Perfect Air Fryer French Fries
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Perfect Air Fryer French Fries are healthy and addictive! They’ll be your go-to snack whenever you’re craving a crispy potato delight, and a must-have when it’s burger night! Only three ingredients and almost effortless to prepare, you can make the perfect crispy fries with ease thanks to the Air Fryer!
Why I love Air Fryer French Fries
Who didn’t love McDonald’s French fries as a kid? They were a staple for me! Universally, McDonald’s fries are iconic. From New Delhi to Ottawa, the fries are always somehow consistent. Do they use real potatoes? I’m not sure, but they’re just so good!
I don’t know about you but whenever I’m out and I see fries on the menu, I just can’t resist saying “Yes!” to having fries with that. Fries are just heavenly. Simple and great. I love the limpy McDonald’s style fries and thin steak frites fries, but at times I can certainly appreciate thicker-cut fries or potato wedges. Fries truly bring a smile to my face, and I’m sure many of you can relate!
Have you ever deep-fried your fries? Homemade deep fried fries sure are something to experience! Ah, it’s so exciting to watch them cook rapidly and see how amazingly crisp they become! Unfortunately, however, there are quite a few cons to deep frying! The most obvious is the amount of oil used. Typically, we deep fry in vegetable or canola oils, which are refined oils that aren’t the best for your health.
The next issue with deep frying at home is the mess. You’re going to want to use paper towel to soak up the excess oil after you’ve cooked your fries, and you’re left with a bunch of oil in your wok or pan. You can save it if it’s not dirty, otherwise, you have to toss out all that oil, and cleaning a greasy pan or wok sure takes a lot of elbow grease!
Don’t get me wrong. I really do love to deep fry, and the results are incredible. But it’s a lot of work and doing this too often can have adverse impacts on your health. Balance is key!
But I love fries so much! Well, what I used to before getting my air fryer is prepare my Oven-Baked Crispy French Fries. This was a life saver! Of course, the taste was not exactly like deep frying, but the fries were still very crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and oh so good!
What was the issue though? Well, of course, not the same taste as deep frying which is obvious, but these fries took SO LONG to make! If you don’t have an air fryer, yes, definitely do this! But the whole process of soaking your fries, having the oven pre-heat, baking the fries, takes more than an hour. It’s not hard but it’s long and annoying when you’re hungry. This also makes it difficult to time if you’re going to be making a main dish. For instance, I’ve had my burger ready before the fries plenty of times, and it was really annoying! You really need to wait till the fries are close to the end before cooking your protein and assembling your burger…
What is an air fryer?
An air fryer is a medium-sized countertop kitchen appliance that circulates hot air around at a high speed using a fan, similar to a convection oven. As a result, it cooks food significantly faster than in a traditional oven. The high speed in a concentrated space also helps give foods a crispy outside comparable to the texture of deep frying without the use of oil in deep frying.
That’s what the big appeal is for an air fryer! You can make your favourites such as Air Fryer Wings, Air Fryer Cajun Potato Wedges, and even Air Fryer Chicken Parmesan lightened up and healthier by avoiding all the extra oil.
Why Make French Fries in the Air Fryer?
I’ll only make fries in the air fryer now that I have one, as opposed to in my traditional oven! Here’s why you should!
No (or minimal) preheating time
Cooks in half the time as traditional oven baking
Less mess than an oven
Tastes almost like deep fried fries without the oil!
Are These Air Fryer French Fries Healthy?
Yes, they definitely are! In fact, I honestly make these fries nearly every single day, whether to serve as a side or as a lunchtime snack. Essentially, these fries are just potatoes with olive oil and salt. The amount of olive oil I’m using is very little - just enough to get the fries a nice golden brown colour and to add some flavour. Furthermore, choosing olive oil instead of vegetable or canola oil, which are used for deep frying, is a much better option. Olive oil contains heart-healthy monounsaturated fat. We need a certain amount of these good fats to support good health, plus a little bit adds so much flavour! It will really contribute to excellent cooking and can be part of a balanced meal.
What Makes this the best Air Fryer French fry recipe?
Here’s the overview to what makes this Air Fryer French Fries recipe the best recipe you can find!
