THE BEST Air Fryer French Fry (Ranking 7 Methods)

41 Comments

1. I have been doing the thicker half inch cut, par-boiled in baking soda for 7 mins and using the French fry button on my Cosori for a minute now. I usually add another 3-5 minutes depending how many fries I put in the basket. Its the best method I’ve found so far but I will have to try the double fry method and compare. I don’t like to par-boil them for a long time because they are too hard to manage afterwards and don’t think it makes a huge difference with crispiness or taste.

2. Not having any additional space for an airfryer (or any other kitchen tools i unfortunately desire so much), my go to solution for crunchy fries without having to actually fry them is: cut potatoes, give’emquick rinse, throw‘em in a bowl, add enough olive or sunflower oil and corn starch to get a lightly visible coating and throw them on some parchment making sure they do not touch each other as good as possible. Then pop them into the oven at around 200-220°C (390-430F), eventually give them a lil toss and bake until crispy. Salt and enjoy.

   To me this is the tastiest, quickest and healthiest way to still those french fry cravings from time to time without owning an airfryer.

3. Tbh it seems the best way to do is the single fried ones. You have them faster on your plate, you do not have to do a lot around them, less cleaning and there seems to be to small of a difference in comparison. Great informative video 🙂

   1. soaking them in water for 30 minutes makes a lot of difference though.

4. I think time is also important, not a lot of people will be frying those for 25 minutes, + 30 minutes in water + 30 minutes in the fridge so a 7 for a single fry might be better than a 7.5 if it takes 1hour more

   1. I agree, he should have taken time/effort into account. (And the scoring seems arbitrary, since he said the fries get a little worse each time you cook them, but the leftover fry was second-highest by 0.1 points).

      But as a counterpoint, I usually have to get dinner on the table quickly, but have lots of time to prep the night before. So I’d prefer the double fry, since I can slice/soak/cook/dry/fry/fridge the night before, then only 10m the next day to finish. Whereas the single fry I could still slice/soak the day before, but I’d still be dry/fry at least 30m the next day. So double fry or Heston/redemption will be the method for me, I think.

   2. @Bryan M or just dump some frozen fries into the airfryer? they come out great, because they are already prefried. slight worse than deepfried but way better than oven baked french fries.
      depending on the cut u get different results. i’ve got some frozen fries which taste exactly like mcdonalds when coming out of the airfryer

   3. @Fabian 2321 or skip all the effort and just get McDonald’s!

   4. @Bryan M
      McDonald’s fries aren’t too good unless you eat them at the restaurant in my opinion. The best french fries to bring home to eat are from Five Guys!

   5. @Insidious Gorilla right, point being the closest thing to store-bought fries are fries bought at the store. McDs vs 5Gs is kind of a silly distinction when comparing home-made, air-fried methods.

5. A slight variation on the techniques mentioned in the comments, that really works for me. Par-boil in salted water. Drain but reserve a bit of the starchy water, and put the potatoes back in the pan with a bit of the starchy water. Add your oil. Put the lid on the saucepan and vigorously shake. The oil and water will slightly emulsify and coat all the potatoes. Yes, some will break but that’s OK. They’ll become craggy and that will add to the crispness. Then I twice airfry shaking every few minutes, but don’t bother with the fridge in the middle. Works every time. I also sometimes add paprika along with the oil in the saucepan before shaking.

   1. If you put vinegar in the water potatoes should hold up better

   2. oh my thank you

   3. This is the way.

   4. Just tried this and it is magical! Thank you

   5. I followed your method but only fried once at 380 for 18 minutes (stopped at 10 to shake them) they still turned out good. Much better than what I was doing. Next time I’m going for 20 minutes I think they could have used a truck ouch more crispness.

6. I got the Cosori on black Friday last year and it’s been great. So easy to use and clean. I might look into the chop cutter device though.

7. For French fries I use your first technique but with larger fries. 15 min or so they come out great. When I get lazy I will buy a bag of frozen Red Robbin fries and air fry them. They come out great. I have the Ninja Foodi where I can pressure cook and then crisp with the air fryer.

