French Fry Frenzy (Ore-Ida's Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries)

Can you get good French fries at home?

Boy, there’s a question. For years, I made my own from scratch; I’d select the best potatoes, peel them, slice the potato sticks just so, deep-fry them to a golden crunchy outside and a soft inside, and they were good, but not quite great. “Great” is hard to achieve with any food, but oddly enough, French fries can be tricky. Too greasy, not quite cooked enough or overcooked are all easily achievable, sad to say…and regardless of whether they come out excellent or lousy, the amount of work for homemade fries is the same.

As acknowledged by practically everyone – okay, maybe not Burger King or Wendy’s, but everyone who counts – the gold standard for French fries is McDonald’s® fries. Every other fry, whether homemade, sold by McDonald’s® competitors, or served in a four-star restaurant, is measured against the collective consciousness that agrees that McDonald’s® fries are the zenith of French fried potatoes. (Although in the 1960’s and 70’s, there was a place called the Circle Diner in NJ that served heavenly fries laved in [of all things] gravy, that were the raison d’être for truckers, diners, high-schoolers and party-goers trying to sober up after closing time).


Bearing in mind that McDonald’s® is that gold standard, I have happy news for those of you who love fries, but want to watch your pocketbooks and your waistlines as well. Ore-Ida® has come out with a fairly new line out of the frozen potato empire, called “Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries,” and I’m here to tell you that these really do taste like Fast Food fries, and come very close to the vaunted McDonald’s® benchmark.

Not only do these taste great, and completely satisfy any fast food craving, but they are lower in fat and calories than their McDonald’s® cousins by far. Ore-Ida’s® Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries can be oven-, stovetop- or deep-fryer prepared, so I chose the oven preparation method. Using this method, nine minutes later I had crispy, golden fries with soft fluffy interiors that tasted perfect. And here’s the calorie and fat savings:

McDonald’s® serves its fries in multiple sizes, as well all know – a small order is 2.6 ounces, a medium is 4 ounces. Ore-Ida’s® serving size is 3 ounces, so it compares more accurately to the small size at McDonald’s®, which is four-tenths of an ounce smaller than the Ore-Ida® serving.

Comparing the two, McDonald’s® small fries have 250 calories, 13 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 3.5 grams of trans fat, 140 milligrams of sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, no sugar and 2 grams of protein. In contrast, the Ore-Ida serving, at 3 ounces, contains 160 calories, 6 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 2.0 grams of trans fat, 270 milligrams of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, less than 1 gram of sugar and 2 grams of protein. Ounce for ounce, the Ore-Ida fries are simply a better deal; the taste is comparable, they cost a lot less and they’re 90 calories less for a nearly twenty-percent arger serving size.

What’s not to love? The next time you get a craving for fries, try the Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries; the oven method works beautifully, it’s easy and you save both money and unwanted fats and calories.

Check out other great frozen meals, TV Dinners and frozen side dishes at the Icebox Diner!