Gwyneth Paltrow Unlocked The Secret For The Best Homemade French Fries

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow may be making headlines for her role in “Marty Supreme,” but she’s also a whiz in the kitchen. Fans of her 2015 cookbook, “My Father’s Daughter,” have received rave reviews for good reason. Inside the book, she shares her family’s favorite recipes along with personal stories of how her brother, Bruce, influenced the food she loves and how she’s involved her own children in her cooking. With over 150 recipes for main dishes, sides, and desserts, there’s something for everyone to love, especially her recipe for no-fry French Fries.

If you’re looking for a French fry recipe that doesn’t involve purchasing a deep fryer, then this one is for you!

It can be difficult to get that fast-food French fry crisp at home, but Paltrow says that the secret to crispy French fries is to soak your potato sticks in cold water before roasting them in a hot oven at 450 degrees. Fortunately, you don’t just have to take her word for it! Scrolling through the Internet, there are many other recipes that also call for you to soak your potatoes before frying them.

This is the same technique that celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay uses, and his recipe is available online. Although Paltrow cuts her fries into 1/3-inch sticks, Ramsay cuts them into even ¼-inch sticks after peeling them. He then places the fries in a large bowl and soaks them in cold water for 30 minutes. When that’s done, he rinses them under cold water to remove excess starch.

After draining them, Ramsay pats them down and makes sure that they are bone-dry before adding them to a deep fryer, as any water will cause the hot oil to splatter. Ramsay does use a deep fryer set to about 350 degrees, frying them at two to four minutes per side until they are deep brown and crispy.

I went with Paltrow’s recipe, as I don’t own a deep fryer, and baked them in the oven. I deviated a bit from the recipe, though, and did not peel my Russet potatoes because I do like a little bit of the extra skin on my French fries.

Fortunately, they were delicious. I cut up one pound of Russet potatoes, and so I had a lot of French fries, which gave me a lot of time to play around with the timing. Some of the smaller bits burned while some of the bigger pieces were a bit softer, so it’s important to make sure that you cut all of your pieces evenly (unless you don’t mind the crunchy burned bits!)

I would recommend playing around with the timing in your own oven and testing a few small batches before going all in, as each oven can be a bit finicky. I’ve moved from one apartment to another, and some tried and tested recipes in one oven have baked completely differently from another. Creating the perfect French fry is an art, and you want to make sure you don’t let any potatoes go to waste!

Over on Amazon, the cookbook holds a 4.5-star rating from over 400 happy readers. Many customers have found that the health-conscious recipes are pretty easy to make overall, with some highlighting the tuna and ginger burgers as an excellent alternative to a beef patty burger.

Other readers were impressed by the low number of ingredients the recipe required, as many readers already had all the things they needed to make the recipe in their pantry. The stir-fry chicken, the slow-roasted tomatoes, and seafood paella were particularly standouts among the many reviews.