French Fries in Air Fryer (fast-food-style)

Farewell, fast food! If you have a bag of frozen french fries and an Air Fryer, you won’t need to go through the drive-through!

The Air Fryer crisps ready-made french fries like no other, giving them a deep-fried flavor.

Why Is This Recipe So Delicious?

• Cooking frozen french fries in an air fryer is so simple and convenient! Plus, you won’t have to deal with any filthy oil — much nicer and easier than deep-frying! The fries are also properly crispy, which isn’t often the case when baking fries in the oven.
• For a more gourmet snack, season your fries with various seasonings. For a spicy kick, use garlic or onion powder, seasoned salt (mmm, Milo’s salt), or chipotle powder.

Important Ingredients

Frozen French Fries – In the air fryer, you can cook any type, flavor, cut, and quantity of frozen french fries. Fries with seasoning? Check. Curly fries, perhaps? PLEASE, YES. Fries with steak?

You bet! Fries on a budget? They can fall through the basket as long as they aren’t too little. Depending on the size, thickness, and amount of fries you’re cooking, you’ll need to change the cooking time and batch size a little.

Chef’s Advice

• Depending on how crispy or thick you like your fries, you can vary the cooking time. Reduce the time for softer or thinner fries. Increase it for crispier or thicker fries.
• If you’re using a non-rotating air fryer, toss your fries thoroughly halfway through. Make sure all of the fries in the bottom of the bowl are scooped to the top. If your air fryer rotates, check on the fries halfway through to see if they are fully cooked.
• If you use too much oil, your fries will get mushy.
• The cook time will need to be changed depending on the sort of fries you’re making and your air fryer. For more information, see the notes on the recipe card below!

Frozen Air Fryer French Fries that are perfectly crisp

Ingredients

• 1 bag of frozen french fries see Notes
• air-fryer-safe spray oil neutral oil, like avocado or olive
• salt optional

Equipment

• Air fryer

Instructions

1. Preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees F. Spray the basket lightly with oil and add the frozen french fries. If desired, spray fries with oil and season with salt.
2. After 5 minutes, remove the basket and toss/shake the fries thoroughly. Check for doneness and cook for another 5 minutes in the air fryer. Repeat until the desired doneness is reached, up to 25 minutes total, adding 5 minutes as needed. To avoid overcooking, shake the basket every 5 minutes and check for doneness. You’ll want to keep the overall cook time low for softer fries.
3. If necessary, remove the fries from the air fryer and repeat with the remaining batches. Serve hot fries with selected toppings.

Notes

Important: The basket must be shaken every 5 minutes! Shaking the pan helps the fries cook evenly, reducing the risk of their overcooking.

This is also a good time to check the doneness of the fries to make sure they aren’t getting crispier than you prefer!

Time and temperature: A Chefman basket-style air fryer and a Cosori basket-style air fryer were used to test and perfect this approach.

We cooked our fries at 400°F for a total of 20 minutes in both cases. However, every air fryer – even two of the same kind – behaves differently.

Keep a watch on the fries the first time or two you cook them this way, and make any necessary adjustments to the cooking time or temperature dependent on your particular air fryer!

Air fryers in the style of a toaster oven take a little longer to cook than air fryers in baskets. The age of your air fryer can also influence the outcome. Air fryers that are newer can cook hotter and faster than those that are older.

Fry types include: Different types of fries will cook at different temperatures. Shoestring fries require less cooking time than steak fries since they are smaller and thinner.

Start with the cook times listed below and adjust as necessary. When cooking multiple batches, the first batch will take longer than the second.
6-10 minutes for Shoestring Fries
10-12 minutes Waffle Fries (also known as Lattice Fries)
For crinkle-cut fries 10-12 minutes
10-12 minutes for curly fries
12-15 minutes for steak fries

Both a Chefman basket-style air fryer and a Cosori basket-