Are baked fries healthy: Baked French Fries {Healthy and Crispy!} – WellPlated.com

09.09.202304.07.2023 by alexxlab

Baked French Fries {Healthy and Crispy!} – WellPlated.com

BREAKING NEWS. You can make Homemade Fries in the oven! After slicing, baking, and salting more potatoes than I care to count, I have for you a foolproof method for how to make French fries crispy in the oven.

No more compromising texture for the sake of making baked French fries healthy.

Pull out the spuds and get your dip ready!

While I’m no stranger to oven fries, up until now I hadn’t found a from-scratch recipe that I considered a legitimate alternative to the real-deal, deep-fried French fries you’d find at a restaurant.

Most baked fries I made at home became soggy quickly after emerging from the oven, a problem I assumed was unavoidable…and that I easily mitigated by smothering the fries in all manners of cheesy deliciousness (reference: Mexican Chicken Enchilada Fries; Chicken Bacon Ranch Fries).

Or, if the oven baked fries were crispy on the outside, the tradeoff was that the insides would be dry and caky. No thank you.

Still, other methods for homemade oven fries, while effective, were too fussy.

I’ve read all about the crispy oven fries cornstarch trick (an extra step in which the cut potatoes are carefully tossed in cornstarch prior to baking), but after trying it once, I decided that it was too much of a hassle and too messy to be worth it.

I wanted crispy baked fries that were golden on the outside and tender on the inside, all for a minimum amount of effort. Goldilocks much?

These five-star baked French fries exceeded all my wildest dreams, and I’ll never make them any other way.

How To Make Homemade French Fries

Learning how to make French fries from potatoes is an important life skill that you’ll be happy to have in your arsenal.

After extensive experimentation with different varieties of potatoes, baking times and temps, and seasonings, today’s easy homemade fries are the BEST of them all!

My homemade French fry secrets come down to four basic tips:

Use Yukon gold potatoes.
Soak the potatoes prior to making fries.
Don’t skimp on the oil.
Season, season, season.

Use Yukon Gold Potatoes

I tested baked fries with both russet potatoes and Yukon gold potatoes, and while both do work, I preferred the final texture of the baked fries made with Yukon golds.
While both potato varieties crisped nicely on the outsides, I found the insides of the russets to be drier, while the oven fries made with the Yukon golds were more tender and creamy.
You may also see Yukon gold potatoes labeled simply “gold” or “yellow” potatoes at the grocery store.
A potato labeled “Idaho” typically refers to russet.

Soak the Potatoes Prior to Cooking

I tested all of the popular cooking methods to making oven fries, and the one that yielded the best results with the least amount of effort was soaking the potatoes in water prior to baking them.

If you’ve ever had double-fried French fries (HEAVEN. It’s how the Pioneer Woman does hers. Could there be a better endorsement?), the concept is the same. Cooking the fries once at a lower temperature than again at a higher temperature creates the ultimate inner and outer texture, whether the fries are deep fried or oven baked.
While the potatoes soak in very hot water, they cook just enough to ensure the insides become nice and tender, while the outsides crisp but do not burn. (I bake my fries at 450 degrees F; I found oven fries at 475 degrees burned before they were finished.)
Some recipes may call for you to soak the potatoes in salt water instead. When you soak potatoes in salt water, the moisture from inside the potato is pulled out, resulting in a mushy, unappealing result. Stick with unsalted water for the best baked French fries.

Don’t Skimp on the Oil

To make crispy French fries from scratch you need oil to help the potatoes crisp up in the oven and give them a hint of that familiar French fry flavor. For this recipe, I use a basic, extra-virgin olive oil.
I don’t have a recommended method for making French fries in the oven without oil, but you can use grapeseed oil or canola oil instead of olive oil.

Season, Season, Season

A critical component to perfect baked fries is seasoning.

