Crispy Homemade Thin Cut Shoestring Fried Potatoes

A Brazilian friend of mine is absolutely obsessed with shoestring fried potatoes (and ketchup fries too, go figure), he puts them on pretty much everything, which honestly isn’t the healthiest habit, but hey, I’ve already given him my two cents on that, hehehe. He tells me it’s super common in Brazil to top basically everything with them, from hot dogs, which, fine, that makes sense, to X-tudo (a type of wrap/sandwich that has a lot of stuff in it) sandwiches, snacks, pizza, and even stroganoff?!?? I don’t know about that last one, but to me it’s a bit like drowning every meal in ketchup and mayonnaise, eventually everything just tastes like ketchup and mayonnaise, what’s the point?

Anyhooo outside of these Atlantic adventures though, shoestring potatoes are far less common around here, mostly showing up in bacalhau à Brás (and honestly you can use regular fries for that too, they don’t have to be shoestring cut) and the occasional hot dog, if anyone even remembers to add them. But it got me thinking, if these things are so omnipresent in Brazil, is the homemade version actually better? Nothing like trying it out to find out.

And to be honest, I’m not really a big fried food or french fry person in general, but I have to say the homemade version turned out better, thinner (of course you can cut them however thick you like), almost like little potato threads, and delicious. It also made a huge amount, I only used 2 large potatoes and ended up with a mountain of them. On the flip side, it was a bit of a project cutting them all by hand (no mandoline on hand) and frying them in batches. So here’s the recipe, I know it’s a bit of an obvious one, and I’m not sure it’s worth the effort comparing with lets say normal french fries, unless you’re in a gourmet mood and want to take your fries up a notch… or two! Let’s get into it!

Crispy Homemade Thin Cut Shoestring Fried Potatoes

Servings: 2
Time: 1hr 30mins
Difficulty: Normal
Rating: ★★★★★
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It's a bit of work, but you gotta love these super thin strip crispy golden, crumbly pile of deliciousnessesneesss heheheeh ;D Gotta cook them all!

Ingredients

Potatoes – 2 Large
Cooking Oil – For Frying (I used Sunflower Oil)
Salt – For Sprinkling

Directions

First, wash and peel the potatoes.

Cut them into slices, then julienne each slice (cut them super thinly). Try to make the potato slices roughly the same thickness as the julienne slices you’ll use later, to create perfect rectangles ;D

Put everything in a bowl and cover with water. Discard the water and repeat until you get clean water (you do this to remove excess starch from the potatoes, so they’ll fry better, won’t stick, and will be crispier).

Drain the potatoes on a kitchen towel or kitchen paper to remove excess water.

Finally, heat the oil and fry the potatoes. Unlike me, use a wide frying pan so you can fry them faster than I did ;D
When they are golden brown, remove them to some kitchen paper and season with a pinch of salt. And that’s it, a perfect accompaniment to… a carbonara or stroganoff… apparently hehehe ;D Enjoy!

Notes & Tips: As you can clearly see from the photos, I cut mine super thin, just to try it out. These days you can even find shoestring fries with different cuts at the supermarket, but of course, you can cut them however thick or thin you like, the basic kind are twice as thing as this one.

Also get good potatoes that fry well, you know not all potatoes are good for frying, get one with a high starch content, these fry the best, in America, its like russet potatoes, burbank or idaho, in the UK its king edward and in Portugal maybe Mozart, Manitou, Red Scarlet, Astérix, Memphis, Lady Amarilla, lots to choose from! ;D

Dry the potato strips as thoroughly as you can before frying, any leftover moisture will make the oil spatter and can leave the fries soggy instead of crisp.

As always with frying, i know, i know, i keep repeating myself, but fry in small batches so the oil temperature doesn’t drop too much, overcrowding the pan is the fastest way to end up with limp, greasy fries instead of crunchy ones.

Letting the cut potatoes soak a little longer in the water bath, changing the water two or three times, makes a real difference in how crispy the final result turns out.

Salt them the moment they come out of the oil while they’re still hot, that’s when the seasoning sticks best.

If you have any left over (unlikely), they’re best eaten the same day, since shoestring fries lose their crunch quickly once stored, but if you have enough left you can go for a Portuguese style Bacalhau á Brás, or a more basic Fried Potato Omelet.

This recipe for Crispy Homemade Thin Cut Shoestring Fried Potatoes was originally created on BakeAfter.com. Esta receita de Batatas Fritas Palha foi publicada em português no Iguaria.com.