Transcription
There are two food items that get cooked up in the air fryer more than any other foods: one, chicken wings; two, french fries.
Now, the last air fryer video, I ranked six different chicken wing techniques, trying to find the best possible air fryer chicken wing, and I crowned a winner. And a lot of you have been cooking with that chicken wing with a lot of success, which is great news.
Now, today, we're moving on to the french fry, which I've tried a lot in the air fryer. To be honest, I've never had the greatest results. So today, not only will I be trying out six different air fryer french fry techniques, but more importantly, by the end of this video, it should be clear: is it even possible to make a good french fry in the air fryer?
So, of course, if we're trying to find the best french fry in this air fryer, well, we need some rules to create a controlled experiment.
Number one: If we're making much french fries, we need a bunch of potatoes. I'm using russet potatoes because they are perfect for french fries, and most of you can find them. Each recipe will use exactly one of these medium-sized russet potatoes because that's what fits perfectly in this air fryer without overcrowding.
Number two: You bet your ass I bought a potato cutter. Why? Look at this! Perfect french fries every single time. So we have that controlled size for this entire experiment. Also, I'm making a lot of french fries, so it's going to make my life a lot easier. And lastly, this thing is just badass.
Number three: We will be soaking all of the fries in water, and cold water, for at least 30 minutes, or some methods will actually be blanching the fries before they are cooked. Now, the reason we do this, you can see right here, we're already starting to get rid of that excess starch on the surface of the potato. We want a nice, even, golden brown french fry for our final result. And when you don't soak them and remove that excess starch, what happens is your fries will get much darker in the air fryer and potentially burn, which is definitely not what we want.
So, of course, one of the best parts about using an air fryer is that we don't have to deep fry our french fries, but we still need some oil. So, number four is using the same oil throughout the entire experiment. I'm using avocado oil because it can handle the high temperatures, but use any oil with a high smoke point. And I'll be using it in its regular form, and also its aerosol form, if I need to spray the french fries in the actual basket throughout the cooking process.
Since I'm gonna be tasting a whole bunch of french fries, I need a good all-purpose fry sauce. And ketchup is just gonna be a little boring. So let's make one: equal parts ketchup to mustard and mayo, a few hits of soy sauce for the umami, little sriracha for the spice kick. I'll chop up some pickles, or you can just add a relish, nice and fine, just like that. Boom! Add a little bit of the brine for the sweetness and acidity, and finally, a little bit of parsley and add that to the mix. Looks a little bit like throw up, but tastes like McDonald's Big Mac sauce.
And finally, my air fryer of choice is the sponsor of today's video, which is Cosori. I'm using the Cosori Pro 2 5.8 air fryer, which is ideal for frying french fries because it has that larger 5.8 square basket. And when we're trying to get maximum crispy results, we want maximum surface area. Now, I also just love the design of this air fryer. You have the tilted touchscreen with 10 presets that are customizable as well, and it also has a pre-heat mode, which I take advantage of all the time for maximum efficiency. This thing is an absolute beast. Cosori is just leading the game with air fryer technology. They're constantly improving, which is why you see me using their products and pretty much all of my air fryer videos.
So there you go, all the ground rules are covered. It is time to get to some air frying. I've got six different techniques that I will be covering today.
So these have been soaking for the last half hour. What I'm going to do is just lay out a rag and add my fries to the dish. Very crucial step: we want to make sure that our fries are super dry before any oil hits them, or we will have soggy french fries, which is the opposite of what we want. Dry fries going in a bowl, a little bit of avocado oil. You don't need much, just enough to coat the fries. And no salt. All salting will happen after they come out of the fryer. Dump fries. Even pop a doozy.
So what I'm gonna do for the first fry is just as basic as it gets: factory setting, 380, 25 minutes. Now, that might be a lot for the amount of fries in there. I'm guessing that setting is for more fries, but we'll check in on them. And I'm just gonna press play like a video game. We should have some decent french fries in 20 to 25 minutes.
