Question
Rosie AIELLO
I'm still having a challenging time roasting potatoes/sweet potatoes, especially for "fries" in the oven so they come out moist inside and crispy outside. Mine are dry in and out. I baste with broth..?
Answer
So we're gonna go back to a couple of things. The first thing is, uh, oven fries is like a really high oven temp, somewhere between 425 and 430 degrees Fahrenheit. So you might want to check the, uh, accuracy of your oven by getting an oven thermometer to make sure that your LCD readout measures the actual temperature inside the oven. That's the A part, the B part is pan placement is everything. So your smaller strips will go in the center of the pan, and as you branch out on your rectangular sheet pan, uh, the larger pieces go around the bigger pieces in the corner. This way they will all cook at the same time at the same temperature. None will be hard and some will none. They'll all be the same exact texture. So pan placement oven placement, I like to use a middle rack. And, um, sweet potatoes, uh, are have a little bit less moisture in them than white potatoes do. So I'm not sure what your oven temp is. My other suggestion is, and I often do this to myself sometimes, is I will bake them initially in the oven and then take them out and throw them in the air fryer for about five minutes at 425 degrees. But the other thing I like to remind people is that if, if, if one, if you're a person, if someone is a person who has enjoyed a french fry that has been coated in corn starch and then deep fried, uh, it's gonna be hard to develop a new norm. So, um, I make oven fries all the time without oil and, um, check your oven, keep your cuts straight, and I think you're gonna be good to go with that. So, uh, let me know how you make out, uh, because I think that we all wanna have really delicious potatoes. I, uh, don't have, um, a photo here, but I can put it on social media. You also, when your potatoes come out of the oven, um, go back one last time. You don't want your potatoes to cook, to touch when they're cooking, because when they touch, they will steam rather than roast or oven fry. And when they come out of the oven, you sort of want to, um, plate them like you would jenga. So it would be two on the bottom two this way, two more, two more. So this way they have a chance to aerate and not get soggy because when steam is released from the cooked potatoes and they touch again, they will get soggy. So, um, I'm gonna put a picture up today on our Instagram at Rouxbe Plants so that you can, uh, see, uh, this technique for, um, plating potatoes when they've come out of the oven. But great question, uh, a question we hear a lot from people and, um, you know, just keep going.
