A bag of frozen fries is a fine thing at six o'clock on a Tuesday. A russet you cut yourself, seasoned before it goes in the oven and again when it comes out, is a different food altogether — and it does not need a pot of hot oil or a fryer you have to find a cupboard for.
Two steps do most of the work. The potatoes soak in cold water first, which rinses off the surface starch that otherwise turns to glue in a dry oven. Then they get the thinnest coat of cornstarch, which dries into a shell you can hear. HAAAAAM-Burger goes on before they bake and again the second they come out, so you get the toasted version and the bright version in the same bite. It is our hamburger and french fry seasoning, and the fries are half its job.
The burger sauce is two minutes and one bowl: mayonnaise, ketchup, dill pickle relish, a spoon of brine from the pickle jar, mustard and more of the same seasoning. Stir it first and let it sit in the fridge while the fries bake.
Carolina sweet potatoes are coming out of the ground this month, and they cut into fries just as happily — there is a note below on running half a pan of them. Set the whole thing next to a Skillet Patty Melt and you have supper on the table.
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Crispy Oven Fries with Burger Sauce and HAAAAAM-Burger
Oven-baked fries with crackly edges and a fluffy middle, tossed in organic HAAAAAM-Burger seasoning, plus a two-minute burger sauce. No deep fryer.
Ingredients
For the fries
- 3 lb russet potatoes (about 4 large), scrubbed, skin on
- 2 Tbsp HAAAAAM-Burger organic hamburger and french fry seasoning, divided
- 1½ Tbsp cornstarch
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
For the burger sauce
- ¾ cup mayonnaise
- 3 Tbsp ketchup
- 2 Tbsp dill pickle relish
- 1 Tbsp dill pickle brine, straight from the jar
- 1 tsp yellow mustard
- 1½ tsp HAAAAAM-Burger organic hamburger and french fry seasoning
To serve
- 2 Tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- Flaky salt
Instructions
- Scrub the potatoes and leave the skins on. Cut each one into slabs a scant 3/8 inch thick, then cut the slabs into sticks. Even sticks cook at the same rate; wildly different ones do not.
- Drop the cut fries into a bowl of cold water and soak 30 minutes, up to 2 hours. This rinses the surface starch off, and surface starch is what turns to glue in a dry oven.
- Heat the oven to 425°F with one rack in the lower third and one in the upper third. Line two rimmed sheet pans with parchment.
- Drain the fries and dry them properly — spread them on a clean towel, roll them once, and pat the tops. Any water left on them turns to steam, and steam is the enemy of crisp.
- Tip the dry fries into a dry bowl, scatter the cornstarch over them and toss until every stick looks faintly chalky with no white pockets left. Add the olive oil, 1½ Tbsp of the HAAAAAM-Burger and the kosher salt, and toss again until evenly coated.
- Spread them over the two pans in a single layer, not touching. Two roomy pans beat one crowded one every time — crowded fries steam each other soft.
- Bake 20 minutes. Turn the fries with a thin spatula, swap the pans between racks, and bake 15 to 20 minutes more, until they are deep gold and the edges look crisp and a little blistered.
- While they bake, stir the burger sauce together: mayonnaise, ketchup, relish, pickle brine, mustard and 1½ tsp HAAAAAM-Burger. Stir until it is one smooth color and chill it until the fries come out.
- Tip the hot fries into a dry bowl, toss with the remaining ½ Tbsp seasoning and a pinch of flaky salt, and scatter the parsley over. Serve them straight away, with the burger sauce alongside.
Soak them, then dry them
The cold-water soak pulls the loose starch off the cut surfaces, and the towel takes the water back off. Skip the soak and the fries go gummy; skip the drying and they steam. Both steps are short and both matter more than the oven temperature.
A thin coat of cornstarch
A tablespoon and a half over three pounds of potatoes is not breading. It is a film that dries into a shell you can hear. If you would rather have a plainer, more potato-forward fry, leave it out and add five minutes to the bake.
Two pans, one layer
This is the rule people break and then wonder why their oven fries are pale. Fries need dry air on every side. If you only have one sheet pan, bake them in two batches and hold the first in a 200°F oven, uncovered.
Season twice
Most of the HAAAAAM-Burger goes on before baking so it toasts into the potato. The last half tablespoon goes on hot out of the oven, where it stays bright. That second pinch is the difference between seasoned fries and fries with seasoning on them.
What is good right now
Carolina sweet potatoes are coming out of the ground this month, and they cut into fries just as happily. Run half a pan of them: give them their own pan, since they brown faster, and pull them about five minutes early. The burger sauce is just as good on those.
Feeding a crowd
The sauce keeps five days covered in the fridge and is better on day two. Finished fries hold about twenty minutes on the pan in a 200°F oven — never covered, never stacked, or you undo the whole afternoon.