How to Make McDonald's Fries at Home According to Chain's Former Corporate Chef

Thanks to delivery apps, we live in a day and age where fast food options are never more than a tap of a smartphone away. However, you don't need to pay those extra fees to enjoy McDonald's French fries whenever you want, as a former corporate chef for the fast food chain had revealed how to make the perfect hot and crispy fries right at home.

Chef Mike Haracz has been spilling secrets on how to replicate your favorite McDonald's menu items on his popular TikTok account, which boasts over 230,00 followers. But to copy McDonald's fries, as he shared this week, you don't need a potato peeler or a knife. Instead, Haracz says that you first need to head to your local Walmart and pick up a bag of frozen Great Value Thin-Cut French Fried Potatoes. As he explains, the ingredients statement on the McDonald's website is almost identical to the ingredients statement on the bag of frozen fries.

But because there are no deep fryer instructions on the bag, he said that you're going to have to do some research and development yourself to achieve the perfect doneness. "I would recommend deep frying at about 360 to 370 degrees for about two minutes," he explains. "But there are a lot of variables depending on what fryer you have."

Next, he stresses that you don't want to overload the fryer basket, as McDonald's fryers are incredibly efficient and only fry a certain amount at a time. In other words, working in small batches will be necessary. Equally important is to season with Morton's salt right when they come out of the fryer, which is the same brand the chain uses.

But lastly, and most importantly, Haracz says that the oil itself is the key to getting your fries to taste like McDonald's, which adds beef flavor to its frying oil. Obviously, vegetarians and vegans will want to skip this step, but to replicate the beef flavor he recommends adding about two tablespoons of beef tallow per two cups of oil. You can also fry in straight up tallow, which he notes will certainly be delicious. However, the goal here is to replicate the fries, not improve upon them.

And just like that, for low cost and a little mess, you can make great-tasting McDonald's French fries at home. For other McDonald's DIY recipe hacks and insider tips, you can check out the other videos on Haracz's TikTok account.