Make Your Best Oven Baked “fries” by Steaming the Potatoes First
The perfect French fries are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. If you don’t want to mess around with deep-frying, this steaming-then-deep-frying technique might be your best alternative.
The method comes from cooking educator and author Patricia Wells via Food52, which explains why this makes great steak fries:
“Steaming creates a thin, moist coating of starch on the surface of the potatoes, providing a very crunchy texture when baked,” explains Wells. You can actually see that pale sheen on the cut edges of each French fries after you lift the lid and discard them from the steamer basket.
A light layer of oil will harden the starches, brown and crisp, and prevent the potatoes from sticking to the baking sheet. And since the fries are already steamed, they won’t burn until cooked through, which would be inevitable if you just toss the raw potato chunks in the oven at 500 ° F.
These wonderful homemade fries take just ten minutes steamed and ten minutes baked and just a couple tablespoons of olive oil.
Fake frits by Patricia Wells | Food52