Hot chips (french fries)

TIME2 hours MAKES2 servings PORTION
0.5x 1x 2x 3x

In Australia, everything is a chip — crisps/potato chips are a chip, and french fries are also a chip (however you often see them referred to as hot chips at kiosks down by the beach). This is my go-to hot chip/french fry recipe; it works equally well for shoestring as well as thicker cut chips (like you would get for fish and chips).

This recipe takes inspiration from Brian Lagerstrom’s fish and chips recipe, while incorporating aspects from Kenji Lopez-Alt’s perfect french fry recipe (for example, the usage of vinegar during parboiling slows the breakdown of pectin).

Feel free to finish the hot chips with salt, MSG, or chicken salt.

INGREDIENTS

Potatoes

  • 3 large starchy potatoes1 (about 600g)

Parboil

  • 2 tbsp vinegar
  • 2L cold water
  • 1 tbsp salt

Fry

  • 2-2.5L of neutral oil
  • Chicken salt (or replace with a mix of salt and MSG)

STEPS

Cut and rinse

  1. Peel the potatoes, and cut them into 6-7mm matchsticks2. Place them immediately into a container of water.

  2. Stir the potatoes and pour out the starchy water; add more water, and repeat the washing and rinsing until the water runs clear.

Parboil

  1. Cover with cold water, cover, and place in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. This helps to remove as much of the natural potato sugars as possible from the exterior of the chips.

  2. Place the chips in a saucepan, and fully cover with cold water. Add the vinegar and the salt, and place over high heat. Once the water just comes to a boil, reduce the heat and leave it to simmer for about 10-12 minutes.

  3. Drain the chips and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Pat dry with paper towels, and place in the freezer for 15-30 minutes for them to dry completely.

First fry

  1. While the chips are drying, fill a heavy bottomed pot with neutral oil and bring it to 160ºC. The oil should come no more than 6cm up the sides — do not add any more, as the height of the oil will rise significantly when the chips are added due moisture. In my 5.3L Le Creuset dutch oven (about 12cm high), the oil rises to ~10cm when frying.

  2. Remove the chips from the freezer, pat dry on both sides one last time with paper towel, and then add them to the oil. The oil temperature should drop to about 140ºC — fry for 5 minutes for the exterior to dehydrate (there should be no browning at this stage). Depending on the volume of potato, you may need to fry in batches to avoid the oil temperature dropping too low.

  3. Drain over the same wire rack, and place in the freezer for 30 minutes (alternatively, you can freeze the fries indefinitely at this point).

Second fry

  1. Increase the oil temperature to 195ºC.

  2. Fry the chips for about 7-8 minutes in batches3 (the temperature should drop to about 170-175ºC), until lightly golden and crisp on the outside.

  3. Drain, toss with chicken salt, and serve.

NOTES

  1. Depending on your location, good options are Sebago or brushed potatoes in Australia, Maris Piper in the UK, and Russet in the US and Canada. ↩︎
  2. Nagi over at RecipeTin Eats suggests cutting them with a serrated knife to improve final crunchiness. ↩︎
  3. To keep chips hot while frying in batches, you can keep the rimmed baking sheet in an oven at 90ºC. Or, place the cooked batches in a metal bowl lined with paper towel. ↩︎

Related