Basic salt and pepper will do, but feel free to vary it up.
I spent my entire life dipping my fries in ranch dressing, so for this recipe I used a blend of spices inspired by ranch flavors. Dill weed, combined with garlic powder, onion powder, and salt give the fries a zesty, herby flavor that makes them impossibly addictive. Feel free to experiment with your favorite spices to find your perfect French fry flavor or keep it classic.
Season both before the potatoes go into the oven, then after they come out to taste. An under seasoned potato is a bland potato, even in fry form.

Recipe Step Overview

Coat a baking sheet with olive oil to protect against potato stick-age.
Clean your potatoes (I leave the peels on) and slice them into 1/4-inch-wide sticks.
Soak the potatoes in hot water. (Remember, this step is worth it!)
Drain and dry the potatoes with a paper towel or kitchen towel. Toss them with the remaining oil and spices until coated, then place them on the baking sheet in a single layer.
Bake at 450 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes. Use a spatula to flip the fries, and move them into a single layer. Bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until the exterior is golden brown and as crispy as you like. Sprinkle with some extra salt to taste. DIG IN!

Are Baked Fries Healthy?

I wanted to address this question, because I feel like there has been a good amount of potato shaming in recent years. In moderation and with the right cooking method, the answer is YES baked fries are healthy!

While white potatoes often receive a bad reputation, much of that has to do with how we typically prepare potatoes (ahem, deep fried instead of baked), as well as the quantity in which we eat them.
Potatoes contain fiber, potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin B6. All good things our bodies need!

Baked French fries are not bad for you, especially when compared with traditional French fries. In the battle of baked fries vs fried fries, baked fries win every single time.

Here’s why healthy baked French fries are better for you than fried:

Less Oil. During frying, French fries soak up excess oil, making them greasy. The baking method used in this recipe allows you to control the amount of oil and use far, far less.
Less Fat and Calories. Because of the decreased amount of oil, baked French fries calories and fat are lower than their fried counterparts.

Another healthy cooking method is grilling potatoes. See it in action with my favorite Grilled Sweet Potato Fries.

How to Make Your Fries Crispy Again

In the unlikely event of leftovers, you can reheat the baked fries by preheating your oven to 400 degrees and placing an empty baking sheet in the oven while the oven preheats.
Spread the leftover fries in a single layer on the hot pan, then pop the pan into the preheated oven for 5 to 8 minutes. Watch the fries carefully the last few minutes to make sure they do not burn.
If you’ve ever reheated French fries from a restaurant, you know nothing replaces the just-cooked taste (the fries will dry out a bit), but they did at least perk up somewhat.

Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Tips

To Refrigerate. Place leftover fries in an airtight storage container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat using the method for How to Make Your Fries Crispy Again above.
To Freeze. Spread the fries in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and place them in the freezer until solid. Transfer the frozen fries to an airtight freezer-safe storage container for up to 3 months. Reheat from frozen as directed above, adding about 3 or so extra minutes to the cooking time. How long you bake frozen French fries can vary, so keep an eye on them.

Recipe Variations

Parmesan Baked Fries. A delicious recipe option is to toss the finished baked fries with a few tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese just before serving.
Chili Fries. Season the fries with chili powder and a pinch of cumin.
Oven Baked Steak Fries. If you are looking for baked steak fries, I’d suggest the fries from this Baked Fish and Chips recipe, as the method and cooking time/temps below are more suitable for thinner, quick homemade French fries.
To Make Vegan. This recipe is vegan as written (as long as the optional Parmesan isn’t added; try swapping it for nutritional yeast if you like).
To Make Dairy Free. Omit the optional Parmesan topping or use nutritional yeast, which has a similar “cheesy” flavor.

Recommended Tools to Make this Recipe

Rimmed Baking Sheets. With these in your kitchen, you’ll be ready for baked fries anytime.
Non-Slip Cutting Board. My favorite cutting board. It won’t slip away from you while you’re cutting the potatoes.
Mixing Bowls. Stackable and easy to store.

