Healthy French Fries
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Healthy French Fries are so easy to make! Learn how to make homemade fries that are oven baked, crispy, and delicious!
These healthy french fries are seriously delicious and have the perfect amount of crunch. You’d never know that they’re baked in the oven (no frying needed!).
These healthy fries are a staple in our house alongside Baked Chicken Tenders, or our favorite Turkey Burgers. Great for meal prepping too!
Tyler’s tips for the best Baked French Fries
- Cut your potato into a square so you can easily cut long even fries! This gives you consistency and a good exterior to get nice and crispy.
- Salt and pepper are our go to simple seasonings but any type of seasoning will work with this recipe! Grab your favorite bbq rub or taco seasoning, sprinkle it on and customize your fries!
- Double the batch and prepare these lighter baked french fries for the week. Easily reheat them in the toaster oven and enjoy them all week long.
- Place fries on a parchment lined baking sheet in an even layer. You may need to use 2 baking sheets. Try not to stack the fries on top of one another as you want air to circulate in between them.
Ingredients
Substitutions
Potatoes: We recommend using russet potatoes for this recipe. They work best because of their starch content. You can make this recipe with other potatoes like Idaho or Yukon Golds, but they will not come out as crispy – especially if you use sweet potatoes. If you want the crispiest sweet potato fries, check out the tips on this Baked Sweet Potato Fries Recipe.
Potatoes Cubes: If you prefer cubed potatoes, try our Roasted Potatoes.
Should you peel potatoes for French fries? We like to leave the skins on our russet potatoes because we like them/that’s where most of the nutrients are – but feel free to peel yours if you’d prefer them without the skin!
Do you have to soak potatoes for French fries? No, you do not need to soak them. Some recipes call for this.. but it’s not necessary. The key to crispy fries is to make sure they’re evenly coated with oil and to lay in a flat line on the baking sheet.
Oil: You can use avocado oil or olive oil for these fries.
Seasonings: You can add any seasonings to these baked French fries. Feel free to skip the salt if you’re following a low sodium diet. Paprika and garlic powder are yummy additions to these fries! You can also sprinkle some Parmesan or shredded cheddar cheese on top at the end!
Can you make these in the air fryer? Yes, you can. I would recommend cutting the oil in half and baking them at 450° for 20 minutes, shaking halfway through. Every air fryer is different, though, so I recommend checking your brand for a conversion chart/instructions on how to best cook them!
How to cut french fries
You don’t need a fancy fry cutter to cut french fries. To cut potatoes into fries, slice potatoes into thin slabs. This gives you a nice flat surface to work with and cut even strips. Slice slabs into 1/4 inch thick sticks.
How to Make Healthy French Fries
- Toss sliced potatoes, oil, and spices in a bowl until thoroughly coated.
- Lay sliced potatoes on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Place in the oven + bake!
Storage:
Storage: These fries will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Reheating French Fries: It’s best to reheat leftover fries in an oven or toaster oven. Heat your oven to 350 degrees F and cook for 4-5 minutes on a parchment lined sheet until they are warm through and crisp on the outside. We would not recommend microwaving these fries.
Freezing: I would not recommend freezing fries. Potatoes can get a funny texture when you freeze them.
Serving Suggestions:
These baked fries go with pretty much anything! We could easily eat a whole tray on our own or with our favorite dipping sauce, but we like to serve them with these recipes too:
- Healthy Sloppy Joes
- Homemade Chicken Nuggets
- Crockpot BBQ Chicken
- Homemade Turkey Burgers or alongside Lettuce Wrap Burgers
- Baked Chicken Tenders
Other healthy potato recipes
My mom always jokes ‘I never met a potato I didn’t like’.. but we feel the same way! Check out these Healthy Potato Recipes or these favorites:
Baked French Fries
Ingredients
- 2 lbs russet potatoes cut into ½ inch thick fries
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. While the oven is preheating, cut potatoes into french fry shapes, approximately ½ inch thick. Prepare a parchment lined baking sheet
- Add cut potatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper to a large mixing bowl. Toss with a spatula to cover all of the potatoes evenly with oil and seasonings.
- Place fries on a parchment lined baking sheet in an even layer. You may need to use 2 baking sheets. Try not to stack the fries on top of one another as you want air to circulate in between them.
- Bake at 450 degrees F for 25 minutes, then flip and bake for an additional 15 minutes until all fries are golden brown.
- Depending on your oven you may need a few extra minutes. You can also set the oven to broil for a minute to make them crispy.
I am making these tonight. How does the parchment paper handle 450 degrees? I will be using convect at 425 degrees is that ok or should I skip convect and go to 450?
I don’t have an issue with it at 450. I’ve never tried convect so I can’t be sure!
So good, My family loved these!
Delicious and easy
Excellent. Easy to make. A lot healthier than packaged French fries. I cannot wait to make them again.
These were so good!!! I would totally recommend them and i will surely be making these again in the future. Thank you so much for this recipe!
