Rather than succumb to the drive-thru to satisfy our cravings for crisp, salty potatoes last week, we talked about how to make our own Restaurant Style French Fries. Crisp on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside, these fries made even our youngest critics happy. But for many of us, week night dinners do not include two quarts of oil and a fry thermometer (heard your comment, Susie!). So let’s slim down the fry in both calories and time by baking them – they will certainly make an easy, fresh and delicious accompaniment to any BBQ or Sandwich night.
Though it may seem easier to pull open a bag of frozen fries, shake ’em onto a baking sheet and pop them in the oven for 20-25 minutes, I guarantee that the taste of these homemade french fries made with real organic potatoes, olive oil and sea salt will more than make up for the shake and bake ease of the frozen fries.
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THE COMPARISON: Ore Ida Country Style French Fries vs. Out of the Box Food Olive Oil Oven French Fries
(All ingredients followed by an * can be referenced at www.wikipedia.org by clicking on the ingredient)
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Ore Ida Country Style French Fries (with skins)
Ingredients:
- potatoes
- vegetable oils (sunflower, cottonseed, soybean and/or canola)
- salt
- potato flour
- dextrose*
- spices
- natural flavor*
- disodium dihydrogen pyrophosphate*
- annatto (vegetable color)
**All listed product ingredients are taken from the products website. Though Out of the Box Food makes every effort to provide complete ingredient information, please check the package/website for the most current information.
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Out of the Box FoodSM Olive Oil Oven French Fries
Special Equipment: parchment lined baking sheets, large bowl
Ingredients:
- Organic Russet Potatoes (see our post on The Scary 7- Foods the Experts Won’t Eat for info on organic vs. conventional potatoes)
- Olive Oil
- Sea Salt
Directions:
- Cut potatoes lengthwise into 1/4″ planks. Cut planks into 1/4″ x 1/4″ sticks.
- Place cut potatoes in large bowl and rinse with cold water until water is clear. Potatoes can now be dried and cooked or you may fill the bowl with water and ice and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Heat oven to 425 degrees or a convection oven to 400 degrees.
- Dry potatoes well and toss with olive oil (use just enough to coat – approximately 2 tbsp per 3-4 medium potatoes)
- Place olive oil coated potatoes on parchment lined baking sheets and place in the oven.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then toss. Continue baking (and tossing every 10 minutes) for 50-60 minutes or until evenly browned and crispy.
- Sprinkle with sea salt and serve.
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What are your summer processed-food-go-to items? Shoot us a note or post a comment and let us deconstruct them for you. Our goal is to help us all find fresh and easy ways to avoid processed food and we’d love to get your suggestions! Until next week…
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Can you freeze these after baking them?
I have’t tried that! Let me know how it works out if you try it.
We love Sonic mozzerella cheese sticks. Can you help us make these healthier?
I’ve been working on a healthier mozzarella stick recipe! Will post when finished. Thanks for the comment & request!
Just made these for my little guy and he loved it. It turned out so good. Do you think I can do the same thing with sweet potatoes? Thank you for a healthy and delicious recipe 🙂
Hi Tina – So glad you enjoyed these! Sweet potatoes are a little trickier but they definitely can be done. When I use this recipe with sweet potatoes, I find that the white fleshed sweet potatoes work best. The orange colored flesh sweet potatoes (sometimes called yams) tend to go from too soft to burned very quickly so I would suggest watching them carefully! I will work on a good baked sweet potato fry recipe and share when I’ve worked out the kinks. I’m a huge fan of of the orange fleshed variety so I too am excited to work this out. Thank you for the comment!
I make oven-baked sweet potatoe fries using a similar method to your French fry recipe above, and, true, they may not get as crisp as Irish potatoe fries, but we really like them. I like to sprinkle them with red chile flakes and dried sage before coating them lightly with oil.
Wow – these look awesome! My kids love fries, but I don’t like to give them the fried variety, so this looks like one of the healthiest baked options I have been able to find! I think I will make them for them this week and surprise them with them! I admit, I also loooove fries, which is of course why my kids like them! lol
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Loving your homemade fries and will be linking back to them tomorrow.
Thank you, Marla!