Easy, Crispy Oven Fries, Seasoned With One of Our Favorite Spice Blends!
We love fries. All fries. When we’re out at a restaurant or bar, if there are fries on the menu, we waste no time. We order those babies before there’s even water on the table. Deep fried, oven-baked, air-fried, whatever! We love them all. Crispy potatoes! What’s not to love?! When it comes to making French fries at home though, we do have a special place in our hearts for oven fries. Why? Well oven baked French fries are healthier than deep-fried, of course, and we love that, but the main reason is the pure ease of making oven fries! Deep-frying is a messy prospect. The whole house gets smelly, ferociously hot oil spits and splatters on the stove, and at the end of it all, you have a big pan or pot full of oil to try to discard. It’s not fun. Oven fries, on the other hand, are a total breeze. They’re also a deliciously blank slate—we’ve turned them into oregano-scented Greek taverna-style fries and today we’re taking our favorite baked French fry recipe to the Caribbean with this super snackable jerk-spiced oven fries recipe!
The Very Best Oven-Baked French Fries in Just 2 Ingredients
We said that oven fries are easy and we meant it! You’ll whip up a batch of jerk seasoning, so yes, by the time you’ve done that you’ll need more than two ingredients. But for basic, perfectly crispy oven fries, you really only need two key ingredients:
Russet potatoes! Russets are the best potato for homemade fries because they’re a high-starch potato. Cut them into nice, long strips that are as even and uniform as possible.
Olive oil! It doesn’t have to be extra virgin olive oil, but just regular old olive oil will do the job. The jerk seasoning will overpower any nuanced olive oil flavors, so this is the moment to just use whatever inexpensive olive oil you have on-hand.
How to Make Crispy Fries in the Oven
You may know that the not-so-secret secret to truly great, crispy French fries—golden brown and crisp on the outside, fluffy-creamy on the inside—is that they are not just fried, but fried twice! The first fry is usually at a lower temperature, to cook the potato and get the inside nice and creamy. The second fry is all about the exterior, so the oil temperature is cranked up and the potatoes take a second dip in that bubbling oil to get cooked to crispy perfection. Our trick for making really good crispy French fries in the oven is to take that same idea and apply it to oven-baked fries! Here’s how to make french fries in the oven that are just as good (or at least very very very nearly as good) as their much-less-healthy fried counterparts:
A first bake! The first bake happens at a slightly lower temperature—just like you would if you were frying the potatoes! The goal with this 10 minute bake is to cook the potatoes.
A second bake! A second bake at a higher temp—by now, we’re hoping to see a bit of color on the potatoes, but they’re probably not crispy yet. But not to worry, that’ll come.
And finally...a good broil! Here’s where beautiful, golden-brown crispy oven fries are made! Broil the potatoes until you see a color that you like. Everyone is a little different, so how long you leave them under the broiler is up to you. Keep a close eye on them, and pull them when most of the fries look done to your liking.
How to Make the Best Oven Fries Even Better? Dipping Sauce, of Course!
To go with the theme of delicious spicy, we pair this jerk-spiced oven fries recipe with a brick-hued, creamy chipotle aioli! It’s so easy to make and there’s no better dipping sauce for jerk fries, in our opinion. Simply blend together:
Egg yolk
Garlic
Salt
Lemon juice & zest
Black pepper
Adobo sauce (just pour the sauce from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo)
Vegetable oil
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Healthy Fries? Yup! So Eat Up!
We don’t eat fries because they’re healthy, but we don’t begrudge these oven fries for their healthfulness! Baked with just a bit of olive oil, this oven-baked French fry recipe is really pretty darn virtuous. It’s an everyday treat that you can feel really good about serving to your friends or family as a side or party snack or simply as an anything goes / anytime treat. When you make them, let us know how you like ‘em! Share a photo and tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see your stuff! Happy eating!