If you try this recipe for ranch-inspired crispy baked fries, I’d love to hear what you think. Your comments mean so much to me!

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Do I Have to Soak the Potatoes?

Soaking the potatoes removes their starch, which is critical to allowing them to crisp in the oven. I prefer a hot water soak over cold water for the “double fry” effect.

Can I Use Russet Potatoes?

If you prefer to use russet potatoes, you can certainly swap them here. Note that the fries will be a little drier and less buttery than fries made with Yukon gold potatoes.

Can I Air Fry This Recipe?

Absolutely! See my Air Fryer French Fries for a recipe. Note that you will need to cook the fries in more batches.

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil divided
1 1/2 pounds golden yellow potatoes Yukon Gold or similar, about 4
1 teaspoon kosher salt plus additional to taste
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Toppings (optional) fresh parsley, chives, freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or nutritional yeast)

Place a rack in the lower third of your oven and preheat to 450 degrees F. Drizzle a large rimmed baking sheet with 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, brushing it as needed so that it nicely coats the pan.
Scrub the potatoes and peel if desired (I leave the peels on). Slice into 1/4-inch-wide sticks. Place the potatoes in a large bowl, then pour very hot tap water over the top so that it covers the potatoes by at least 1 inch. Let sit 10 minutes.
Drain the potatoes, then transfer them to a clean towel and dry as completely as you can, changing the towel as needed. Rinse and wipe out the bowl you soaked the potatoes in, then return the potatoes to the bowl. Drizzle with the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt, garlic powder, dill weed, onion powder, and pepper. Toss to coat, making sure the spices and oil are well distributed. Spread the potatoes into a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.
Roast in the lower third of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until turning golden underneath. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and, with a large, firm spatula, carefully loosen the fries from the bottom of the pan. Flip them in large sections as best as you can so that the potatoes rotate and brown evenly on all sides (no need to painstakingly flip every single one). With your fingers (be careful—the pan is hot!) return the potatoes to a single layer. Place the pan back in the oven and continue baking until the fries are as golden and crisp as you like, about 5 to 10 additional minutes (30 minutes total was ideal timing for this crispy-fry lover). While the fries are hot, sprinkle with any desired toppings and a bit more salt to taste. DEVOUR.

You can swap russet (standard baking) potatoes for the Yukon golds (no changes to the recipe needed), but I found that the Yukon golds gave me the best oven fry texture overall. The insides were creamier, while the outsides became nice and crisp.
TO STORE: Place leftover fries in an airtight storage container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
TO REHEAT: In the unlikely event of leftovers, you can reheat the baked fries by preheating your oven to 400 degrees and placing an empty baking sheet in the oven while the oven preheats. Spread the leftover fries in a single layer on the hot pan, then pop the pan into the preheated oven for 5 to 8 minutes. Watch the fries carefully the last few minutes to make sure they do not burn.
If you’ve ever reheated French fries from a restaurant, you know nothing replaces the just-cooked taste (the fries will dry out a bit), but they did at least perk up somewhat.

Serving: 1(of 4)Calories: 227kcalCarbohydrates: 30gProtein: 4gFat: 11gSaturated Fat: 1gPotassium: 725mgFiber: 4gSugar: 1gVitamin C: 34mgCalcium: 20mgIron: 1mg

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Baked French Fries: The Healthiest Oven-Baked Recipe

The words ’healthy’ and ’french fries’ don’t often appear in the same sentence, but we’ve perfected an oven-baked french fries recipe that’s surprisingly low in calories!

Rather than deep-frying french fries fast-food style, our healthy french fries keep in the goodness and leave out the saturated fats. Our recipe is sparing on the oil, but with a few tips and tricks, it’s still easy to give the potatoes a crispy finish!

Keep reading, and find out how to make the best baked french fries at home!

How to make baked french fries

Oven-baked french fries are a simple way to prepare a healthy alternative to traditional deep or pan-fried potato fries.

