Breakfast Oven Fries

For breakfast, lunch, dinner, or just cause you’re hungry, these are some tasty potatoes. Indeed, these breakfast oven fries are a very nice change from standard potato preparations. They’re smoky and rich with just a touch of heat from the cayenne pepper. Worth making for any meal. I used a bittersweet smoked paprika and a medium-hot cayenne pepper and they were just right for me but I’m sure using hotter or milder peppers would be great, too. Mine were done a few minutes short of an hour.

Don’t let the long cooking time deter you. You can get those potatoes prepped and onto the baking sheet in the time it takes your oven to preheat. Pop them in the oven and move on to making the rest of your breakfast (and maybe even get the kitchen cleaned up, too!). Start checking the potatoes about 15 minutes after you flip them. I baked them for a total of 50 minutes, just long enough to render the potatoes crisp and tender but not long enough to burn the spices. They are indeed richly spiced, but they aren’t slap-you-in-the-face spicy. I don’t see why you couldn’t cut them into thicker fries for a nice side dish.

These crisp, thick-cut fries make an excellent accompaniment to eggs cooked any way. The spicy kick from the cayenne is certainly one way to wake up in the morning, but these would also pair well with a steak at dinner. The smoked paprika adds an additional level of flavor that’s much more intense than standard paprika, and it’s worth buying just for the smell that wafts through the kitchen as these bake. I’d add a sprinkle of coarse sea salt before throwing these into the oven.

These fries were a pleasant surprise. The fries were slightly crisp on the outside, light and tender on the inside.

The process of submerging the potatoes may seem a bit time-consuming, however, the resulting fry had an outstanding texture. I made two batches, one with russet potatoes and the other with sweet potatoes, and both received rave reviews from my guests. I’d recommend keeping them in the oven for at least 45 minutes; the potatoes were finished cooking when I flipped them after 30 minutes, but continued to crisp in the remaining baking time.

I’ve made these twice already. The first time I made them for breakfast and they were delicious with eggs and sausage. I cooked them for 40 minutes and they were crisp on the outside and a bit soft on the inside.

The second time I made them to go with some homemade butter-baked fish. I baked this batch for the whole hour. They were still good and on the crunchy side.

I’ll be making these again.

These “breakfast fries” were very easy to throw together and make for a nice side at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They have a mix of seasonings which creates a good starting point for a nicely flavored potato wedge.

In the future, I think I might increase a couple of the ingredients to make the flavors a bit more pronounced. Because they’re called “breakfast fries” and have some spiciness, I found myself thinking about these as a base for traditional huevos rancheros, a nice twist instead of the usual tortilla. I think that would be really good! I know folks can be a little salt conscious, but these potatoes definitely need salt, as without it they’ll be a little bland.

Also, if you like a little more spiciness, I say go for it, as the small amount of cayenne barely adds any kick, in fact, I might have added just a little extra cayenne pepper. It took about 45 minutes for these to fully cook and they were crisp and cooked perfectly on the inside.

Who doesn’t love good wedge fries? They crisped up nicely and the seasoning had a subtle smokiness that was very appealing.

I usually don’t use russets for oven fries, but these worked very well. I like that they had to soak in water to remove the starch. After that, all you do is season and bake.

They were baked 30 minutes without stirring, and then an additional 15 minutes for a nice brown color.

Very good with soft-boiled eggs, by the way. Bright green chives sprinkled on top would add to the oomph factor.

We enjoyed these breakfast oven fries for dinner, but I don’t think I will ever make them for breakfast. They almost seemed out of place, but they would be great with lunch, dinner, or as a snack. I plan to try these again but cut the fries much smaller to ensure more of the crunchy texture.