The type of potato
Cutting the potato
Soaking the potato
Boiling the potato
Seasoning
Layering the fries
Cook time & temperature
What Potatoes Should I Use for Air Fryer French Fries?
I like to use Yukon gold or yellow potatoes whenever I make French fries. It’s mostly a personal preference because I find the Yukon gold potatoes to be much creamier in the center with that crispy outside crust. They also have more of that “potatoey” flavour and you really can’t go wrong when it comes to Yukon gold. I love using Yukon gold potatoes for Air Fryer Cajun Potato Wedges and for the Ultimate Creamy Mashed Potatoes.
I used to use russet potatoes since those seem to be typically used for French fries, but ultimately I just prefer using yellow potatoes.
How to Cut Potatoes for French Fries
Rinse and wash the potatoes well. You may peel the potato or keep the skin on.
Slice each potato into 1/2 inch thick slices.
Then, stack 2-3 slices at a time and cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch matchsticks.
Ingredients for Air Fryer French Fries
Only three ingredients are needed for these simple Air Fryer French Fries!
Yellow potatoes
Salt
Olive oil
Why Soak the Potatoes?
One word answer: starch. Starch is not your friend if you are looking for crispy fries. Starch is gummy, and just like how you rinse rice before cooking to get the perfectly separated grains, you want to rinse off the excess starch from potatoes as well to help them become crispy.
This step is highly recommended, however, I do have a cheat code in case you are short on time and patience. Since we will be boiling the potatoes, that will help get “some” of the starch out, so how about you soak the potatoes in cold water only until the water comes to a boil.
Why Boil the Potatoes?
Admit it, potatoes are a pain in the neck to cook and get right. They take a long time to cook so you really need to work around them to get them crispy. For regular deep-fried fries, we generally fry the fries at a low heat until the potatoes are tender soft inside. Then, we make the oil much hotter, so we can get the exterior golden crisp. Makes sense doesn’t it, we want to cook the inside, before we make them crispy.
If you tried to cook fries in a single step, i.e., just deep fry it all in one step, you will end up with limpy fries which aren’t really that crispy. So we follow a similar concept with the air fryer and we boil the potatoes to really speed up that initial cook process. It’s only going to take you 3-5 minutes to partly cook those fries.
Then, we toss the fries in olive oil and the oil carries on from here to make things really nice and crispy.
How to Make Crispy Air Fryer French Fries
Add the peeled, cut fries in a large bowl and fill with cold water and soak for about 25 minutes (see tip for a shortcut). In the meanwhile, set a large pot of water to boil.
Add soaked fries to the boiling water and boil for 3-5 minutes, or until the potatoes are partly cooked but still firm. Add only enough potatoes that will comfortably fit in your air fryer basket in a single layer.
Drain the potatoes onto paper towel and gently pat dry. Then, transfer the fries to a large bowl and coat with olive oil. Gently toss the potatoes in the oil and arrange fries in a single layer in the air fryer basket
Set Air Fryer to Air Fry mode at 400F and cook for 20 minutes.
If making a multiple batch, transfer the fries from the air fryer basket to a bowl/baking sheet and repeat steps 2-4 for the remaining portion of fries.
Once all the fries are crispy, you can toss all the fries in a single basket to refresh the fries at 375F-390F for 3-5 minutes. Voila!
Season with salt to taste and toss well. Enjoy your fries!
Tips & Tricks for Perfectly Crispy Air Fryer Fries
Be consistent with the thickness of the fries as you cut them. The more even the shape and size of the fries, the better consistency you will see with the doneness.
Soak the fries in cold water to rinse off excess starch to help get the fries crispy.
In case you are short on time and patience soak the potatoes in cold water only until the water comes to a boil.
Boil the potatoes in batches large enough to comfortably fit in your air fryer basket in a single layer.
If making multiple batches of fries, once the last batch is ready, you can toss all the fries in a single basket to refresh the fries at 375F-390F for 3-5 minutes. Voila!
How to Reheat Air Fryer fries
These fries reheat and store in the fridge very well. To reheat from the refrigerator, toss all the fries in the basket of your air fryer and Air Fry at 350 F for 5-10 minutes or until heated through!
