Should you decide to season the potatoes with one of my seasoning mixes, do so before roasting. The flavor of the spices will deepen with baking and give the fries a really great texture. Who out there doesn’t love barbecue-flavored potato chips? Toss the barbecue seasoning blend with these oven-roasted fries to satisfy your craving at home. The Cuban spice blend is great for seasoning beef and turkey burgers, but I especially like it tossed with fries as the turmeric gives them a gorgeous golden color. The Southwestern seasoning mixture is what I use to flavor the fries at my Mesa Grill restaurants. It’s not hot, just subtly spicy and earthy in taste.–Bobby Flay
Oven-Roasted Fries
Ingredients
For the oven-roasted fries
- 5 large Yukon Gold potatoes or 4 russet potatoes, scrubbed
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons Barbecue, Cuban, or Southwestern Seasoning Mix, (optional)
For the barbecue seasoning mix
- 1 tablespoon smoked sweet Spanish paprika
- 2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the Cuban seasoning mix
- 1 teaspoon ground bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon granulated onion
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
For the Southwestern seasoning mix
- 1 1/2 tablespoons ancho chile powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
Make the fries
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Place a large rimmed baking sheet in the oven to heat.
- Meanwhile, slice each potato lengthwise into 8 wedges. (If you prefer extra crisp fries or if you find yourself with especially large potatoes, slice them into more wedges.) Toss the potatoes in a large bowl of ice water as you slice them. Set aside until you’re ready to roast them.
Prepare the seasoning mix(es)
- Whisk together all of the ingredients for the seasoning mix of your choice—if, that is, you choose to use a seasoning mix.
Roast the fries
- Drain the potatoes and pat them very dry. Place the wedges in a large bowl, add the oil, salt, and seasoning mix, if using, and toss to coat the potatoes evenly. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and spread the potatoes on it in an even layer. Bake the potatoes, turning only once with a thin metal spatula after 20 minutes or so, until golden brown and cooked through, about 35 minutes depending on the thickness of the wedges. Serve steaming hot.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Oh, Bobby Flay, you’ve done it again. These oven-roasted fries are delicious! I tossed russets with the Barbecue Seasoning Mix and since there was already salt in the seasoning mix, I omitted the other tablespoon in the recipe and no one noticed. Speaking of the seasoning mix, it wasn’t hot but it had a nice heat to it. Baking the potatoes on a preheated baking sheet is totally brilliant. After all, you preheat your skillet. Why wouldn’t you preheat a baking sheet? Also, I flipped the fries after about 20 minutes of baking, resulting in crispy outsides and fluffy insides. I’ll make these again and again, especially since I’ve got some of that Barbecue Seasoning Mix leftover.
Seriously, can fries be this tasty and healthy?! I used the Barbecue seasoning on Yukon Gold wedges and roasted them as directed for crispy, to-die-for fries. I can think of various seasoning mixes we can use on these to expand the repertoire. These will be a staple in my home.
These fries were fantastic! They were a huge hit in our household. I’ve made oven-roasted fries many, many times, usually without a recipe, and they come out fine, but these were way above and beyond our usual. I really liked the technique of preheating the baking sheet in the oven while slicing the potatoes and tossing them with the seasoning. It gave the potatoes a very nice, crisp exterior. We also LOVED the Cuban Spice Blend. We tried the Southwestern Spice Blend as well, and it was good but not as great, in our opinion, as the Cuban one. These fries will definitely be making repeat appearances at our dinner table.
These are excellent oven-roasted fries, crisp with just the right amount of oil to give them that fried taste. I was a bit dubious about using the amount of oil called for in the recipe, as it seemed like a lot. But the resulting potatoes came out perfectly crisp—so much so, that we couldn’t stop eating them, the highest compliment for a fry. We made the Barbecue Seasoning Mix and really enjoyed it. Can’t wait to make them again.
We had an oven-fry lunch the other day. Yup—just fries. Not just ordinary fries—fries using three different seasoning mixes: Barbecue, Cuban and Southwestern. Not only that but we also used sweet potatoes to see how they would fare with all three seasonings. My favorite was the Barbecue, as I liked the little touch of sweet along with the mild heat. My husband loved the Southwestern. We both also liked Cuban. We would definitely make them all again. And again…and again…and again….
I made all three spice blends and split my potato wedges among them. I should have used more than one baking sheet, but when I thought of this I only had one oven preheated and needed to get dinner going, so I let each flavor have a third of the pan. It was actually easy to tell which potatoes had which spice by the color—Cuban was light yellow, Southwest was mostly green, and Barbecue was dark red, so it was okay when they mixed a little when I stirred them. Everyone had a different favorite blend, but all were very good. The one thing I would suggest is cut larger potatoes into more than eight slices if necessary to have thinner wedges. Everyone agreed the thinner wedges had a better, crisper texture.
What yummy Oven-Roasted Fries! This is a winner to accompany any meal, especially burgers. I made the Barbecue Seasoning Mix and it had just the right amount of heat and spice. (We loved the slight sweetness of the brown sugar.) I think preheating the baking sheet in the oven for 10 minutes prior to adding the potatoes made them even more crisp. I had never preheated my pan before, and I think the potatoes cooked faster and hotter, making that crisp exterior just delicious. I waited until the last few minutes of cooking time and then turned the potatoes, making all sides extra crisp. I can’t wait to try the other seasoning mixes next time!
This was an easy and satisfying recipe. It’s a good, basic recipe for people to have in their arsenal because it requires few ingredients and comes together quickly. I used the BBQ Seasoning, which was nice and added something special to these fries. I’m sure the other two seasonings are nice as well. I paired these with a burger and it was a great combination. They would go well with a lot of dishes because of the variety of suggested seasonings. I used Yukon Golds, as suggested, and enjoyed the richness of them.
Oven-roasted potatoes are comfort food. I was intrigued with using Yukon Gold potatoes instead of russet. Yukon has always been used for mashed potatoes in our home. So I washed the yellow beauties, sliced them up, mixed them with oil and salt and Bobby’s Cuban Seasoning Mix (I left a few unspiced but salted for the less adventuresome in our lot), placed them in our oven, and let the beauties roast. The recipe indicated it would be about 35 minutes. Ours took quite a bit longer, closer to 50 minutes. The increased time could have been due to our preference for crispness or the thickness of the slices. Either way, the Yukon potatoes were so wonderful. I will definitely be using Yukon for roasting in the near future, and the Cuban Spice mix will become a regular blend for our spice cabinet.
I roast potatoes quite a bit, but was game to try a new recipe, and I’m so glad I did. I loved using Yukon Gold potatoes (normally I make oven fries with russets). They baked up fluffy and creamy. I also liked cutting each potato into eight wedges, which made the fries really thick and delicious. The Cuban Seasoning mix was good, although I might up the proportions by 50 percent next time, as I like a lot of spice! I split the batch so I could experiment a little. I baked half of the fries on a baking sheet as directed. The other half I baked on a parchment-lined baking sheet (I am obsessed with parchment), and the results were great—there was more browning and less clean-up!
These oven fries worked really well. I then tried them with sweet potatoes, and they were good too.
This recipe is my go to “oven fries” recipe. I place the potato wedges on parchment lined sheet pans as pictured, and I don’t even flip them while baking and they still turn out great! The pre soak in water is what really helps these fries to cook up beautifully. I’ve tried variations of the seasonings and they are all great!
Lovely, Dawn! So glad you like these as much as we do! There are soooo many approaches to oven fries. We, too, find this one to be foolproof.
Irresistible! YUM.
Yum is the perfect description, Colette. Enjoy!
Steak fries are the BEST!
We have to agree, Lori!