Perfect Oven French Fries
on Mar 21, 2019, Updated Apr 10, 2024
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Who doesn’t love great homemade french fries? These Oven French Fries have all the crunch and flavor of your favorite fast food fries with out the need for a deep fryer!
Homemade fries can be an intimidating ordeal, but this easy oven method takes all the stress out of the process. The key to these oven fries is soaking your potatoes in water before using and cooking them on a well-greased pan. The end results are homemade french fries that are light and fluffy in the middle and perfectly crispy on the outside.
Dip them in some homemade nacho cheese, fry sauce, or ketchup and you have yourself a winning side that the whole family will love! We’ll let you know how to store these fries, but I wouldn’t anticipate having any leftovers.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- The fries have a soft interior and deliciously crunchy exterior.
- You can serve these fries with a variety of sauces.
- These fries taste just as good as your favorite fast food fries without using a deep fryer.
Recipe Ingredients
- Russet Potatoes—Washed and peeled
- Vegetable Oil—To coat your potatoes
- Salt—To taste.
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
How to Make Oven French Fries
- Peel your potatoes and slice them into wedges of equal thickness.
- Soak your potato wedges in a bowl of hot water to help remove some of the starch.
- Pat the potatoes dry and toss them in a bowl with some of the oil. Make sure your potatoes are evenly coated in oil.
- Preheat your oven and transfer your potatoes to a baking sheet coated with the salt and remaining oil.
- Cover the fries with tin foil and bake for a few minutes before removing the foil and baking for an additional 20 minutes.
- Flip your fries and allow them to continue cooking until golden brown and crispy.
Yes! You can make this recipe ahead of time. Remove the hot fries from the pan and let them cool on a paper towel. Once the fries are cool, place them in an air-tight container in the freezer for up to 6 weeks. Reheat them in the oven for 25 minutes at 400 degrees or until they are hot and crispy. You can also throw the homemade fries in your air fryer if you have one (I’m new to the game and it’s awesome for this kind of thing).
When it comes to choosing an oil, you have a few options. We like to use canola oil, but any high heat oil will work. Vegetable oil is another great option. Coconut oil is another nice option and is a little better for you.
Reheating your fries is a breeze! You can reheat them in the oven at 400°F for 25 minutes, or until they are hot and crispy. You can also throw the homemade fries in your air fryer if you have one. If you are using an air fryer then you’ll want to let them cook for about 13 minutes at 390°F.
Expert Tips
- If you like pepper, add some of that to the baking sheet with the salt. You can also use season salt or a fry spice blend.
- Covering the pan for the first few minutes in the oven almost steams the potatoes. This is how you get the middle to cook perfectly without over cooking the outside. Don’t skip that step.
- Be fussy about turning the potatoes, one at time, in the middle of the cook time. This will make sure that each side of the fry is perfectly crispy. It’s a hassle, but worth it.
- Giving your potatoes time to soak in water helps remove the starch. Too much starch in your potatoes can prevent them from getting nice and crispy.
Other Delicious Appetizer Recipes
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Perfect Oven French Fries
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6
Description
The best oven french fries you’ve ever had made from potatoes and baked crispy in the oven. Who doesn’t love great homemade french fries?
Ingredients
- 4 or 5 russet potatoes
- 5 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- additional salt to taste
Instructions
- Peel the potatoes and cut them into 8 long wedges. Make sure they are all close to the same thickness.
- Put all of the potatoes in a medium bowl. Fill the bowl with hot tap water and let the potatoes soak for 10 to 30 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes and then pat them dry with a clean dish cloth or paper towels.
- Wipe the bowl out so there is no water left in it. Put the dry potatoes back in the dry bowl and toss them in 1 tablespoon of oil.
- Preheat the oven to 475°F. On a large, rimmed baking sheet add the remaining 4 tablespoons of oil and spread it all over the pan until it is completely coated (a pastry brush works well here).
- Sprinkle the salt on the oiled pan. Lay the potatoes out in even rows with one side against the pan.
- Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake for 5 minutes.
- Remove the foil and continue baking for 15-20 minutes.
- Using tongs or a metal spatula, flip all of the potatoes over so that the other side is now against the pan. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are crispy and starting to brown.
- Remove hot fries from the pan onto paper towels to drain some of the grease, add additional salt to taste, and then serve warm.
Notes
- Other spices you can add to your fries include ground black pepper, fry seasoning, seasoning salt, etc.
- It is important to give your potatoes time to soak in water. This helps draw out the starch of the potatoes, which will give you a crispier fry.
- Make sure the fries are evenly coated in oil before going into the oven. Slices of potato that aren’t coated in oil will not crisp up.
- Covering the baking sheet with tin foil helps give the fries a crunchy exterior and a soft interior.
- Prep Time: 45 min
- Cook Time: 45 min
- Category: side
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American
Really good recipe!
This recipe is by far the best one I have found for oven fries!
I made these with salmon and creamed spinach and they were delicious. Best fries ever and I loved that they are baked in the oven. Wow! Everyone loved them. I’ll definitely be making them again – often.
Hooray! That sounds like a meal my family would LOVE! And thank you for taking the time to leave a review, it’s SO appreciated!
Came out perfectly!
So glad that you liked them Patti!
My family and I loved these so much the first time we made them I made them again that same day! I left the peels on for some added nutrients, and they came out great! Also the second time I forgot to do the tin foil cover for the first 5 minutes and they were still delicious- a little less crispy but good both ways. May skip it again cause I’m always running out of tin foil.
They look absolutely delicious!! I love that they’re baked instead of fried and these are wonderful tips, going to make these for my husband this weekend!
This is the closest thing to fries that I have ever tasted!!! I even cut back on the oil by half, and baked on parchment, which helped cut down the grease.
We love French fries these look yummy ! I will bake some tonight !!
thesse look so good. i am so xcitdd to try them. Also, are there more posts from
Austriala