This is pretty cool. The air fryer just started beeping at me and telling me to shake the basket. I'm not sure if it senses that it's burning, or it's just a preset timing, but I like that. See how the browning is super even and light? That's from soaking the fries. I will shake these for an even more even cooking. Back on.
All right, five minutes left. I just want to do one final check-in. Okay, crispy, like I could pull them. You know what? I'm just gonna trust Cosori that they have it dialed in, and we'll see what happens with the full 25 minutes.
All right, here's what we're working with. I'm gonna rate these on two different categories: very simple, crispy levels, and overall fry experience. Dipper! Wow, that sauce is gonna work for sure. The first one's always tricky because I've got nothing to compare these to, but I'll give it a shot. I'm going to go with a 7 on the crispy levels and a 7 for overall experience. To be honest, not a bad fry for just soaking and throwing right into the air fryer for 25 minutes. I would take that. I'd be happy with it, but it's definitely not perfect or even ideal. I think we can do much better than this fry right here.
So for the next fry, I'm going with a twice-fried method. So last fry, we just threw it in at 380 straight through, 25 minutes. This next, I'm going to start off with the same technique: soaking the fries in cold water for 30 minutes, drying them off completely, popping them in a bowl, and coating them with a little bit of oil. Now, that's what we have right here. Bring these over to the air fryer. Pop these in.
So the idea is that we're going to first pop them on a lower temperature, and that low temperature is going to be 330 for 15 minutes. This is the initial fry. Then we'll take them out and we'll fry them at a higher temp. All right, that will do it. Okay, good. We are cooked through. Barely any color. You can see a little bit of color there, and that's what I wanted. Just an initial fry. I'm just gonna dump those there. I'm going to pop these in the fridge for about a half an hour to just cool down and dry off.
All right, looking a little more dry. Toss these back in. Now, these have some residual oil on them, but I'm going to give them that quick spray. More intense than I thought. We're gonna change that temp to 380 and let's do 10 minutes.
All right, 10 minutes done on 380. Let's see what we got. Oh, beautiful. They look similar to the last fries. It's a solid crispy result right there. Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention one great feature on this Cosori is this lock button right here, assuring that when you release this, the basket doesn't fall out all over the floor, which has happened to me with other air fryers. So I'll unlock it here, press that button to release the basket. Dumpy. Seasoning and we'll taste.
This is the taste test on the twice-fried. All right, crispy levels, maybe a little bit better than the last fry. I'll give it a 7.5. Overall experience, again, just slightly better than the last fry. I think there's a little more creaminess I'm tasting on the interior from that initial fry. So I'll give the overall a 7.5. Still just a decent fry, but I'm looking for better.
All right, my friends, it is officially time to step up our fry game, and I think I know the perfect way to do that, which is a recipe I'm borrowing from an OG cooking TV host, Heston Blumenthal, also a great chef as well. Now, I remember when I saw this fry recipe, or chip recipe as he would call it, my mind was completely blown. It's a three-step process, starting by blanching the fries, then doing the twice-fry process.
So what I'm gonna do is get a pot on the stove, heat that up to just a gentle boil. Now, I'm gonna make one slight alteration to hopefully enhance these fries and bring in a little tip from another OG foodie, Kenji Lopez, who uses baking soda in his roasted potato recipe, which will alkalize the water to further help break down the exterior of the potato to create more of those little crevices for maximum crispiness.
So once your fries are in, set the timer for 10 minutes to cook them all the way through. So these are super soft. What I'm going to do is place these on a rack, and then these are going to go in the refrigerator. As Heston prescribes, the refrigerator is a very dry environment, so those are going to dry out in there before they get the oil on them.
All right, so these have been in there for 30 minutes. I'm going to dump them into this pan. These are very fragile, so a flat pan like this will help. A little bit of oil. I'll start stacking them pretty much one by one in this air fryer.
All right, first fry. We're gonna go 330, like last time, 15 minutes. Oh, so those browned a lot quicker. Let's take a look. Ow! Too hot. You can definitely see some nice crevices in there. Certainly looks a little more bubbly than the last frog. You can actually see bubbles! Look at that. So I'll just dump these out on there. So I'm going to just pop these in the fridge again, dry them out again for another 30 minutes, then back into the air fryer. Three steps.
