Since I was a child, fried potatoes have been for me one of those delicacies that I could enjoy with recipes of meat, fish, eggs … That’s why today I want to give you the guidelines to improve your fried potatoes. After reading these tips, when you know how to make the best French fries in the world, you will see that it is a very simple task that you can carry out every time you really want to enjoy this ingredient.
In the background, it is about getting very crispy potatoes on the outside and juicy and somewhat creamy inside. To achieve those perfect potatoes, we will have to fry the potatoes in two stages and in two different temperatures, although there are other factors that we will also comment on that may influence the result. Prepare a couple of pans, potatoes, and a good oil and let’s go to the kitchen.
Ingredients
For 4 people
- Potatoes3
- Sunflower oil1 l
- Salt to taste
Let’s make the best potato chips in the world
Difficulty: Easy
- Total time40 m
- Elaboration10 m
- Cooking30 m
The potatoes
Obviously, in the preparation of potato chips, the choice of the main ingredient, potato, is important. At least, you have to buy potatoes that are for frying and not the varieties that are best for cooking or stewing.
To prepare the chips, peel the potatoes and cut them into slices about 1 cm thick. Cut each slice into wands 1 cm wide and about 5 long and continue with all the slices until we have the potatoes ready for the next phase.
The soaking
Once the potatoes are chopped, we recommend leaving them to soak in a deep dish. This prevents browning as a result of oxidation, and also eliminates part of the starch that the potatoes have, thus preventing them from sticking together when they are fried.
Soaking the fried potatoes before frying is optional but I do seem appropriate, limiting the soak to about 15 minutes, which are enough to eliminate most of the starch and we take advantage of preparing the pans, oil, etc.
When do we throw the salt?
Although it is always better to leave the potatoes a little bland and add the salt at the end when they are fried and crispy, I prefer to lightly sprinkle the potatoes after soaking them with a little fine salt. After mixing well stirring the potatoes with your hands, we proceed to fry them with the technique that we will indicate next.
Once fried, we taste a potato and sprinkle more or less amount of salt on the potatoes depending on how they are left. Normally it will be enough to add a pinch on the finished potatoes.
The oil for frying what kind of use
For my part, I am a fan of extra virgin olive oil and at home, I also use it for high temperature frying as required by potatoes. However, some people prefer to use sunflower oil for this preparation, so that the aromas of the olive oil do not pass to the potatoes.
I choose extra virgin olive oil because I think it improves the taste of fried potatoes, compared to other oils that actually get a good frying but without adding flavor. I leave it to your choice.
Frying in two times at two temperatures
To fry the potatoes well you need two pans, one for the first part of the process in which we will fry the potato sticks at 140º for about 7 or 8 minutes, and another for the second phase, in which we will brown and leave the potatoes crispy. Frying them at 190º for about five more minutes.
If you want to do this in an electric fryer, you can fry the potatoes on a low heat; remove the basket from the fryer leaving the oil to drain and while setting the thermostat to the maximum, submerging the potatoes once the oil reaches the temperature of 190º. Get to brown the potatoes well.
Some recommend an intermediate phase between the two fritters, in which the pre-fried potatoes are put in the freezer for about 30 minutes and then finish them in the frying at high temperature.
The temperature shock, when putting the potatoes in the second frying pan, makes the potatoes as well as crunchy are somewhat cracked on the outside, which increases the feeling of crispy. Inside, they remain soft, like candied, thanks to their passage through the first frying pan.
Drained potatoes
The chips keep the heat very well. That is why there is no problem in letting them stand on absorbent kitchen paper to remove excess oil that may have been retained. Anyway, with this technique, in the final fry at high temperature or “deep fry”, the potatoes absorb less oil than if it is progressively rising the fire.
What to accompany the fried potatoes?
Now that you know how to make them, and just need to prepare these delicious potatoes, the best chips in the world as a side dish of your choice and call the whole family to try them and prove with you how this process deserves the sorrow. You can also take them as a main dish; seasoning them with sauces such as mayonnaise, pesto, tomato, sauce, salsa brava … You will tell me.
