Who doesn’t love French fries?!
Sprinkled with salt and seasoning, crispy and so delicious, these potato sticks are our favorite staple for almost every home party. However, since it is not always possible to have a chance to buy them in advance or – especially! – make ourselves, most of us prefer purchasing a batch of fries and freezing them.
However, later it will turn into another issue: how to cook them properly? And how much time will frying frozen french fries take? Well, if this is what you have been asking yourselves, too, today you will finally find the answer.
How to Fry Frozen French Fries. Options And Recommendations
There are several options you can use for frying frozen French fries at home. Each of them requires a slightly different amount of time and distinct kitchen appliances, of course, but in general, the process is more or less the same. So hanging upon your time and equipment, you can make use of:
- an oven
- air fryer
- deep fryer
- a pan
And now let us describe in detail how and for how long your French fries have to be cooked using each of these approaches.
How to Fry French Fries In the Oven
If frying frozen fries in your oven is the option you chose, we would recommend you use a baking stone rather than a baking sheet. This is because a baking stone will allow these potato sticks to get fried throughout way better. However, you are free to choose the variant you like, of course!
So you take a baking stone or a sheet and place it into the oven. Next, we need to prepare our frozen French fries for being cooked. What you need to do is to grab your fries and place them in a plastic bag or a tank. You now spray them with a cooking spray thoroughly and shake to distribute it all over the potato sticks.
Now place the oiled fries on a baking sheet or a stone, add salt and spices you like most, and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until you see the fries become slightly brown and sizzling.
This method is quite simple but it will require additional equipment from you. And besides, it is also a bit time-consuming.
How And How Long to Cook Frozen Fries In An Air Fryer?
Using an air fryer is another usable option if you need to make your French fries crispy and tasty again after they were taken out of the frosting camera. In addition, this variant is way healthier in comparison to cooking them in oil, for instance.
So if you are into healthy eating and you have an air fryer in your kitchen, why not make use of it for cooking frozen fries? The process itself is extremely simple!
You just take your fries from the freezer, place them into the basket of your air fryer, and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. And of course, remember to spray them slightly with some olive oil cooking spray!
Once ready, you can proceed with the cooking. Set your air fryer at 400 degrees Fahrenheit and turn it on. For how long do you put frozen fries in the air fryer to cook like this? Well, cook them for ten minutes first, then shake well to distribute the oil better and cook for five or ten minutes more until they get crispy.
Like this, you will get a dish that contains less fat (in comparison to the fries cooked in oil). And besides, they say that French fries come out of an air fryer being even crispier than those cooked in the oven!
How to Fry Frozen French Fries In a Pan
It is good to have such handy kitchen appliances as an air fryer, of course. But what if you don’t have one, and you also can’t or don’t want to make use of your oven? Is it possible to fry frozen french fries in a pan, for example?
In general, it is possible, of course. However, you need to take into account that for using this method, you will have to add quite a lot of oil for the dish to be properly cooked. But if you are ok with some extra cholesterol, then feel free to make use of this variant!
So, the scheme is the following:
- pour oil into your pan so that it covers a quarter of an inch in its bottom
heat that oil over medium high heat - wait until oil is glistening hot (a drop of water must splatter loudly)
- add frozen fries to that oil
- cook until you see the potato sticks reach the level of crispness you prefer (3-5 minutes is usually enough)
This method is also hard to call fast. Besides, it is pretty far from being called healthy either. Nevertheless, cooking frozen fries this way is still very popular, so you decide whether to use this method or not.
How to Cook Frozen Fries In a Deep Fryer
Those who don’t feel like messing around with a pan or a skillet full of hot oil can shift for a deep fryer. This handy appliance allows you to set the temperature needed, load the food you want to cook, and then simply take it out, being already prepared for consumption!
So if you have this kitchen appliance, and you want some French fries for dinner, all you need to do is:
- pour oil into the deep fryer
- preheat your deep fryer with oil in it to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (that is the temperature to deep fry french fries at)
- place your frozen fries into the basket of a fryer keeping it half full
- carefully immerse the basket into hot oil
- fry until fries turn light golden
How long does it take to deep fry frozen french fries, you may wonder? Well, in general, it takes around three to four minutes. If you keep them being fried longer, you can simply burn them, so be careful and attentive to not ruin the dish!
Extra Tips to Know
What we have just described above were the basic tips and instructions for frying frozen French fries using different cooking methods. And as you could notice, each approach has its specific nuances.
However, there are also some additional tips that are good to be aware of if you want your frozen French fries to be not overcooked or too soggy as it often happens when we screw it up with the frying process.
This is why remember the following recommendations if you want your fries to be perfect:
- Never defrost them prior to cooking! Like this, you will get perfectly crisp fries instead of a soggy mess.
- Use oils with neutral taste for cooking frozen fries. That means canola or peanut oil, vegetable oil, safflower oil, grape-seed oil, etc.
- To make your fries crispy, salt them straight out of the oven. Also, preparing them in an air fryer or in the oven on an open rack can help.
Use these suggestions and you will be enjoying absolutely delicious French fries even if they spent a long time being frozen.
Well, these were all the tips and recommendations regarding how to cook frozen French fries at home. Now that you know what to do and what to avoid, know what makes the fries soggy and what keeps them crisp, we are sure you will become your family’s French fries guru!
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