Basic Cooking Skills: Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Hello beefriends! This is the fourth in my series of Basic Cooking Skills, which I hope may help some people learn who previously didn't really know how to cook, or maybe just never tried a certain technique or recipe before! Part 1 was cooking sticky rice on the stove; part 2 was about how to boil chicken on the stove; part 3 was about making taco seasoning from your spice cabinet instead of buying flavor packets. Today we'll be going over how to make baked french fries (or chips, if you're British!).

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I am using a sweet potato, but you can use any kind of potato you like really. I am also peeling mine, but I used to not do that sometimes; you can eat potato skins, but with my nickel allergy I stopped doing that. So wash your potato(es) first, and then peel if you want to. Then start slicing into pieces in whatever shape you prefer!

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Then you want to pour a little bit of oil (I use olive) into a baking dish, and turn each piece of potato over in it so that it's coated with oil on each side. A little extra oil in the dish is okay but you don't want them to be swimming in it, so if you poured in more than you need for the coating, now is the time to pour the extra away!

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Once they are all coated with oil and laying flat in one layer in the baking dish, you can dust them with whatever seasonings you like. I use salt, black pepper, and red pepper (cayenne pepper). I find that seasoning them on one side is enough, though I usually add a bit more salt after baking.

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Bake in the oven (or toaster oven, that's what I'm using) at 350⁰F for about 15 minutes. Then flip all of the pieces over, and bake for another 15 minutes.

When they are done, put them first on a towel to absorb excess oil. Then add extra salt or other spices if you like, and serve!

the white stuff on my plate is cheese, if you're wondering, to add a little protein to my meal

Since a lot of Hivers have been talking about a cooking oil shortage, this is another good way to conserve oil; you don't need nearly as much for baking as you do for frying. I hope this was helpful! Let me know what kind of potatoes you like best for fries/chips in the comments! :)