All you need are potatoes, a little oil, and some seasoning (salt and pepper do the trick). But before you start slicing potatoes and throwing them into the oven, there are a few great steps you can take to cook the perfect oven-fried potatoes.

Let’s start with the most important tips on how to make your french fries crispy!

How to make oven-baked french fries crispy

French fries aren’t french fries unless they are crispy, but you can achieve a crispy finish even in the oven. To make crispy baked french fries, you first need to follow these important steps when preparing your potatoes (in order!):

Soak the potatoes. The potatoes have to be soaked in cold water before baking. Soaking in cold water (for at least half an hour) allows the starch to diffuse out of the potato. Less starchy potatoes crisp up better. Once soaked, dry the potatoes before baking!
These are healthy french fries, but you still need oil to give them that crispy finish. Seasoning, such as salt and pepper, also adds to the crispiness.
Use the double bake technique. When french fries are cooked in a fast-food restaurant, they’ll be double-cooked (well, double fried in oil). We can replicate this in the oven by first cooking the french fries at a lower temperature, then ramping up the heat for a second stage of cooking (see the recipe for more details on timing!).

How to cut potatoes into fries

Traditional french fries are long, thin, and crispy. For the best results, you need a sharp knife and long potatoes (Russet potatoes are the best type to use!). You can leave the skin on the fries or peel the potatoes to remove the skin before cutting into shape.

Alternatively, you can cut the french fries thicker, giving you a steak-style cut. These take longer to cook but are equally delicious.

Baked potato fries recipe

Now you know the process behind making baked french fries, here’s our easy homemade french fries recipe. The recipe makes enough homemade baked french fries for 4 servings, and takes 40 minutes to prep and 40 minutes to cook in the oven.

Baked french fries recipe FAQ

How to reheat french fries

If you’ve made too many french fries, then they keep for at least 48 hours before becoming too stale to enjoy. Keep the fries in the fridge, then reheat them in the oven for the best results. This is the best way to reheat fries, and it only takes 10 minutes and an extra splash of oil and seasoning.

It’s also possible to reheat the fries in a skillet on the stovetop, but you’ll need more oil for this. A microwave is an option but often results in overcooked or mushy french fries (we don’t recommend it as a first option!).

French fries can also be frozen for up to 6 months. Place the leftovers in a ziplock bag or resealable container. Allow them to thaw overnight, then bake them in the oven to reheat.

Are baked french fries healthy?

Cooking without oil is the quickest way to make a dish healthy, but we need to compromise with french fries. Without oil, it’s impossible to get a crispy finish, but we need to use it as sparingly as possible!

Compared to deep-fried fries, oven-baked french fries are much healthier, as you can get away with using just a drizzle of oil. Deep-fried french fries end up soaking in oil as they cook, and they absorb a vast quantity of unhealthy fats. Therefore, oily french fries are much more calorific than oven-baked french fries that don’t soak up anywhere near as much oil as they cook (the number of calories in baked french fries is significantly lower!).

Potatoes that are baked also retain a larger number of vitamins and nutrients. Yes, they are carb-heavy, but potatoes contain fiber, Vitamin C, and many more essential nutrients. In moderation, and when cooked with a healthier approach (oven-baking), french fries can be healthy!

That’s it for our baked french fries recipe

Baked french fries are easy to prepare at home (all you need are potatoes, after all!), and they are a much, much healthier alternative to fast-food fries. Skip the oil, and lower the calories with a healthy, oven-baked recipe that’s still packed with seasoning and flavor!

Why not bookmark our recipe for later, so you can learn how to make french fries in the oven?

