In this episode of In the Kitchen with Matt, I will show you how to make amazing restaurant quality french fries. They taste fantastic, and certainly rival those that you can find at a restaurant or fast food place. They closely resemble the fries that you will find at Five Guys. You can click on the picture to watch the video or follow along with the steps outlined below -

Ingredients:

Potatoes - I use Idaho Russet potatoes. They are plentiful here at my local supermarket, I don't claim they are the best for fries, but my fries do taste pretty darn good! :)
Peanut oil (you can use vegetable oil or canola oil if you like, but I have found Peanut oil works the best, because it has a "Higher" heat capability before smoking and it tastes a little better I think, I have used all three many times, but have settle with Peanut Oil as my choice. Smoking oil is bad for your health, so be careful if you use Canola or Vegetable oil, you might adjust your temps slightly)
Salt

Tools:

Fry Cutter
Deep Fryer or pot for frying

Print the recipe here!

Step 1: Wash the Potatoes

First we want to wash our potatoes.

Step 2: Cut the Potatoes

Now we want to cut the potatoes. You can use a knife, but if you are doing a large batch of them, this gets very time consuming. To save time use some sort of Fry Cutter. They work wonders!

Step 3: Soak the Potatoes

Now we want to soak the potatoes in ice cold water for about 20 minutes. The reason we do this is to take out the starchiness of the potatoes.

Step 4: Heat Oil

Now we want to heat up our oil. I like to use Peanut oil. It is a great "hi" heat oil. I have a deep fryer, but you can certainly use a big pot. You will want to use a candy thermometer to check your temps. This time we are going to heat our oil to a low heat of around 320 to 325 degrees.

Step 5: Dry the Potatoes

After our potatoes have soaked in ice cold water, we want to dry them really well, before we put them in the fryer.

Step 6: 1st Fry

Now we want to fry our potatoes at a low heat (320 to 325 degrees) for about 6 minutes, until they look blonde in color.

Step 7: Dry Fries (not Full Cooked Yet)

Now we want to dry our fries. I like to use paper towels.

Step 8: Make Sure Oil Gets Back to Temperature

If you are cooking a lot of fries, periodically you will want to check the temperature of your oil, to make sure it stays around the desired temp. Use a candy thermometer, if you aren't using a deep fryer with an indicator temp light.

Step 9: Freeze the Fries

Now we freeze the partially cooked fries. Cool thing about this, is you can store these for quite awhile in the freezer and then just follow the remaining steps whenever you want to have fries.

Step 10: Cook at "Hi" Heat

Now, after our fries have frozen, we will take them out and cook them again, but this time at "hi" heat. between 390 and 425 degrees. And we will fry them for a minute or two until the fries look like the image. You can skip the freezing step if you like, but I found they turn out a little better if you do follow it.

Step 11: Salt to Taste

Now, last step salt your fries to taste. Something fun I like to do is take a brown paper sandwich sack, and roll down the edges to make a little container, then put some fries in there and salt and shake it up to serve.

Step 12: Cost Break Down

Here is the cost break down. Costs will vary depending on where you live, and what kind of sales you can find. And how much you re-use your oil. You can re-use it several times before it is bad. Depending on how much it is used each time. I generally put it back in the same container (but I won't mix it with fresh oil) and store it in a cool dark place, like my pantry. I strain it but not all the time, generally if I start seeing chunks of stuff. But you can certainly strain it after first use. The USDA, says for "best quality" store used oil in the refrigerator. But it isn't necessary. General rule of thumb if it is dark in color, and smells bad. Don't use it again. And if you do store it in the fridge, it might get a little milky looking, that is ok, that will go away, when it heats back up.