Oven French Fries
An astoundingly simple way to enjoy crispy French Fries from your oven.
Remember the Low Fat craze of the ‘90s? We had the mistaken notion that it was fat that was making us fat in America. There’s no doubt that consumption of the wrong kinds of fat that was found in many commercially prepared foods at the time was contributing to our collective obesity. But look at where we are today? From 1990 to 2023, the average weight of an average aged male in the US is up 14.3% For females, it has increased an astounding 21.4%. We’re fatter than ever. So, it wasn’t just fat that was the problem; it was also enriched carbohydrates, hypoglycemic diets, refined product, processed foods, sugar, salt and a whole continuum of artificial chemicals and preservatives in our diets that was - and still it - the problem.
Remember Susan Powter?
She was an early to mid-’90s self-help, crazy infomercial queen with giant clothing, grand gestures, a peroxided, buzzed haircut and booming baritone voice with a "stop the insanity" mantra, who tried to cash in on the Low Fat craze. She fell from public grace when she became a militant gay activist, and her behavior became evermore bizarre. To see Susan today, you would observe that her "healthy" lifestyle certainly has not contributed to the face of a woman who has aged gracefully, and that's being kind. It also seems she may have found some of that insanity she stopped in the 1990s, having changed her buzz-cut for dreadlocks with even more outlandish clothing and an increasingly fake British accent promoting health products on the internet in often incoherent, nonsensical video blogs.
Susan's fourth cookbook published in 1996, C'mon America, Let's Eat somehow found its way onto our kitchen bookshelf as My Number One Fan and I looked for healthier recipes with less fat. This would have preceded our search for healthier recipes with less carbs. Until then, the concept of "oven-fried" was relatively foreign to me. There were only two things to do with a potato in my kitchen up to that point: bake it or boil it. I never made French Fries at home because I didn't have a deep fat fryer, and I wasn't about to clean up after one. The idea that you could make French Fries in an oven had never occurred to me.
So, crazy or not, I will give Susan the credit she is due. This recipe is so simple, you'll be amazed at the results.
I have, however, a couple of pointers:
Add the Morton's Nature's Seasons seasoning at the last minute right before you put the fries in the oven. If you do it ahead of time and allow the potatoes to sit, the salt in the seasonings will leach the water out of the potato, and you'll end up with a soggy product.
Put the rack in the middle of the oven. If you put it in the bottom, the potatoes will cook too slow. If you put them in the top, they will cook unevenly.
The recipe calls for Morton Nature's Seasons seasoning blend, and that is what you should use. I haven't experimented with alternatives. Sometimes, perfection is perfection. Leave it alone.
Oven French Fries
Ingredients
- 3-4 medium Russet potatoes, peeled
- 2 tbsp Morton Nature's Seasons
- non-stick cooking spray (like, Pam)
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt or black truffle salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 500°F.
- Line a cookie sheet or sheet pan with aluminum foil. Spray liberally with the cooking spray.
- Slice the potatoes into 1/3 inch slices lengthwise. Then, cut each slice into 1/3 inch fries.
- Place the fries in a bowl, add the Nature's Seasons and toss the fries with your hands until all potatoes have picked up some of the seasonings. Do not proceed with this step unless you are going to put them directly into the oven.
- Lay the fries out in a single layer, and lay them out in two rows on each side of the sheet pan for easier turning.
- Place the rack in the middle of the oven and bake until the tops of the potatoes start to slightly brown in spots, about 10 minutes.
- Take the sheet pan out of the oven, and carefully turn all fries over with a spatula.
- Return the potatoes to the oven after turning, and cook another 10-15 minutes until the fries have browned. You'll notice that they will not evenly brown like potatoes cooked in hot oil. Instead, they will brown in spots, but you're looking for the potatoes to have browned like this consistently.
- Remove from the oven, sprinkle with sea salt or black truffle salt and serve immediately.
Notes
- A word of caution here: when you open the oven to turn the potatoes, because of the moisture content of the potatoes and the extreme heat of the oven, steam will have accumulated. Don't put your face over the oven door as you open it, or this super-heated steam can cause an instant flash burn.
