Perfect French Fries and Sauces

I love home cooked French fries! They are one of my favorite comfort foods, I have memories of coming home from school to hamburger patties and home made french fries dipped in ketchup. (back then we didn't know about Fry sauce I guess!) But once we discovered French fry sauce there was no turning back! I was surprised that Fry sauce is mostly an Idaho thing... I asked for it at Dairy Queen when we lived in Bremerton, WA and got the weirdest look. I have a regular french fry sauce recipe with this post, as well as the 'Almost Famous Campfire Sauce' (like Red Robin has for their Fries) and then I came up with the Cheesey sauce below. I LOVE the chili flavor Green chili's give the sauce without it being too spicy. I lived in Albuquerque, NM for a while too, and LOVED the smell of green chili's roasting on about every street corner in the fall! They even had a Road Runner pizza at Pizza Hut covered in green chili's that you can't get anywhere else! But anyway, back to french fries! It's Potato harvest time here in Idaho so it's the best time to cook up a batch of French Fries and enjoy! YUM!

Perfect French Fries
Ingredients:
• 5 pounds russet potatoes
• Vegetable or peanut oil, for frying
• Sea salt (or any seasoned salt you like!, I used Lawry's)

Directions:
Peel and rinse the potatoes. Then cut them into sticks by cutting the potato in 4 or 5 vertical pieces, and then cutting each piece into sticks.
Place them in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Allow them to soak, 2 to 3 hours. 
When you're ready to make the fries, drain off the water and lay the potatoes on 2 baking sheets lined with paper towels. Blot with paper towels to dry them.
Heat a few inches of oil in a heavy pot to 300 degrees F. In 3 or 4 batches, cook the potatoes until soft, 4 to 5 minutes per batch. They should not be brown at this point! You just want to start the cooking process. Remove each batch and drain on new/dry paper towels.

Once all the potatoes have been fried at 300 degrees F, turn up the heat until the oil reaches 400 degrees F. When the oil's hot, start frying the potatoes in batches again, cooking until the fries are golden and crisp. Remove the potatoes from the oil and drain on paper towels.
Sprinkle with sea salt or your favorite seasoned salt while still warm and dive in!

Notes
IMPORTANT: Please be careful when frying with hot oil. Keep the pot on the backburner so little kiddos won't get hurt.

Regular French Fry Sauce
Ingredients
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• ½ teaspoon white vinegar
• Hot sauce, for spice, optional

Directions:
Measure out the ketchup, mayonnaise, and vinegar into a bowl and mix together with a whisk. If you want it spicy, add dashes of hot sauce to taste. Serve with fries!


Almost Famous 'Campfire' French fry Sauce
Ingredients:
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 3 Tablespoons Bull’s-Eye Brown Sugar & Hickory Barbecue Sauce (or your favorite BBQ sauce, I like Kraft Chipotle BBQ sauce)
• 1 Tablespoon Ketchup
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl. Cover and chill for about an hour before serving.

Green Chili Cheese Sauce for French Fries
Ingredients:
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1- 4oz. can diced green chili’s
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups whole milk (add a little more if your sauce is too thick)
• 2 cups shredded yellow Cheddar Cheese
• 1-15oz. can Ricco’s Nacho Cheddar Sauce (found by the Velveeta cheese at Walmart)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Place a sauce pot on the stove and heat it over medium heat. Add butter and green chilis, heat until butter is melted and bubbly. Add the flour and stir. Cook butter mixture and flour together for 1 minute or so. (This is called a "roux" and it helps to thicken up sauces). Use a whisk to stir as you pour the milk into the pot. Keep stirring until the milk mixture gets thicker. Use a wooden spoon or heat-safe spatula to stir in the cheese and canned cheese sauce. When all of the cheese melts, take the sauce off the heat and add a dash or two of salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the fries or serve the sauce on the side if you like to dipping better.

Note:
This Cheese sauce would be great on nachos, or in chowders! I made a potato, chicken chowder with my left over sauce the next day and it was YUMMO!