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Way better than fast food, super crispy, healthy, and delicious, once you try this recipe for air fryer frozen french fries, you'll never go back to takeout again! If you're wondering how to cook frozen French fries in the air fryer, then look no further because this simple recipe teaches you everything you need to know about making the best crispy fries!
Way tastier and healthier than fries deep-fried in oil, this crispy air fryer frozen french fries recipe is the perfect easy side dish to accompany family dinners, lunches, game days, and much more.
Whenever we're craving comfort food at home, we like to try out different, lightened-up air fryer recipes - and these fries are the best! Air fryers are great to have around because they allow dinner to be ready within minutes without having to turn the oven on - simple enough, right?
Fast-food restaurant fries are incredibly delicious, but we try to avoid fast-food restaurants and deep-frying food as much as possible.
With this recipe, we can make our very own crispy french fries at home and control the amounts of salt and different seasonings on them. We make these fries pretty often because they're just so versatile and fun and taste even better than fast food!
The best part is that you can use different types of fries, including curly fries, sweet potato, steak cut, crinkle fries, shoestring fries, and waffle fries: amazing. The french fry world is filled with so many options!
The kids will love these fries with ketchup and a variety of dipping sauces such as burger sauce, ranch dressing, barbecue sauce, or paprika dip. You can dip these air fried frozen french fries in whatever your type of favorite sauce is!
Homemade fries made in the air fryer yield better results than any fry cooked in a deep fryer. No mess is involved with this recipe, and the clean-up is incredibly simple! This crispy air fryer recipe produces the best results every single time.
👩🏽🍳 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Simple Ingredients: With just a few simple ingredients, you'll have crispy fries ready in no time! We love this recipe because the prep time is so minimal!
- Versatile: Serve these fries as an early appetizer before dinner or with your favorite onion rings as a side dish. You can even dress the fries up to be your main entree!
- Better Than Fast Food: These crispy fries taste just like fast food but are so much better! Once you try these fries in the air fryer, you'll never go back to buying takeout, baking them in the oven or frying them in vegetable oil again. Simple, but the ultimate example of comfort food!
- Family Friendly: The whole family will love these air-fried frozen fries. Totally kid-friendly, these fries are the perfect healthy snack addition for children's lunches and lunchboxes too.
- Healthy: Using the air fryer is so much better for you than deep frying fries! Made with whole ingredients only, these simple air fryer french fries are nutritious, guilt-free, gluten-free and a great vegetarian side dish for lunch or dinner.
- Quick: These really are the best air fryer frozen french fries, and they're made in less than 30 minutes! The cooking process is so simple!
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🥘 Ingredients
You don't need much to make these frozen french fries in the air fryer! These simple ingredients may already be in your pantry, or you can easily find them at the local grocery store!
- French Fries: All kinds of brands of fries will work for this recipe. You can find different kinds of fries in the freezer aisle the grocery store.
- Salt: Just a pinch of salt is all you'll need!
- Oil: Just a little cooking spray oil to maximize the crispiness with these fries.
- Rosemary: Fresh rosemary is preferred, but dried rosemary will work, too.
🍲 Ingredient Substitutions
- Fresh Herbs: You can use any other fresh herbs that you like! Thyme, oregano, sage, and more will all work well.
- Oil: You can use standard cooking spray oil or your own favorite neutrally flavored spray.
- Tater Tots: Instead of making these fries, make delicious air fryer frozen tater tots instead! Both are extremely delicious!
🔪 How To Make Frozen French Fries In An Air Fryer
Here's how to make this easy air fryer frozen french fries recipe. See the complete list of ingredients and detailed instructions in the recipe card below!
Preheat Air Fryer, Coat With Oil: For the best French fries, preheat the air fryer for five minutes at 390 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius. Next, place the frozen fries in the air fryer basket. Make sure they are in a single layer for best results. Lightly spray with oil, toss, and repeat. Sprinkle with salt.
Cook & Flip: Place the air fryer basket into the air fryer and set the temperature back to 390°F/200°C and the timer for ten minutes. Press start. After ten minutes, gently toss the fries and cook for another ten minutes. Check the fries after five minutes and gently shake them to prevent them from sticking together. Depending on the size of your air fryer (and the size of the french fries), you may have to cook these in batches!
Remove From Air Fryer: Finally, remove fries from the air fryer. Sprinkle the air fryer fries with fresh rosemary and serve immediately with your favorite dipping sauce.
💭 Expert Tips
- Evenly Coat: Ensure fries are evenly coated in spray oil to make sure they don't stick together and are golden brown when finished cooking. But don't use too much oil or your fries may not stay crispy!
- Don't Thaw: Cook these fries directly from the freezer. There is no need to thaw them.
- Pay Attention To Cook Time: The exact cook time and air fryer settings will vary depending on the make, model, and size of the air fryer and if different air fryer brands are used.