All right, it's time for that final fry. In you go. Quick spray, 380. I don't think they're gonna need long because they're already a bit brown. Seven minutes.
All right, it's only been about five minutes, but I [Music] I think those are done. Salt them. [Music] Very crispy though. Give them a taste. [Music] The last fry I'm gonna do is a leftover fry. I think if I fry these one more time, they will be insanely crispy and insanely delicious. Right now, they're coming in at an 8.0 on the crispy scale. They could go higher for sure, but not bad for an air fryer. Now, the overall experience, I'm gonna give an 8.3. You would think from the boiling and cooking them twice, they would be overcooked, but potatoes just apparently don't work that way. They actually get creamier the longer you cook them, as long as you don't dry them out. But these are not dry. So the initial parboil step, officially a better fry. So I think what I'm going to do for now on is just start off baseline parboiling the fries. We don't have to soak them. If you want to make a good fry in the air fryer, start by parboiling them.
So if you remember in the chicken wing air fryer rankings, I did a breaded chicken wing with the classic three-part breading, and the results were quite surprising. It created this incredible coating and kept all that juiciness in, and it held the sauce really well. Now, I know a breaded french fry isn't really a french fry. Plus, I'm kind of breaking the rules here by adding a bunch of different ingredients that aren't in the controlled test, but I felt like I needed to try it after the chicken wing results.
So what I have right here are some of those parboil french fries in that baking soda water solution. Here's my three-part breading. I figured since these are already a little damp from the parboil, they'll hold this flour really nice. And yes, they do. Into the egg, into that, and then coat in the breadcrumbs. Check out that thing right there. High hopes, actually. And then I'll just place these on there and let that coating really seal in for the next 15 minutes. These look insanely good, even though they're not fried yet. The parboil definitely helped keep that coating on. I don't want to toss these because they're pretty fragile, so this is where I'll take advantage of the spray. One spray on the bottom. We'll pop those in, and then in you go. 330, 15 minutes. I'm going to continue with this twice-frying action.
All right, it's only been about 10 minutes, but let's see where we're at. Very creamy in there, crispy on the outside. Not where I want them to be, but they're fine for this initial fry. So I'm gonna take these out. I'm gonna let those hang out for about 15 minutes, and then I will boost up that fryer and get them nice and back in. They crispy. Need a little extra something. So let's just go five minutes, 380, five minutes. It's just finished. Yep. Salt. Sauce helps out. Looks a little more like a mozzarella stick, but we'll see how it tastes. That's pretty incredible right there. I mean, right off the bat, those crispy levels, I'm saying 9.1. Pretty insane for an air fryer. Now, the overall experience is certainly delicious. As far as an actual french fry goes, I think these have to live in their own category. It's definitely not a true french fry experience, but it's good. I mean, that's worth trying out if you're an air fryer fan and you want something really crispy and delicious. That's a good fry right there. Overall, I'll go 8.7. I got to take away a little bit because that's not a true french fry.
All right, this next one's pretty simple. So I parboiled the fries in that alkaline solution. Now, this might seem counterintuitive because it kind of is. I removed the starch. Now I'm going to add more starch. Add the starch back in. This is cornstarch right here, and coat these fries. Now, you might be asking, why am I doing this? And the truth is, I don't know. I really don't know. We'll see what we get. Let's see. Oh, these are really coated. Maybe too much. We'll see. I'm going to give those a spray and we'll do the twice-fry technique. 330, let's do 10 minutes.
All right, let's see what we got. Not much color on those at all. Still a little soft, but kind of crackly on there. So certainly potential on that next fry. Right, we'll give these a quick spray, throw them back in, 380, start with eight minutes.
