Crispy Baked French Fries
French fries are my Kryptonite. I seriously CANNOT control myself around a pile of crispy fried potatoes. I even went a whole month back in 2009 without fries, just to prove I could do it. Because of my love affair with fries, we don’t ever make them at home.
But then I made that homemade curry ketchup… And I was doomed. I started searching for a recipe that would mimic my favorite qualities of a good fry without the frying. I know, I know. Fries that aren’t fried just aren’t the same. But I was determined to find a way to bake fries and have them turn out crispy. And, what’s a good fry without some seasoning on them!
I pulled from a combination of ideas I came across while research. After a few trial and error batches, here’s what I came up with.
First, season the heck out of your fries. I tried a couple different variations of seasonings and liked this combination the best. Definitely tailor it to fit your likes. By brushing more of the oil/seasoning mixture on while you flip the fries, you’re going to get more of the seasoning to stick to the fries.
Next, use a rack to cook your fries on. This ensures the potatoes aren’t sitting in the oil and can get crisp all the way around. I use the same method of placing a cooling rack over paper towels when I do bacon in the oven, so I’m familiar with the concept. And, no, your paper towels won’t start a fire in your oven.
Last, be sure to toss the fries at least once or twice while they’re baking. This will help to evenly cook the fries.
Once I came up with a recipe that I liked, it’s been hard not to make these on a regular basis to feed my french fry habit. So far, I’ve been able to stay strong, but writing up this post is making me want to bake up another batch tonight…
One Year Ago: Spinach-Strawberry Salad
Two Years Ago: My Favorite Brownies
Three Years Ago: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars and Fire Roasted KetchupFour Years Ago: Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup
Four Years Ago: Chocolate Oreo Rice Krispies Treats in the Microwave
Crispy Baked French Fries
Baked fries can be crispy!
Yield: Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 russet potato
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2-3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450F.
Line a large rimmed baking sheet with paper towels. Place a cooling rack on top of paper towels. Spray racks with non-stick spray.
Cut potato in even strips.
In a shallow dish, combine the oil and seasoning. Add the potato pieces and toss to coat. Keep remaining oil/seasoning.
Spread fries onto cooling rack on baking sheet.
Cook for 25-35 minutes until done. Every 10 minutes, turn fries to ensure even baking and brush more seasoning/oil onto the fries.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I really need to stop reading blogs in the morning. I’m craving fries at 9am!! They look perfect 🙂
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 8:05 am
I hear ya there. Sorry to put the idea in your head so early in the morning.
OK, I have to ask … what is the point of the paper towels??? I could understand using foil to avoid the clean-up, but I don’t get what the paper towels are for? As for bacon, I’v never done it on racks, just drained it on paper towels, but now you’ve got me thinking about it and wondering if it would make any difference in the cooking. I’ll have to try a half and half tray next time to see… and that I definitely line the pan with foil for. 😉
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 9:02 am
The paper towels just soak up the grease as it drips down so it doesn’t smoke in the oven since it’s at such a high heat. With bacon, you have a lot more grease dripping down than with potatoes. I’m sure foil would work just as well for these french fries.
Ahhhh, gotcha. My first thought was clean-up, but that didn’t make sense because the oil would go right thought the paper towels. Thanks.
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 9:22 am
Yep. I guess it would make a lot of sense to do foil then paper towels for ease of cleanup and keeping the oil from smoking.
oh my gosh- i’m totally trying that rack trick! (for fries as well as bacon!) these look amazing 🙂
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 10:57 am
Definitely try it – I started doing it when Alton Brown posted on Facebook about it for bacon.
I was really hoping for some sort of uncommon ingredient or complicated instruction so that I wouldn’t be tempted to make these, but I have all of those things on hand. Looks like I’ll be making french fries this weekend!
beantownbaker — June 11th, 2013 @ 7:20 am
Ha – sorry I couldn’t have made it more complicated. Hope you enjoy them!
Hey this is great! Salty snacks are also a weakness for me 🙂 I also bake fries around here, especially out of sweet potatoes, but never thought to use a rack. Of course that will help! And I can’t wait to try your curry ketchup! Thank you.
beantownbaker — June 11th, 2013 @ 9:30 am
I think sweet potato fries would be awesome with the curry ketchup!
I just made tomato free ketchup last night (for acid reflux) and am now hunting for lower fat things to dip in it! I think these will do nicely!
beantownbaker — June 11th, 2013 @ 1:59 pm
Oh – what is in tomato free ketchup? I’m intrigued…
The recipe I tried last night was cranberry sauce, pears and carrots, plus vinegar, sugar and spices. It was a good first effort, but I still need to work on getting the proportions right.
I already make a tomato free pasta sauce from sweet potatoes, carrots and beets (plus lots of basil, parsley and oregano) which I am also going to try to turn into ketchup.
I’ve had to give up a lot of foods in my life , but giving up ketchup is just a bridge too far!
beantownbaker — June 11th, 2013 @ 3:14 pm
Oh wow. That does sound like an interesting combination of flavors! We got a juicer earlier this year and have been making a bunch of vegetable juices. The sweet potato/carrot/beet combination sounds like one of my favorites. It also has red bell pepper in it.
Oh this is so wonderful! Homemade fries are the best 🙂 especially when they are perfectly crispy like these!
I have got to try these!! They look amazing!
It seems like a good alternative to frying potatoes that would still result as crunchy. Good post.