Fried potatoes – calories, useful properties, benefits and harms, description

Calories, kcal:

192

Proteins, g:

2. 8

Fats, g:

9.5

Carbohydrates, g:

23.4

The potato is one of the most widely consumed foods worldwide, second only to rice. Fried potatoes are a quick dinner, a time-tested side dish and a favorite dish for kids. Potatoes are fried with the addition of fat (vegetable or animal), so the product has a golden crust, if the potatoes are cut into round thin slices, then the dish turns out to be appetizingly crispy. Traditionally, fried potatoes are eaten immediately, it is not recommended to store and reheat them, and almost all taste qualities are lost.

Calorie content of fried potatoes

Calorie content of fried potatoes is 192 kcal per 100 grams of product.

Composition and useful properties of fried potatoes

Ingredients: potato, fat (vegetable or butter, lard, etc.), salt. Potato is a carbohydrate in its pure form, almost entirely composed of starch, any fat chosen for cooking at a certain temperature produces carcinogenic substances, salt retains fluid in the body. It is impossible to talk seriously about the benefits of fried potatoes, if only the taste of the product is taken into account.

The harm of fried potatoes

The potato itself has a medium glycemic index, which increases significantly during frying. Starch, the content of which is high in the product, when it enters the body, provokes the release of glucose in the blood, which leads to the production of insulin and the formation of fat. Like any simple carbohydrate, potatoes give you a feeling of quick but short-lived satiety. Trans fats, produced by frying any type of fat, contribute to an increased risk of malignant tumors. Salt, which is added to fried potatoes, is the reason for the increase in blood pressure and malfunction of the heart muscle. Fried potatoes are high in calories, so the product is not recommended for those who are trying to keep weight under control. For the digestive system, fried potatoes will become an additional problem, as it causes heaviness and discomfort in the stomach.

Which potatoes are suitable for frying

In order to get an appetizing dish with a golden crust, and not an unintelligible porridge with a hint of curly cuts, you need to choose the “right” potatoes. The main requirement is that potatoes should keep their shape well, not fall apart during heat treatment (calorizator). That is, to prepare mashed potatoes and fried potatoes, you need to take different potatoes. As a rule, potato varieties are suitable for frying, in which there is less starch, these are tubers with light skin and a white core, hard and dense.

Cooking fried potatoes

Potatoes can be fried in a small amount of fat or deep-fried, the product can be cut in a variety of ways – slices, sticks, slices or thin circles. Before frying potatoes, rinse the slices under cold water (to reduce the starch content) and dry with a paper or regular towel so that there is less moisture in the pan, so the potatoes will fry better and not stick together during cooking.

For more about the benefits and harms of fried potatoes, see the video clip of the TV show “Live Healthy”.

Specially for Calorizator.ru
Copying this article in whole or in part is prohibited.

Fried potatoes harm and benefit

Potato is one of the most popular food products in our country. To the question: What kind of potatoes do you like? , most people will answer that, of course, fried potatoes and french fries. Who will refuse fried potatoes with onions with a golden crust, and even with pickles. Is this food good?

Fried potatoes are harmful

Nutritionists say that these are the most harmful ways of cooking potatoes (frying and deep-frying). They recommend using roasting and boiling potatoes. With such processing methods, useful substances and properties are preserved in the vegetable, such food is not harmful to health. Why are fried potatoes bad?

During frying potatoes in very hot fat, a carcinogen is formed – acrylamide, which affects our nervous system and greatly increases the risk of developing cancerous tumors, gene mutations and infertility. It is better to fry potatoes in vegetable oil, frying in butter is more harmful, and frying in margarine is especially harmful. Homemade fried potatoes are contraindicated in diseases of the liver, kidneys, stomach, high cholesterol.

Potatoes mainly consist of starch, starch is the polysaccharides of amylose and amylopectin, the monomer of which is alpha-glucose, that is, starch is essentially the same glucose. Potatoes are a pure carbohydrate, which is not only a source of energy, but also one of the main reasons for gaining excess weight. This also needs to be remembered.

Potato has a very high glycemic index, so it promotes the release of insulin into our blood, the main function of which is to lower blood glucose levels, as well as the production of fat cells from unused glucose for energy production.