Pan Fried Potatoes and Onions Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is it necessary to boil potatoes before frying? ›

There are lots of recipes that call for par-boiling the potatoes first to reduce the amount of cooking time, but it's an extra step and an extra pan to wash. If you cook the potatoes over medium heat and keep them covered for most of the cooking time, the lid traps in steam, which helps cook the potatoes through.

You can leave the skin on for a rustic look, but in this recipe, we peel them to get a more golden-brown color! Soak the Potatoes! Secret number one in perfecting homemade french fries: soaking the potatoes removes the starch and allows the fries to become crispy and evenly brown. You don't want to skip this step!

The secret to crispy pan-fried potatoes:

It's simple: Pan-fry with cooking oil(s), not butter. As much as we love butter, it burns too quickly over high heat, which is necessary for optimal crispiness. While olive oil does taste great with potatoes, it also has a lower smoking point.

This sure sounds a lot like potatoes that have been stored too long, in too cold of an environment before cooking. When potatoes are held below 41°F for too long a period, the starches convert to sugar and it changes the cooking chemistry.

Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes. Cold water is used because hot water would react with the starch activating it, making it harder to separate from the potatoes.

Place them in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Allow them to soak, 2 to 3 hours. (You can also stick them in the fridge and let them soak overnight.) When you're ready to make the fries, drain off the water and lay the potatoes on 2 baking sheets lined with paper towels.

By rinsing off the excess starch, you can achieve a better balance and control over the browning process, resulting in evenly cooked and beautifully golden fries. Another advantage of rinsing the potatoes is that the cold water makes the potato cells firmer, leading to crispier fries when fried.

Unless a battered fry, they are not adding in salt during the process. I recommend not salting the fries till they come out of the fryer and even then, waiting for an order before salting as the fries can turn limp prematurely if salted too soon.

Pouring cool or room temp oil over the potatoes is a sure fire way to end up with soggy spuds.

And the clear winners are Idaho or russet potatoes.

These potatoes are dense and have less moisture, which is key to avoiding soggy fries. You can also use Yukon gold potatoes, which are an all-purpose potato that can be used for frying. You should avoid waxy potatoes like red-skinned, new, or fingerling potatoes.

What's the best grease to fry potatoes in? ›

Canola oil and peanut oil are two common choices. A neutral oil won't affect the flavor of your fries, and an oil with a high smoke point (the point at which an oil starts to break down when heated) will be stable throughout your frying process.

Long accepted as a standard deep frying oil because of its neutrality, high smoke point, and ready availability (on the bottom oil shelf of most grocery stores), peanut oil is the choice of home fryers as well as chains such as Five Guys Burgers and Fries.

Fried foods may contain harmful acrylamide

Starchy foods such as fried potato products and baked goods typically have higher concentrations of acrylamide ( 22 ). An older animal study suggests that it poses a risk for several types of cancer ( 23 ).

But frying raw potatoes will probably not bring about the result you want, unless you fry them once for the initial cooking (usually at a lower temperature), let them cool, then re-fry them again at the normal, higher temperature. Potatoes fried once don't turn crispy on the outside.

Additionally, the starch it removes from the potato can positively impact the quality of your oil. All that is to say: blanching will add taste and texture benefits to your French fries. A blanch in a hot oil bath will lend extra crispness and golden color to your final product.

Boil your cut potatoes in a pot of salted water for about 5 minutes, just until they begin to soften and become slightly translucent. Remove them from the water and let them air dry on paper towels.

The reason is to prevent the potatoes exposure to air, which causes dehydration, oxidation, and discoloration.