I followed the instructions and they burned. I have a convectional oven and I think that may be why, so I’m just goibg to stick to frying pans
beantownbaker — July 19th, 2013 @ 2:19 pm
Bummer they burned for you! My oven has a convection button on it, but I’ve never used it before…
Tried these tonight and they were a greasy, soggy mess. Way more greasy than my usual oven fries. Followed the directions to the T… confused and disappointed. Going back to my old recipe which is crunchy on three sides.
beantownbaker — August 4th, 2013 @ 6:45 pm
Sorry to hear these didn’t work out for you…
I just made this recipe and all I can say is WOW!!!! So easy to make and the paper towel idea is great. I may never buy frozen french fries again. THANKS so much for this awesome recipe. My husband who is a great cook really liked them.
beantownbaker — August 12th, 2013 @ 7:41 pm
So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Do you know the calorie count for these fries? just wondering
beantownbaker — August 13th, 2013 @ 5:50 pm
Sorry, I don’t know the calorie count for this recipe.
Watch your back, McDonalds! The noms 🙂
beantownbaker — September 13th, 2013 @ 1:20 pm
🙂
Just twittered about it here: https://twitter.com/SissyWillis/statuses/378581929638895616
beantownbaker — September 13th, 2013 @ 1:21 pm
Thanks!
I have cooling racks but they’re black and I’m worried they will melt or burn… They’re the basic ones from Walmart… Anyone else have these kind? Just wondering before I try this yummy recipe!
beantownbaker — September 25th, 2013 @ 4:14 pm
Hm. I’d be worried about that too… If you have a broiler pan that came with your oven, you could use that instead. Just line the bottom with paper towels.
I’m with you – if the fries are good, I can eat an embarrassing amount. I made these tonight – I soaked them for a few minutes to remove some of the starch, then dried them thoroughly and followed the rest of the directions. These were stupid-easy and completely delish. I have deleted all of my other fry recipes ’cause they can’t compare.
beantownbaker — October 8th, 2013 @ 9:49 am
So glad you enjoyed these. And I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who can house some fries! Soaking them to remove some of the starch is a good idea. I’ve also made these with garlic and parm – SO GOOD.
I just made these. They took WAY longer than I expected (but that’s probably because I don’t wait for my oven to preheat because I’m impatient), THEY WERE AMAZING. i feel like I’m eating carnival fries, they’re perfect. Hats off to you!
beantownbaker — October 28th, 2013 @ 9:32 pm
So glad you enjoyed them. Preheating definitely helps, but cooking them longer works too 🙂
I am making these right now and just turned them after the firts 10 minutes..should of oiled the racks as some of them stuck..but so far they are awesome….yes tasted already..lol..my greatest weakness is french fries and these do rule..thank you so much
beantownbaker — November 3rd, 2013 @ 12:35 pm
Glad you enjoyed them! Oiling the racks is a good idea. I’ll update the recipe to mention that.
I made these tonight CAREFULLY following the directions ( And I have been cooking for 50 years) The only ones that were crisp were the ones too burned to eat — the others were a soggy, greasy mess and were much too salty.It will certainly discourage me from trying other recipes from this site. Oh, and no, the paper towel did not burn- just turned brown & the kitchen did smoke up — would probably set off the smoke alarm if I had not had the vent fan on.
beantownbaker — November 7th, 2013 @ 10:08 am
Sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work out for you. It sounds like it might need a few tweaks to work with your oven…
I am making these right now and so far, 30 minutes into baking them, they are greasy and soggy. Not sure what happened, but next time I’m going to try soaking them in water first to remove the starch.
beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:34 pm
Bummer they didn’t work out for you. Did they ever crisp up?
Just made these babies! They came out perfect! I noticed some of the fatter slices stayed a bit soggy. I know better for next time. Thanks for the recipe!
beantownbaker — January 18th, 2014 @ 9:05 am
So glad this was a hit for you! It is really tough to cut a potato into evenly sized slices, so yes, sometimes the fatter ones are a bit soggy. I usually remove the ones that are done and throw the rest back in the oven for a few more minutes.
Came out very soggy, cooked them longer too. Kids were real upset, came out nothing like the picture.
FYI..you can use stale or reg slice bread under the rack to catch the oil…works great for bacon so am guessing will work for this too….will be trying these fries tonight : )
beantownbaker — February 3rd, 2014 @ 5:01 pm
Great tip about the bread. I’ve never heard of that. Let me know how they come out. I know some people needed to bake them longer to get them nice and crispy.
Get yourself a gadget that slices potatoes into french fries. Size will be consistent. Make sure you dry the potatoes really well before cooking. Try less oil. I use olive oil..
I’m making these right now. I haven’t tried them yet, but my smoke detectors keep going off from the paper towels burning, so i had to take them off 🙁 i hope the turn out alright!
Tried this method and also the method without the cooling rack and there is a noticeable difference. The batch using the cooling rack really makes the fries more crispy. I dunked the fries in cold water for both batches to get some starch out and dried them before putting them into the oven. Although not terribly soggy, the ones without the cooling rack never really crisped up. True about seasoning… I thought I seasoned mine too much, but the end result was still too bland. Thanks for this recipe!
Just made these tonight and paired them with Horseradish Fry Sauce…. umm we didn’t even get them to the plate they were so delish! Let’s not ever speak of my fry obsession again.
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:23 pm
So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Best French fries (can you still call them that if you bake them?) ever. I took steps to avoid them becoming crispy, and they were nice and soft. I know I’m in the minority here, but that’s how I prefer them. I had to substitute a few things. Chili powder in place of paprika, garlic powder in place of garlic salt. They were the best fries I’ve ever had (I’m including deep fried fries in that). They tasted like what you would get at Ruby Tuesdays but better.
I am making them tonight, I used an apple corer to cut the potatoes, cut a little in the bottom, so potatoes stand up, the middle part I just slice in half, I always soak them in water after there slice, it does cut the starch. Make sure to dry them good, before using the seasoning.