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Think of these as a convenience food.
I know you can buy frozen french fries, but honestly, a potato is pretty convenient all by itself. Chop a pound or two into batons, toss them with oil and salt, and roast them in a hot oven while you make the rest of dinner. You’ll have to hurry, though, because they’ll be ready inside half an hour and you’ll want to eat them hot.
If your kids are anything like my kids, or if you yourself are anything like my kids, these will become the centerpiece of the meal. Tonight we ate them outside with sloppy-gloppy sandwiches and deli dill pickles, and the kids helped themselves to handful after delighted handful of fries.
It’s a small indulgence, really. And so easy. Isn’t that what summertime is all about?*
Easy Oven Fries: Wash a pound or three of Yukon Gold potatoes, or substitute another variety that your farmer recommends for roasting. Slice into 1/4″-1/2″ batons; smaller pieces will cook more quickly. Toss with a couple Tbsp. olive oil and a few good pinches of salt and spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet (use two, if necessary, rotating them top-to-bottom after 15 minutes). Bake at 400 degrees, using the convection option if available. After 10 minutes, use a thin metal spatula to turn the potatoes, scraping up any bits that stick. Repeat every 5-7 minutes until the fries are crisp and golden. Taste and sprinkle with additional salt if desired. Serve immediately.
*We also make these regularly in fall, winter and spring.
So glad you posted this! I’ve been making oven fries for years – anyone who doesn’t already know how easy & delicious they are, needs to!
Love these! I usually make sweet potato fries in the oven; this will be a great alternative for us!
We make those too! So good aren’t they? My son commented they tasted better than McDonald’s. Hahaha. High praise from him actually.
Your’s look beautifully crispy! We LOVE oven fries. But we sometimes pollute them with a little vegan fry sauce…. :)
Baked fries are the best! Super easy, tasty, and customizable. Love it!
The potatoes here in Ireland are usually of such low quality that oven baking just does not work. I have resorted to baking sweet potatoes (yams). They are delicious.
Best,
Conor
Nice! I just did this same thing also with Yukon Gold potatoes (soaked them in water for a bit first), and then while they were in the oven I started worrying about whether or not they’d get crispy, since all the baked fries recipes I could find online used Russet potatoes instead (or my usual, sweet potatoes)… but they still turned out really well. :)
I’ve been making these with Japanese yams recently–not as sweet as sweet potatoes, and look the same color as potatoes. I usually do mine with a smoked paprika, cumin, coriander, cayenne and salt spice mix, but I don’t have any little ones!
I need to make some oven fries already. I love that these are so thin, I can’t stand those “steak-cut” fries. I’ve done sweet potato oven fries before (also fantastic) but for some reason not regular fries – I will bookmark these for later!
Oven fries are definitely the best!
Looks wonderful! I’m a big fan of goose fat myself . . . I don’t think that geese are big fans of me for saying that :-)
Great post :) I make this with wedges (quarters) which is even easier because of less cutting and turning only once (from one cut side to the other). But less like fries and less crust.
I’m planning to do a series of experiments to figure out what is best: temperature, salt before or after, convection on or off, etc.
I’ve always gotten the best results when I cook the fries in oil for five minutes, pull them and freeze them for at least 30 minutes and then put them back in the oil. It’s like a reset on the crispy outside and makes them nice and crunchy.
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