When you deep fry potatoes the natural sugar in the potatoes react with the amino acids which include asparagine in a chemical process called the Maillard reaction.
The Maillard reaction is what gives the fried or deep fried potatoes the prized flavor and color and also what produces acrylamide.
Potatoes should be rinsed before deep frying them if you want to make your potatoes crispy when fried.
Soaking and rinsing the potatoes before deep frying them or frying them removes excess starch from the potatoes which prevents soggy potatoes and allows the potatoes to turn out crispy.
After rinsing and soaking your potatoes you also want to dry them completely before frying them.
The best potatoes for deep frying are russet potatoes and Idaho potatoes which are dense and have less moisture content which is key to preventing soggy fries and soggy potatoes.
Yukon gold potatoes are also good for deep frying or frying as they are an all purpose potato.
You should remove starch from potatoes before frying them if you want crispy fried potatoes or crispy fries.
You don't have to remove the starch from potatoes before frying but doing so helps the potatoes turn out crispy which is good.
When fried potatoes won't get crispy it's either because you used the wrong oil or you have not soaked the potatoes to remove the starch.
Soaking the potatoes before frying them removes the excess starch which helps the potatoes to come out crispy when frying them.
If you don't soak potatoes before air frying the potatoes they will still contain a lot of starch and won't crisp up properly.
Removing the starch by soaking the potatoes before air frying them helps the fries to become crispy.
When soaking cut potatoes the cut potatoes should be soaked for at least 30 minutes but you can also soak the cut potatoes overnight if you prefer.
After you cut your potatoes place them in a large bowl and cover the cut potatoes completely with cold water and allow them to soak for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Soaking the potatoes removes excess starch and helps them crisp up when cooked.
The reason you soak potatoes in water before deep frying is to draw out starch and make them more rigid and less likely to stick together and to also add crispness to the potatoes.
The reason people boil potatoes before frying them is to allow for some of the starch in the potatoes to cook off and to also some more flavor to the potatoes because of the salted water.
Potatoes absorb oil when fried and after frying the potatoes it's best to allow the oil to drip off and then press the fried potatoes between some paper towels to remove some of the absorbed oil.
The best oil for deep frying potatoes is light vegetable oil or peanut oil.
Peanut oil has a high smoke point which makes it a good cooking oil to deep fry potatoes in.
You can reuse the oil after deep frying potatoes.
The oil that you deep fry potatoes in can be reused several times before it needs replaced.
I reuse my cooking oil to deep fry my potatoes for around 4 to 6 months before I change it out depending on how often I deep fry potatoes.
Deep frying potatoes takes around 4 to 8 minutes until they are fully cooked and ready to eat after you let the oil drip off.
Deep fried potatoes are bad for you in excess because of the oil that the deep fried potatoes are cooked in but it's okay to eat deep fried potatoes in moderation.
After deep frying potatoes I let the oil drip off the potatoes by hanging the deep fryer basket up above the oil and then after the potatoes cooled off I allow them to drip onto a paper towel.
I then take another paper towel and press the oil further out of the potatoes which makes the deep fried potatoes more healthy.
Any deep fried food can be bad in excess but in moderation the deep fried food including deep fried potatoes is okay.
Deep frying frozen potatoes takes between 5 to 10 minutes depending on how you like your fries or frozen potatoes to be cooked.
When I deep fry frozen potatoes or deep fry frozen french fries I preheat the oil in the deep fryer while preparing the frozen potatoes or french fries.
Then I place the frozen potatoes or frozen french fries into the deep fryer basket.
When putting the frozen potatoes or frozen french fries into the hot oil make sure to slowly lower the basket of frozen fries or frozen potatoes into the hot oil because putting the frozen potatoes or frozen fries into the hot oil too fast can cause the oil to splash back and cause a fire.
Keep an eye on the frozen potatoes in the deep fryer because sometimes it only takes 4 to 5 minutes to fry the potatoes if you're only frying a little bit of them.
The more potatoes you're frying the longer it takes to cook them.
But it should not take any longer than 10 minutes to deep fry the frozen potatoes.