   1. i have the smartlid version wich can do both at the same time but i dont know if its gonna work better …

8. I prefer a lighter color on my fries but they have to be super crispy as well. I usually par boil, let them drain well then straight into a deep fryer on 265f for 10 to 15 min (This is when they develop the crispness without uneven, over browning). I let them sit while cranking the oil up to 355f. They only need a short time the second fry to get them where i like them. I feel like Mike could have applied similar tactics with the air fryer to get better results in less time. I’d say maybe 15 to 20 min on a lower temp (270 to 280F) in the air fryer then a quick boost at a higher temp.

9. 3:57 Single Fry
   6:19 Double Fry
   8:38 The Heston (par boiled, fried twice)
   11:57 Breaded
   15:03 Cornstarch
   16:53 Redemption
   18:50 Leftovers

   1. Thankyou 🙏

   2. I like chopping up leftover baked potatoes and putting them in the air fryer they turn out very crispy with very little effort.

   3. Not all heroes wear capes 🙏🙏🙏

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   5. The hestion double fry is the best (this comment is a reminder for me)

10. *I loved that fry dipping sauce you made. I usually just mix up whatever is in the fridge and it comes out alright. Good to see there can be a true ‘method to the madness’. Keep up the great videos!*

11. I’ve gotten better results with my convection oven for french fries, probably because as opposed to being in the basket and having some resting on top of other fries, they’re all in one level with no cover. The advantage to actually cooking in oil is that all surfaces get the heat at once, and the closest that *I’ve* been able to come to that with air type frying is racked in one layer in my oven. I’d also opt for battering the fry rather than breading. With deep fried pom frites battered beats breading.

12. I’ve gotten better results with my convection oven for french fries, probably because as opposed to being in the basket and having some resting on top of other fries, they’re all in one level with no cover. The advantage to actually cooking in oil is that all surfaces get the heat at once, and the closest that *I’ve* been able to come to that with air type frying is racked in one layer in my oven. I’d also opt for battering the fry rather than breading. With deep fried pom frites battered beats breading.

13. I tried the breaded fries and used some Italian bread crumbs with seasoned salt and they were delicious! Thank you

14. I think the redemption fry was the closest to Kenji’s potato recipe. He also says to rough up the potatoes to get that mashed potato texture after par boiling (which you can’t do with a fry), so that redemption fry looked most like what Kenji’s potatoes look like. 👍

    1. You could imitate par boil by dry frying them for 5 minutes and only then apply oil.

15. I completely agree with the airfried chicken wings being just as good deep fried. Having home cooked both ways I found airfyring more convenient and probably won’t be deep frying wings at home anymore.

16. In my opinion the most important part is the shape of the fries. Make them thin for a very even crunchiness and shorter cooking time, and make them squiggly to make sure the hot air can get everywhere even when the fries are stacked.

17. Hint: Never use an aerosol oil spray with an air fryer. Over time, the chemicals in the aerosol spray will destroy the non stick coating on the basket. Best to use regular oil in a pump type oil sprayer.

    1. Thank you for this 🫶

    2. Yeah….found that out the hard way. And don’t use seasonings if you don’t clean the fryer after every use/few uses cause gollie I regret that alot 😑 But hey now I have a 5 qt fryer instead of my 3 qt now. Bessy number one got me through many a spud and many a nugget, rip. You will be missed ol bessy

    3. But there is some aerosol oil sprays that are air fryer friendly, and you can find this information on their label

18. I tried the Blumenthal technique once, it took almost 4 hours start to finish but i have to say they tasted divine and considering it was home cooked it says a lot. But its a lot of work especially handling them one by one after boiling to stop them from breaking up

19. You should try out boiling the potatoes in vinegar water. Ethan Chlebowski made a great video about oven fries. Definitely a step up for my fries

20. I’ll choose number 1🥰
    I don’t like to overprocess my food.
    My take away here: air fryers are great for leftovers too‼️Great video👍

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