Potatoes are an inexpensive staple food that all frugal folks should have in their pantry. Use these potato wedges as a tasty and economical alternative side dish instead of your standard rice, noodles or mashed potatoes. And of course because they are baked instead of deep fried they are much more healthy for your heart and you weight.
The hardest thing for me to remember is to leave myself enough time to make these when I’m putting together a meal-they need to bake for around 40 minutes, and I usually think of them 20 minutes before I want to put dinner on the table.
Want to get them prepped early? Peel and cut the potatoes earlier in the day, but then store them completely submerged in water. This will keep them from getting all nasty and brown. When you are ready to use them drain them well and pat them dry with a kitchen towel.
Homemade Seasoned Oven Fries
4 Large Potatoes
3 TBS Flour
1tsp garlic powder
1tsp onion powder
1tsp Seasoned Salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 TBS bacon drippings*
Preheat oven to 450. Put bacon drippings in the pan & place in oven to melt.
Combine all ingredients except potatoes. Place in a large plastic zippered bag or container with lid.
Scrub potatoes & cut into wedges. They should be about 1/4 inch thick or so.
Add potatoes to the flour/spice mixture in batches and shake until they are coated.
Take pan out of oven and use a basting brush to ensure that the bacon drippings are distributed over the entire surface.
Place the potatoes on the pan in a single layer (important!) and bake for 35-40 minutes. You may want to flip the wedges over every 1o minutes or so, or at the very least at the half way point.
Variations: go minimalistic and leave the flour/seasoning coating off-just use potato, bacon drippings & a little salt when you are done.
*Note: you can use vegetable oil or melted butter instead
Nicki says
Not so sure about the bacon drippings but these sound delicious!
Pat says
These sound great! Bet they would be good on the grill too.
Alex M says
I am going to work on this! I don’t fry a lot of bacon, but I have a lot of chicken grease. I might also try it with some Goya Adobe seasoning, which I have for poultry.
With just two in our house, I hesitate to buy a whole bag of potatoes, but with a recipe like this, I will have more spud options.
Have you tried this with yams/sweet potatoes?
Robyn's Online World says
I love that you use bacon drippings for these! That has to add a great flavor to them!
Christy Behnke says
To speed up, “par-cook” whole taters in the microwave for 5-10 mins, then cut and throw in the oven OR cut ahead of time and throw in water and pre-cook in microwave, finish in oven. I do this all the time on the grill!
Jenn @ Frugal Upstate says
Ohhh, I never thought of parcooking them. That is a great idea. As is the idea to try them on the grill.
I swear, I learn so much from you all!
Antenor says
Yeah, it’s good, very useful, thanks 🙂