All right, here we go. Salt these up. I think I can still see the starch. That is not a good sign. Looks crispy though. Dip. Let's say, try that again. Crispy levels are great on that. I would say 8.5. Very similar texture to a McDonald's style fry, but, but there is a bug. Overall experience, not so much. You can taste the starch. Now, I don't know if it's because I added too much starch, or it's just the cornstarch in general, but it didn't all cook out, and there's almost a little slimy layer of starch on there. So the cornstarch technique definitely needs some improvement, but I'm not convinced. I don't think I'll be trying that again anytime soon.
So the last technique I'm going to try are leftovers. I've got a bunch of fries that I didn't eat from the different techniques, and I want to give them a day to just hang out in the fridge and then reheat them, because I know the air fryer is great at reheating fries. So I'll do that tomorrow morning. But before I leave, I wanted redemption on one of the fry techniques. I feel like with the Heston method, I wasn't able to cook them down long enough in the water without them just disintegrating, whereas Heston was using a thicker chip-style potato wedge.
So what I'm gonna do is switch to the half-inch cutter, cut a few more fries, get them cooking in that alkaline water, but really cook the potato down until it starts breaking apart and creating all of those beautiful crevices on the exterior. So these have been cooking for about 15 minutes. You can see some have broken apart, but that exterior has broken down a bit more than on the smaller fry, and you can really see the difference there. That should equate to more crispiness. Right, dump those in. 330, 15 minutes.
All right, I'm gonna pull it at three minutes. Those look great. Check that out. On our way to crispy town. Fry number one complete. All right, let's give these the final blast. Got high hopes. Tiny bit of oil, 380, 10 minutes. [Music] These are like a really good pommes frites, a Belgian-style fry. Not a 100% deep-fried replication, but pretty damn close. And there are definitely crispier fries that I tried, but those are probably the best. So I'll give it an 8.2 on the crispy levels, and I'll give it a 9 for the overall experience.
So that does it for today. I think I tried out six techniques. Tomorrow, I'm just trying out the reheated leftover fries to see how those stack up. So I'll see you tomorrow.
Welcome back. So the last fry I'm going to be trying are leftovers, because it's a well-known fact that if you go out to a restaurant, you get some french fries, you throw them in your fridge, they're super soggy, but you toss them in the air fryer. Well, the air fryer does an incredible job reheating those and getting them super crispy. But those french fries were obviously fried in oil. They still hold a lot of residual oil, which helps in that process of just crispifying them again. And of course, in this case, we don't have as much oil with these french fries, so we'll see what happens.
Here's the aftermath of yesterday. I think what I'm gonna do is just take maybe three fries from each batch, give them just a little spray, 380, six minutes. Okay, a little darker. Excited to try these. Crispy. I'm grabbing these right out of there fryer. This right here looks like it is the twice-fried. Wow. I mean, okay, okay. Crispy levels off the goddamn roof. Breaded. This seems insanely crispy too. Wow. Are you hearing this? So I'll give the crispy levels a 9.5. That's by far the crispiest these fries have been. But I feel like as we continue to fry them on our third fry now, they're starting to lose a little fry essence. So the overall experience, although very crispy, I'll give it an 8.2. And of course, they're all slightly different.
So here's what I'll say about air-fried french fries: you can definitely make a really good french fry in the air fryer. That has been clear throughout these trials today. If you use the right techniques, you'll get a great product. Will it be as good as a regular french fry? No. When you deep fry a french fry in fat, well, it's gonna soak up some of that oil and create a different product compared to the chicken wings that I did last time. When you air fry a chicken wing, I found that it's just as good as deep frying a chicken wing, to the point where I might never deep fry a chicken wing. And the reason for that is that there's already so much fat in the skin that can render out and create a really incredible product. In this case, potatoes have no fat, so we're only adding a little bit of fat. But if you follow some of these techniques, you can make something awesome. And I make french fries all the time. It's easy, it's quick, and I'm not gonna say it's healthy, but it's healthier than deep frying a french fry.
So thanks again to Cosori for sponsoring this video. They're an awesome company out of California, just excellent customer service, constantly innovating and improving their products. And if you're interested in your own Cosori air fryer, click the link below in the description and use code word PROHOMECOOKS for 15% off the Pro 2 air fryer.