avatar photoBetsy Jabs says

      Awesome method Lindsay! Matt commented last night that we need a new fry cutter or he’s going to slice a hand off…our current fry cutter is kind of dangerous. 🙂

  12. Avatar photoTwinkle says

    What synchronicity! We just started making oven fries because I wanted to use the blade on my mandolin!
    I made some sweet potato ones that were soggy. Maybe because I soaked them and you don’t need to.
    Can’ wait to make the ketchup. We’re out of it!

    • Avatar photoBetsy Jabs says

      With sweet potato fries maybe you could try starting them out on a lower oven temp, then increasing it for the last 10-15 minutes to get them crispier. LOVE sweet potato fries!

  13. Avatar photoCarol J. Alexander says

    We’ve made our own “oven potatoes” for years. No need for a french fry cutter. We just cube them. We also coat them in a little olive oil and for an extra pizzazz, sprinkle with garlic powder and paprika as well as the salt. Love this method, too. Gonna try the salt water soak.

    • Avatar photoBetsy Jabs says

      So true Carol! Believe me, I would prefer your method just so I could eat faster. Lol! But Matt is willing to put in the time to have a real fry. 🙂 I want to try your garlic/paprika blend next time we make these!

  14. Avatar photoMarlies says

    Thank you for another great recipe and all the tips on living a natural life. I do not eat french fries anymore because of what they are cooked in; will NOT eat anything cooked in partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oils due to the fact that it is not healthy for my gallbladder. I will definitely try this one though. Now, it seems that I need to heat up the fry daddy and melt the shortening so that I can get rid of it and the fryer.

    • Avatar photoBetsy Jabs says

      Before you get rid of your deep fryer, have you considered using tallow, lard, coconut oil, or even ghee for frying? These are all healthy fat choices. Of course, shallow frying uses less oil and is less expensive, but check out one of these options if you want to keep the Fry Daddy.

  15. Avatar photoHeather says

    Betsy, this sounds awesome. I have tried doing this but my fries where turning black. I hadn’t done the soak thing so that was probably my problem. Do you partially cook your fries before freezing?

    • Avatar photoBetsy Jabs says

      Nope, no cooking before freezing. We just soak them twice, drain & rinse, pat dry, then freeze. We like to spread them on a cookie sheet to freeze for a while before throwing them all together in a freezer bag.

  16. Avatar photoNancy A. says

    I usually make baked sweet potato fries. Are you supposed to soak them? I never have and they are very good! Even my husband who doesn’t usually want fries likes them!

    • Avatar photoBetsy Jabs says

      You can soak sweet potato fries to make them crispier as well, but there’s no need to change your method if you already have a good thing going!

  17. Avatar photoMichon says

    I am looking forward to making these! We have really enjoyed your website as our family tries to eat healthier, and replace the store bought cleaning supplies at home with homemade! Tonight my 9 year old and I made the dishwashing detergent. How do you recommend to freeze the potatoes? Is it after they have been soaked twice? Thank you!

    • Avatar photoBetsy Jabs says

      We’re so glad you’re using our content to help change your lifestyle! Keep it up!

      We recommend freezing the potatoes after soaking twice, draining, and patting dry. We freeze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet for a while first (so they don’t freeze into one big chunk), then throw them into a freezer bag for longer term storage.

      Hope you enjoy the fries when you get a chance to try them out!