Alton Brown's Baked Potato Fries Recipe Review

Everyone dreams to bite into a french fry that is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. This is the french fry recipe you just got to try. Thanks Alton Brown 🙂 Start in the oven, finish by deep frying (or in an air fryer). This recipe appears in Good Eats Reloaded.

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You know something the world could always use?

Another fry recipe.

The potential to smell the scent of fries in the air is high in every town in America. Head into our neighborhoods and you aren't likely to smell that same smell. We buy more fries than we fry.

Maybe if we gave up the fast food fry on a three times a week basis and settled into a more homemade fries, twice a month only, lifestyle, I would say we might be healthier as a nation. We would for sure be more satis-fried - not the short lived "healthier" fries that Burger King rolled out.

I am happy to say I have come across a fry recipe that would make me yern for that homemade fry life. And they are good eats, reloaded that is.

As part of Alton Brown's series of fixing his past blunders, Alton comes out with a new fry recipe that would take the cake, if only it were cake.

Jump to:

• 🛒 Ingredients
• 🛢️ Oil Alternatives
• ⚙️ Why This Method Works
• 📝 Recipe Notes
• ⭐ Recipe Review
• 🌬️ Air Fryer Method
• ➕ Try Out These Other Alton Recipes
• Alton Brown's Baked Potato Fries

🛒 Ingredients

Here is what you will need from the store for this recipe.

• Russet potatoes
• Peanut oil
• Kosher salt

Pretty simple ingredients. You don't need anything fancy.

I would not choose another type of potato, Russet potatoes are the perfect choice.

🛢️ Oil Alternatives

Alton thinks peanut is the best oil for the fries. It does do a fantastic job. But if you don't want to use peanut oil. Here are some other options you can do.

• Canola oil
• Vegetable oil
• Sunflower oil
• Safflower oil
• Corn oil

If you want to cut down on the oil, you can toss these in your air fryer (instructions below) and you will only need to spray the potatoes with your cooking oil spray of choice.

⚙️ Why This Method Works

One popular method of making fries to double fry them. That is cook them at one temperature, removed them, and then cook them again at a higher temperature just to crisp the up. It's not a bad idea, but I think this recipe is easier.

As it starts with simply baking the potatoes and allowing them to cool. You can bake up a whole big bag of potatoes, enjoy some with sour cream that night and the next day, fry the leftovers.

📝 Recipe Notes

1. I learned from Alton years ago that you don't need to wrap your potatoes in foil like some people do. Neither do you need to cook them on a sheet pan. Just place the potatoes right on the oven rack. Simple as that and save money on foil and water use to clean a sheet pan.
2. Another time saver with this recipe is that you don't have to peel the potatoes. Leave the skin on it. They look better that way.
3. The challenge we faced with cutting the potatoes and including the skin in each cut is that we had some pieces that ended up being too small or they kind of feel apart, especially near the middle. I wanted uniform fries for even cooking, so we just didn't use all the potatoes. You can still save those piece for reheating and just eating.

⭐ Recipe Review

Steak fries are my favorite, so of course I am going to love these fries. Here is the thing, my wife doesn't love steaks fries as much because they usually aren't as crispy as thin shoestring fries. Not the case with these fries. That outside is as crisp as it gets. I would argue the only fries I have had that were crispier were actually burned.

That crisp exterior is accompanied by a soft inferior. That my friend is what we call the perfect fry. The two part bake-then fry method works so well here. There is no doubt these are the new go-to fries in my home.

🌬️ Air Fryer Method

How about instead of deep frying, you use an air fryer. It's a lot easier than deep frying and clean up is simple. Only down side, is that it does take longer, however if you have other things to do you can walk away from the air fryer, which you would never do when deep frying - I hope you wouldn't.

Here are my air fryer instructions

• Cut up your chilled baked potatoes
• Arrange them in your air fryer basket, making sure they don't touch
• Spray with oil to coat, this will promote browning
• Cook for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Pull the basket out after 5 minutes and give it a shake.
• Season with a fine salt and serve immediately

Did you know you can cook a whole potato in the air fryer, just like a baked potato? Learn more about that in our post on How to Bake/Air Fry Purple Potatoes

➕ Try Out These Other Alton Recipes

Here are some other Alton Brown recipes that we have reviewed on the blog.

• Fish Sticks
• Bonuts
• Cacio e Pepe
• Lemon Meringue Pie
• Butterflied, Dry Brined Turkey
• Butter Flake Rolls