Recipe | Battered Fries

One of the reasons why I didn't get to read as much books in 2015 compared to 2014 is because I always distract myself watching YouTube videos - especially those food related ones, be it about street food around the world or baking tutorial...until I chanced upon HellthyJunkFood's channel. From their dish recreation of KFC's Chizza, I binged watched their videos, until I get to see this -


...a video tutorial on how to recreate Arby's Curly Fries. Now, there is no Arby's in the Philippines, but this reminded me of McDonald's Curly Fries as well as KFC's French Fries, which had a thin batter unlike the other Fries that is pure potatoes and salt (or flavoring powder). Anyway, even if we don't have the spiral cutter and that the nearby supermarket only sells frozen French Fries, I still wanted to try this one out.

If you didn't watch the video I shared above, and if you didn't pause to 1:48 of the video to see the full ingredients, here's what you need for the batter:

• 1/2 cup Flour
• 2 teaspoons Salt
• 1 teaspoon Onion Powder
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1 teaspoon Cayenne Powder
• 2 tablespoons Paprika
• 1 cup Water 
• Oil for deep frying

The procedure is very simple - heat oil for frying, and mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Toss the potatoes and fry them once your oil is hot enough.

Unfortunately, simple as it may be, I must admit I went through a trial and error phase for this dish.


First time I tried it, I was very hesitant in adding that much salt and paprika, so I ended up just putting one and a half teaspoons of salt and one tablespoon of paprika. I placed all the dry ingredients in the bowl and poured all the water needed. It resulted to a very thin batter that won't stick to the fries. I added a little more flour to make it look like the batter used in the video, and this very small batch was the one that my sister and I shared. We both agreed that it lacked salt, but it had a good mix of flavors.


The second time I tried it, I mixed all the dry ingredients needed, and added the water slowly, and ended up not using all of the 1 cup needed for the batter. This batch was difficult to cook. The batter won't crisp up (compared to the last batch) - it looked soggy, and it turns very brown almost immediately, making the potatoes mushy and very very soft. I ended up frying the potatoes twice - not minding if it would look very toasted.


Doing all the adjustments needed, I found the balance when making the third batch. For this, I only added one tablespoon of paprika and added all the water needed, still adding it gradually to check the consistency of the batter. I was able to fry the potatoes for a longer time as I do prefer my fries crispy. Confident now to serve this to my mom and sister, I sprinkled a little parmesan cheese for added flavor and I made the dip by mixing mayonnaise, tomato ketchup, finely minced garlic (just one small clove), a few drops of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and sugar (plus chopped spring onions).

I loved how this turned out, and my sister said discovering this recipe from HellthyJunkFood might make us into Battered Fries converts.


If you want to elevate your usual home-cooked French Fries, you might want to check this out. This post is in no way connected to HellthyJunkFood, but I would take this chance to invite you to check their page, they do offer lots of interesting recreations of fast food dishes. I am now thinking of recreating the KFC Chizza and the Mountain Dew Wings.