Serving Suggestions
How do you not enjoy fries? The most obvious answer is on their own, duh! But you could literally eat fries with anything, I believe. Here are some great recipes that are just screaming for you to pair these fries with!
What Air Fryer Do You Recommend?
The air fryer I have is the Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 2-Basket Air Fryer. I love this air fryer for so many reasons! Let’s start out with the settings. This air fryer has the following six settings:
Air Fry
Air Broil
Reheat
Dehydrate
Bake
Roast
To be honest, my main setting when using this air fryer is, well, “Air Fryer!” That’s why I bought it! But I have used the “Bake” and “Air Broil” settings as well. I still need to experiment with the rest!
One of my favourite parts about it is that there are two baskets! If you’re making two different items, then you can set the two baskets at different cook methods, temperatures, and cook times. This is great if you’re planning on making an entire meal in an air fryer! For instance, I prepared my Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Wings alongside with my Super Crispy Air Fryer Cajun Potato Wedges! Cook your protein in one basket and your veggies in the other. There’s a setting for “smart finish,” which means that when the basket that requires a longer cook time (typically the protein), is close to being finished, the second basket will automatically start. That’s so cool!
Also, in comparison to a traditional oven, you don’t have to baby it. You set your temperature and timer and off it goes! It’ll stop when the timer runs out or if you use the “smart finish,” everything will finish together, and the appliance will turn off. No need to worry about your house burning down! So toss your items in the basket and clean up or watch TV!
If you want more details on my first impressions after a week of using the air fryer, then be sure to check out this video!
I was also drawn to this particular air fryer because of the brand. I love my Ninja prep blenders for sauces and purees as well as my Ninja professional blender for smoothies and protein ice creams, so I trusted Ninja would make an awesome air fryer! It was kind of an impulsive buy when I saw this air fryer on sale at Canadian Tire, I admit. But I’m so glad I got it! This air fryer was certainly love at first use, and I used it every day for a week, sometimes twice a day! I can’t ever go back to not having one, so if you’re on the fence about getting an air fryer and you love your fried food, then I definitely say to go for it!
Watch how to make Perfect Air Fryer French fries here:
Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cookingwithanadi. Thank you!
Perfect Air Fryer Fries
Ingredients
- 2 large yellow potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch sticks
- 1-2Tbsp olive oil
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Rinse and wash the potatoes well. You may peel the potato or keep the skin on.
- Slice each potato into 1/4 inch thick slices.
- Then, stack 2-3 slices at a time and cut the potatoes into 1/4 inch matchsticks.
- Add the peeled, cut potatoes in a large bowl and fill with cold water and soak for about 25 minutes (see tip for a shortcut). In the meanwhile, set a large pot of water to boil.
- Add soaked potatoes to the boiling water and boil for 3-5 minutes, or until the potatoes are partly cooked but still firm. Add only enough potatoes that will comfortably fit in your air fryer basket in a single layer.
- Drain the potatoes onto paper towel and gently pat dry. Then, transfer them to a large bowl and coat with olive oil. Gently toss the potatoes in the oil and arrange in a single layer in the air fryer basket.
- Set Air Fryer to Air Fry mode at 400F and cook for 20 minutes.
- If making multiple batches, transfer the fries from the air fryer basket to a bowl/baking sheet and repeat steps 2-4 for the remaining potatoes.
- Once all the fries are crispy, you can toss all the fries in a single basket to refresh the fries at 375F-390F for 3-5 minutes. Voila!
- Season with salt to taste and toss well. Enjoy your fries!
Nutrition Facts
Calories
220.92Fat (grams)
6.98Sat. Fat (grams)
0.99Carbs (grams)
36.68Fiber (grams)
3.84Net carbs
32.84Sugar (grams)
2.04Protein (grams)
4.34Sodium (milligrams)
165.18Cholesterol (grams)
0.00
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Welcome to Cooking With Anadi. This platform is all about making cooking exciting and finding new ways to bring classic flavours and recipes at your service. Join me in my personal journey in the world of cooking. Hope you have a great ride!
