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I Tried Dozens of Frozen Fries — These Are Just as Good as Fast Food

Danielle Centoni
Danielle Centoni
Danielle Centoni is a James Beard Award-winning food writer, editor, recipe developer, and cookbook author based in Portland, Oregon. Her latest cookbook is "Fried Rice: 50 Ways to Stir Up The World's Favorite Grain."
published Jan 8, 2022
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Credit: Joe Lingeman

Do you ever start thinking about fast food fries … only to find yourself unable to think about anything else? French fries: You can practically smell and taste them! You start thinking about how you can reroute your next drive, so that you can pick up an order of your favorite salty spuds. And then, well, you change your day, entirely, pushing everything back so that you can have them now. Because later was too much later. Has that happened to you?

Yeah, me too. 

Credit: Alexia Foods

Buy: Alexia House Cut Fries with Sea Salt, $3.69 for 28 ounces at Target

That’s why I now keep one of these bags in my freezer at all times. Ever since I discovered Alexia House Cut Fries with Sea Salt during my epic frozen potato taste test, I have never been without. These fries are that good. 

I’ve tried a lot of frozen french fries in my life (both for that test and in general), and these are hands-down the best — and the closest approximation to those fast-food fries we all know and love. Sure, crinkle cuts and thick wedges have their place, but these are the ones I don’t want to be without. 

Related: I Tried All the Frozen Hash Browns, Potato Skins, French Fries, and Tater Tots I Could Find — These Are the Best in Each Category

Credit: Danielle Centoni

The fries pinch-hit as an after-school snack and make veggie burger night something to celebrate. And when we occasionally splurge on steak, we sprinkle them with truffle salt and pretend we’re at a French bistro. 

I’ve tried other brands that cook up flabby and dry, or taste a bit too seasoned for my liking. Not so with these golden sticks of crispy potato perfection, which crisp up well in the air fryer (of course) and also in the oven. And I love that they’re made without chemical additives. They contain just five recognizable ingredients: potatoes, oil, salt, apple juice concentrate (to promote browning), and citric acid (to preserve them).

Another bonus? At $3.69 for a 28-ounce bag, these fries, once you’ve counted out a few servings, are somehow even cheaper than fast food!

This post originally ran on Kitchn. See it there: I Tried Dozens of Frozen French Fries — And These Are the Closest to My Fast-Food Favorite