- Serve Immediately: Enjoy these air fried french fries warm for the best results.
- Avoid Soggy Fries: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days. To avoid soggy french fries, reheat fries in the air fryer (at 350 degrees F for 5-8 minutes) until crispy.
- Preheating Matters: Always use a preheated air fryer for crispier fries.
📖 Variations
Give your fries some flair by changing them up with these five variations.
- Different Types of Fries: You can make all kinds of fries in an air fryer! For example, to make waffle fries in the air fryer, cook for about 11 minutes. For lattice cut, cook 10 minutes. For shoestring fries, cook 8 minutes, and for frozen sweet potato fries - cook anywhere from 10-16 minutes depending on the brand and thickness of the fries you buy!
- Homemade Air Fryer Potato Wedges: Rather than cooking frozen french fries, you can make homemade fries out of potato wedges! Just slice your potatoes into wedges, toss in a little bit of oil, salt and pepper, and place in your air fryer for 15 minutes at 400 degrees F (shake the basket every 5 minutes until done)
- Seasoned Fries: To season these fries, generously sprinkle salt over them, and then add any of your favorite types of seasonings! Try garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, paprika, cajun seasoning, taco seasoning, or even curry powder!
- Loaded Fries: Turn these into a bigger dish by loading them up with your favorite toppings! Keep them simple by making cheese fries, or try a fancier version like fries loaded with this Instant Pot vegetarian chili, try them as a base for nachos, or just enjoy them with your favorite dips like guacamole, sour cream, honey mustard, or a bowl of ketchup.
- Truffle Fries: Drizzle truffle oil over your hot French fries and sprinkle them with a pinch of truffle salt and grated parmesan cheese.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
You can serve these air fryer frozen fries as a side dish or appetizer for any meal!
- Perfect Side For Sandwiches: Serve these fries alongside vegetarian sandwiches or with any plant based burger recipe. They also taste great with most brunch or lunch dishes.
- For Taco Night: These make a great side for tacos! Keep the potato theme going by pairing these with potato tacos, or with this vegan crunchwrap supreme!
- Appetizer: Enjoy these on their own as a healthy plant based snack or serve with other party food.
- Pair With Other Sides: You can serve these yummy fries with air fryer broccoli or your other favorite veggies. Or use them as a base for this Greek fries recipe or make corn fries!
- With Dipping Sauces: While ketchup and fries is a classic combination, there are so many other dips to serve with air fryer frozen french fries! Try these fries with nacho cheese sauce, vegan bbq sauce or mustard bbq sauce, yum yum sauce, spicy ketchup, ranch dressing, and more!
🙌 Dietary Adaptations
These fries are already naturally gluten free and vegan friendly. For a low-carb option, substitute veggies like zucchini or other low-carb veggies (with low-carb breading) and air fry them for a low-carbohydrate side dish.
- To Refrigerate: Keep leftover fries in the fridge for 3-4 days in an airtight container. I don't recommend re-freezing these fries once you cook them, since they come from a frozen batch already, they won't taste as good if they're re-frozen and then reheated.
❓Recipe FAQs
What is the best way to cook frozen French fries?
You can prepare frozen french fries in the regular oven, toaster oven, or even microwave - and while everyone prefers their fries cooked in different ways, we think the air fryer is the best hands down! This is because: 1) it takes less time, 2) the fries come out perfectly crispy every time 3) they taste deep fried with barely any oil!
HOW DO I MAKE FRIES CRISPY IN THE AIR FRYER?
The trick to getting any food crispy in an air fryer is ensuring that you keep the pieces separated. Leave a good bit of space to allow the heat to circulate around all of the surfaces of the food that you're cooking.
HOW LONG DO YOU COOK FROZEN FRENCH FRIES IN AN AIR FRYER?
Different brands of air fryers will require different cooking times, but in general, these fries should take about 10-20 minutes to cook completely at 390-400 degrees Fahrenheit.
The cook times will vary depending on the type of fry you're using. Waffle cut, sweet potato, lattice cut, and shoestring will have various cooking times - observe them as needed to make sure they're perfectly cooked.
Are air-fried French fries healthy?
Absolutely! If you choose a brand of frozen fries that is made with all-natural ingredients, then these are way better for you than fries cooked in a deep fryer or at a restaurant. These fries have no extra unhealthy fats, are light and airy, and lightly seasoned.
Do I need to defrost these frozen fries before air frying?
No, you don't - that's the beauty of this recipe for air-fried frozen french fries - there is almost no prep! Just put the frozen fries straight into the air fryer and begin cooking!
DO I NEED TO ADD OIL FOR AIR FRYER FROZEN FRENCH FRIES?
No, you do not need to add oil. However, you do need to spray the fries so that they do not stick to the air fryer basket.
