Perfect Air Fryer French Fries

Mmm, french fries.

Seriously, who doesn’t love them? But, they aren’t exactly healthy for us.  I have had an air fryer for about a year and a half now, and the first (and just about only) thing I make in it is homemade fries.  Hand-cut, seasoned, light on oil, crispy, homemade fries – made in the air fryer!

My Air Fryer

My air fryer is a Farberware 3.2-quart, similar to this one. I like the size of it, as it’s just my husband and me in our home. If you have more people to cook for in a meal, you may want a larger size.  I can cook more fries than we can eat in one batch, so it’s large enough for us!

Unrelated random thought: I think it looks like a spaceship.

Cut the Potatoes into Fries

So … the first thing you do in order to make these babies is to wash the potatoes you are going to use and cut them with the fry cutter (or knife) of your choice. My fry cutter is from Pampered Chef, but it appears that they are no longer making them. I’m really glad I got mine when I did because I use it all the time. There are a few similar ones on Amazon.

Soak the Cut Potatoes in Water

As you cut the fries, put them in a bowl of filtered water. This part is VERY important, as soaking them in water for at least 30 minutes prior to cooking is very important.

It removes starch, which makes them not stick together and also gets crisper than if you don’t soak them first.

(The cool red bowl you see here is by Zak Designs. I have a set of 4 different sizes and LOVE them!)

Drain the Potatoes

When they are done soaking in water, drain the water off in a colander (I love my vintage Mirro aluminum ones, once in a while you can find one on a yard sale, otherwise Ebay is your friend. Or whatever colander you own will work fine – this 5-quart stainless steel one is a nice option.)

At this point, I like to start my air fryer up and get it pre-heating. I cook these at 400 degrees, which is as hot as mine goes. Preheating isn’t a necessary step, but it helps it get ready to go while you aren’t quite ready to go yet, so once you get the food in there it can start cooking it right away. I guess that is probably the actual definition of preheating … but anyway. Not a necessary step in air fryer cooking, but one I like to do!

Let them drain as much as you can, shake them off, towel dry, whatever you can do to get all of the extra moisture out.  Then, toss them in a bowl with about 2 teaspoons of canola oil, and a mixture of seasonings of your choice. In the batch I’m showing you here, I used seasoned salt, black pepper, paprika, Penzeys FoxPoint seasoning, and chives.  Toss to coat.

Start Cooking the Fries in the Air Fryer

Put the potatoes in the preheated (unless you are a non-preheating rebel) air fryer basket at this point, and set the timer for 25 minutes. This is a loose guideline for the total time needed, as it will depend on whether you preheated or not, how many potatoes you are making, and likely which brand your air fryer is. (There’s that cool red bowl again!)

For me, I set it for 25 minutes and just check it every 5 minutes or so, shaking it around in the basket each time I check it.

Drain the Extra Juice

After the first 5 minutes, pull the basket out of the bottom tray and dump the water that has collected out.  I know, there is seasoned goodness in there, I know. But you don’t want that water in there, I promise. Be generous with your seasonings, and it won’t matter.  (I suppose you could actually cook them for the first 5 minutes with oil only, drain the liquid off, and then add seasonings – that would prevent the sad dumping of the seasoning. Maybe I will try this next time.)

Anyway, after that first 5 minutes and the dumping of the moisture, you should be good to go to keep checking and shaking them every 5 minutes or so. After 25 minutes (again, give or take), you should have tender, crispy, delicious homemade Air Fryer Fries!

 

Ta-Da! Dinner is Served

I wouldn’t go so far as to say they are “healthy,” but they are healthier than the frozen kind you buy at the store and healthier than cooking in a traditional deep fryer. So, they are healthier fries, anyway – which counts for something!

My husband says they taste “just like fair fries,” which I take as a compliment. We serve them with our homemade ketchup.

For this dinner, we served the fries with steamed broccoli seasoned with Penzeys Florida Pepper, pan-fried walleye, and white bass that was very lightly breaded and cooked in a bit of butter and lemon olive oil, with Penzeys FoxPoint seasoning, black pepper, and parsley.

(Yes, you are seeing a pattern here. Penzeys rocks. They run amazing promotions often, and all of their seasonings are top-notch. And, they aren’t paying me to say that. I actually did a Facebook live video of me opening my very first Penzeys order, if you want to check it out! While you are there, like my page too!)

Marshall’s Minnows

My husband loves to fish, and we love to cook. There isn’t much that’s better for dinner than fresh, hand-caught fish cooked at home!

Shameless plug for his side business, he makes amazing fishing lures! You can check them out at MarshallsMinnows.com.

Anyway – back to the fries, I have just a couple more things to say.

A Few Other Tips

You can also cut wedges from fresh potatoes and follow this same process, though usually, I cook them at 350 degrees for the first 10 minutes or so before turning up to 400 degrees, and they take more like 30 minutes total (again, give or take) to get done.

And, if you are making fries for a crowd, I like to cook them until they are almost done, and then dump them out onto a baking sheet.  Proceed with 2nd, 3rd, etc. batches (I don’t think I’d mess with more than 3 batches, but that’s up to you.) When they are all done and just before serving, you can put them back in the air fryer a batch at a time for a few more minutes – this prevents them from all getting soggy while you wait (and prevents some guests from hovering over the air fryer waiting for the fries to get done.)

I also like to make kale chips and chicken wings in my air fryer. Stay tuned for those at a later date.

If you give these fries a try using my directions above, give me a shout in the comments and let me know what you think! I hope you enjoy it!

For more blog posts like this one, click here.