The Pioneer Woman's Method For The Perfect Fries

There are some occasions where the side dish is better than the main course — stuffing at Thanksgiving, hash browns at breakfast, and, most importantly, french fries at any restaurant. Sure, burgers are delicious, but have you ever dunked a salty, golden brown hunk of potato into a pile of tangy ketchup? It's arguably one of the most addictive combos ever created. Whether it's McDonald's iconic shoestring fries, chunky steak fries, or the curly fries of your childhood, they never fail to satisfy our craving for all-things fried.

If you've tried to make french fries at home — that aren't out of a bag from the frozen food aisle — you know that it isn't as easy as simply dropping them into a fryer and praying for the best. There are a few tricks to making the perfectly crispy french fries of your fast food-filled dreams. One of those hacks comes from The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, herself.

According to a blog post on Ree Drummond's site, the secret to perfectly crispy homemade french fries is letting them soak overnight. After cutting the potatoes into thin strips, she places them in a bowl of cold water and covers it before sticking it in the fridge. While she says you only need to let the potatoes soak for about two to three hours, she prefers to let them sit overnight.

There's real science behind her method, too. Drummond explains that soaking the potatoes before frying them removes some of the starch that coats the outside of the potato. If you put them in the fryer before soaking them, that starch messes with the texture, meaning you can end up with fries that are either too crunchy on the inside or too crispy on the outside. By letting them sit in water for a few hours first, you'll get french fries that are golden on the outside and nice and soft on the inside. There you have it, another helpful hack from The Pioneer Woman!