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Here's how to make 'healthy' McDonald's french fries at home
Here's how to make 'healthy' McDonald's french fries at home
Megan WillettJul 13, 2015, 19:57 IST
No one in the fast food game does french fries better than McDonald's.The only problem is that if you have a craving for the salty snack, you'll also be consuming a ton of calories. A medium fry order can have as much as 400 calories while a large will total almost 500 calories, or a quarter of the average person's daily caloric intake.So in honor of National French Fry Day, here's POPSUGAR blogger Brandi Milloy's recipe for making your own McDonald's fries at home without a few of the harder-to-pronounce ingredients (h/t Daily Mail).
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"There's a lot of chemicals and ingredients that goes into making these delicious french fries," Milloy says in the video. "But we're going to take what we learned and apply it to making the best possible french fry at home - without the dimethylpolysiloxane."Over 14 ingredients are typically used by McDonald's to make their fries, most of which we're familiar with: potatoes, canola oil, soybean oil, and salt, just to name a few.But there are also a few bigger names on the list, including dimethypolysiloxane, dextrose, as well as sodium acid pyrophosphate.But most of the harder-to-pronounce ingredients are only needed by McDonald's because it's shipping the fries around the world to millions of franchises. When you're making the fries in your own home, Milloy points out you only really need five ingredients."Unless you plan on starting a French fry franchise out of your kitchen, you don't need a lot of them," Milloy said.She switched out most of the chemicals in the frying oil with peanut oil, which has a similarly high smoke point and a neutral taste.She also soaks the potatoes in water and corn syrup to replace the dextrose so that when the fries are cooking in the oil, they'll caramelize and get that distinct bronzed look that most McDonald's french fries have.After soaking in the water and corn syrup, she pats dry her potato slices and then fries them for 90 seconds before placing on a baking sheet lined with paper towels to drain.The baking sheet goes into the refrigerator for 10 minutes before she fries them again for 5-6 minutes, or until the fries are golden brown.Milloy says that double frying the fries gives them that crunch by taking away some of the starch. Milloy also added beef tallow to the oil immediately before frying to mimic the taste of McDonald's "flavor bath" that gives the fries their distinct taste.Alternatively, you could use the excess fat from when you cook any beef or steak, or you could add beef bouillon to your salt and sprinkle that onto your fries after they come out of the fryer.Salt your fries and eat immediately. Milloy insists that they "taste better than the original."YouTube/POPSUGARCheck out the full recipe below:-Slice your Idaho potatoes into 1/8 inch matchstick planks in the shape of fries-Place the cut french fries in a bowl of water and corn syrup. Soak for 30 minutes in the refrigerator to remove excess starch-Heat peanut oil to 375 degrees while fries soak-Pat off all water from the fries-Doing little bunches at a time, fry your potatoes for 90 seconds or until they're a golden brown color-Once they're done, place them on a paper-towel lined plate and let them drain-Put the plate of lightly fried french fries in the refrigerator for 10 minutes-Add beef tallow or rendered fat to the oil and increase the heat to 400 degrees-Add your french fries a second time and fry for 5-6 minutes-Remove from the pan and season with salt and beef bouillon (optional; 1/4 teaspoon to 2 teaspoons of salt)-Eat and enjoyWatch the full how-to video here.(We're going to be making these and reporting back to see if they really can measure up to McDonald's fries. Have you made this recipe? Let us know what you thought by emailing MWillett@businessinsider.com.)