I used coconut oil and these turned out like a charm. Thank you for continually providing healthy versions of what we all grew up with!
I’ve made these fries twice now. Both times were big hits with the people I made them for.
The first time, I followed your recipe, but with a caveat. Your description on cutting near the top of the page says 1/2 inch while your description below in the summary instructions says 1/4 inch. We’ve done it both ways and the 1/4 works better.
The second time I made them, I swapped out the salt for garlic salt and added crushed rosemary. It added quite a kick to the fries. I would recommend trying it sometime.
Thanks again for the great recipe.
So glad you liked them!
As a person with CHF, I was thinking this would be great because potatoes only have 20mg of sodium. But your recipe calls for one teaspoon which is equal to 2300 mg. , tho the salt you use is 2360 mg per tsp. If you add your own salt to your serving after it is cooked not before hand, it gives whoever’s at your table a choice how much they want to add.
Hi Diana – As a person with CHF you’re likely always going to have to read and adjust recipes per your diet. Omitting salt and adding to taste or your dietary restrictions is a great approach to this recipe and any other recipe on our website. My one recipe serves 8 people, which comes out to around 450 mg/sodium per 6 oz of french fries. The average 3 oz serving of frozen french fries has about 400mg of sodium, which is almost double what mine do.
Ohhhh mama this was amazing! Thank you!
Thanks, Nin! So glad you liked it!
Great, easy recipe. Thank you!! (If you wanna sprinkle your fries with parm cheese, do it when you do the flipping. Putting it on with just 10 minutes to go worked out really well for me.)
Thanks Kris! I need to try these with parm – yum!
Greatest fries I have ever eaten even my local fast food ones are bad because they sit soaking in grease you sure have a winner here.
Thanks, Carl! I appreciate it 🙂
This potato recipe was simple and delicious!! I highly recommend it as a healthy alternative to French fries!
So glad you liked them, Rachel!
How healthy are they for someone with pre diabetes? That is my DH and i am more or less maintenance for candidda, internally. They sound delicious and we both love potatoes but do not eat them a whole lot.
Thanks, Marilyn
Hi Marilyn – I would talk to your doctor. I am not a professional and I have no idea how potatoes affect people who are diabetic or have candida. Sorry I couldn’t be more help!
I made with both regular and sweet potatoes, the recipe was amazing.( I will say that if anyone takes the sweet potato avenue like I did: take them out a little before the regular.)I also had a ton of time so I cut the potatoes into shoe string fries! I will be using the recipe until the end of time for fries!
So glad you liked them Amy!
LOVE this recipe. So delicious and I don’t have to feel bad about eating them either! Been craving them all day and will probably have to make them again this week.
So glad you like them, Kallie! They’re so good with our Healthy Baked Chicken Tenders!
. I think i t would have been better if it didn’t include a picture of ketchup with the fries since ketchup usually includes sugar. Maybe you could include a recipe for sugarless homemade ketchup. Great recipe. So much better then fries bought at a fast food joint. Thank you.
Hi Barbara – I’m glad you liked the recipe. I wanted to show these with ketchup as that is how many people enjoy their fries. Out of the 9 photos of the fries.. only 2 show ketchup. You’re welcome to serve it however you like, but I don’t think photos are a reason to leave a lower review on a recipe! Here’s a link to a great sugar free ketchup recipe.
LOVED these fries!! Sooooo good and super easy to make!
So glad you liked them, Alison!
These were super with the healthy chicken fingers!
So glad you liked both recipes! Thanks, Michelle!
Can you use red potatoes?
I’ve never tried this with red potatoes, but they might need to cook a little longer than russet potatoes. It should work though!
I have a question, olive oil’s smoke point is lower than 450 degrees so how does that work?
Hi! You can use avocado oil or melted coconut oil if you’re concerned with cooking olive oil at this temperature!
I have used avocado oil to make these and I think the avo oil makes them taste even better!
Avocado oil is great with these! Thanks for trying!
Hands down one of the best French Fried I have had.
I’m so glad you liked them, Ashley!!
Sounds good. I’m going to try this out.
One question: What about the peel? Do you leave it on the potatoes or should it be removed?
Hi Michael – The potatoes aren’t peeled, but you could peel them if you’d like! In the pictures you can see that the skins are still on and they get super crispy 🙂
Best baked fries we have tried! They are a regular on our menu.
Thanks, Kelly!! They’re one of my favorites too 🙂
I’ve made these twice now to rave reviews both time -‘s they’re so simple! So much better than a bag of frozen fries. So full of flavor!! They will be on rotation from now on! 10+ for sure
Love that they got rave reviews both times, Kirsten!! I totally agree they are WAY better and better for you thank frozen fries!
THESE FRIES. I’ve only made homemade fries once before, but I’m going to have to try these ASAP.
They are a game changer!! SO crispy and delicious. YOu have to try them!!