A lot of us Grubhub our fast food these days, but we probably all remember making a fast food run at least once―driving or bussing or whatever-ing home with that preciously still-warm bag, doing our best to delay the moment we plunge in our fists and rifle blindly before pulling out a Wolverine claw of hot, fresh French fries.
And oh, was it worth the (brief) shame, because the half-life of fast food french fries is weirdly, tragically short. No matter where you get them, in a matter of minutes, your fries will go from crisp, golden-brown and upright to limp, grease-oozing, waxy yellow potato worms. Lucky for us, we live in the magical era of the air fryer, a machine specifically capable of reviving pale, soggy French fries. So, like a bunch of greedy, snackish Dr. Frankensteins, we decided to experiment with the limp remains of McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s fries to see which came back to life best. (Or the least horrifyingly.)
The Revivi-fry “Recipe” And Results
Turns out nobody eats their French fries fast enough, so there were a lot of air-fryer hacks for cold fries. Fortunately, they tended to overlap. After a bit of testing, we settled on re-frying in a single layer at 350°F (don’t forget to preheat, friends). FYI, a lot of recipes say three to five minutes, but even at a relatively low 350, we found only one fry could make it the full five without becoming a potato twig, so we stuck to three. From best to worst, here’s how the results held up.
Wendy’s
Hot: Her pigtails are somehow frightening but we still have to admit, fresh Wendy’s were the tastiest. That might be because they were the most heavily salted, but they also tasted the most like potatoes, complete with potato skin and everything.
Cold: Meh―mealy, as forgettable as any cold fry, though that pleasantly aggressive potato flavor rescues them a bit.
Air-fried: Definitely first place, likely because, well, salt, but also their medium thickness allowed them to re-fry crisp but not too crisp, with that yummy potato softness still detectable inside.
Burger King
Hot: Fresh Burger King fries were the least crispy, also easily twice the size and girth of the McDonald’s fries, so the sensation of “mealiness” has a more pleasant potato feel to it.
Cold: Less offensively mealy than McDonald’s, but so very clearly deceased.
Air-fried: Even though sweet little pig-tailed Wendy’s beat the King out, he should get any honorary mention for air frying so well. Wendy’s was definitely the most like the original after we air fried it, but the Burger King fry’s… beefiness makes it a great air frying specimen (and you can take this one up to five minutes and still have some potato softness).
McDonald’s
Hot: Fresh McDonald’s fries are either your fave or, to paraphrase a friend, “the worst French fries in the world.” He might have been onto something. Our drive-thru “fresh” McD’s fries were bland, under-salted, though pleasantly crisp in that skinny-minny McDonald’s fry way.
Cold: The wormiest of them all―skinny, tight, and unrelentingly mealy.
Air-fried: The most lackluster re-fry-val (see what we did there) of all. Most of what “comes back to life” is crispiness. But if you’re a McDonald’s loyalist, go for it (we recommend 2 minutes)―just expect a crispy spear of mildly salted starch.
Dining and Cooking