Copycat McDonalds Fries Recipe

We are all familiar with the crispy sticks of loveliness that are McDonalds® fries.  Unfortunately, with a large portion setting you back £2.39, a trip to the drive-thru doesn’t come cheap when you have a family of four.  This copycat McDonalds® fries recipe tastes just like the real thing, but works out at less than £1 for the entire recipe – which comfortably serves 4-6 people.

Copycat McDonalds Fries

Ingredients

• 6 Russet potatoes
• Sea Salt
• Oil for Frying

Instructions

1. Peel the potatoes, square off the ends and cut them into 3/8 of an inch thick batons. This is the optimum thickness for the perfect french fry.
2. Soak the fries in a pan of cold water to remove the starch. Change the water after one hour.
3. Dry thoroughly.
4. Heat one inch of oil in a large cooking pot to 290 degrees.
5. Blanch the fries for two minutes.
6. Remove from the oil, dry on paper towels and place immediately in the fridge.
7. Just before serving, reheat the oil to 370 degrees and cook the fries until crisp and golden.
8. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately.

How McDonalds® Make Their Fries

You may be interested to know that in the UK, McDonalds® fries contain nothing but Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (Sunflower, Rapeseed) and, at the beginning of the potato season, Dextrose, which gives the fries their golden brown colouring.  In comparison, last year, McDonalds® US revealed how their fries were made, and it actually revealed that they used 14 different chemicals!  That is good news for us in the UK!

McDonalds® fries are prepared in a factory, fried, frozen, and then shipped to individual restaurants, where they are refried just before serving. This three-step process is similar to the one in our recipe: blanching, frying, and refrying.

McDonalds Fries in the UK

Most of the potatoes used by McDonalds® in the UK are grown in England, with a small proportion imported from Europe.  McDonalds® uses a mixture of potatoes, including Pentland Dell, Shepody, and Russet Burbank, to get their characteristic taste. In the factory, the potatoes are peeled, cut, and then blanched to remove the starch.  Once blanched, they go through a mechanical cutting machine.

At the beginning of the potato season, there are lower levels of the naturally occurring sugars in potatoes.  These sugars help to give the fries their golden appearance and also help them to cook evenly.  Therefore, at certain times of the year, McDonald’s sprays dextrose onto their fries.  They are then fried in the factory and frozen, ready to be shipped to individual restaurants.  They are then fried again just before serving in a restaurant.  The fries are sprinkled with salt, although you can request fries without salt if you wish.  And that is how those lovely munch McDonalds® fries are made!  We think the McDonalds® style fries recipe tastes just as good, though – try it and see what you think.

We also have some more copycat McDonalds recipes for you to try.  See our copycat Big Mac Sauce and our cheats McDonalds Chicken Sandwich.  And don’t forget to try this McDonalds hack to get a discount on your McDonalds every time you visit.