It is hard to find the right words to adequately express my love toward a delicious french fried potato. I am a fan of the crispy kind. Salty and rather thinly sliced. You can keep ALL the potatoes wedges in the entire world and pile my plate full of the matchstick fries.

I spent the better part of my adolescence depriving myself of fries and avoiding potatoes like the plague. It probably started when I started seeing a nutritionist (for weight loss purposes) when I was about 9 years old. Its a long story for another post for one day soon about my journey with food and health…. but while I learned some good basics of nutrition, I was also taught some unhealthy habits at a young age. Like food journaling and labelling every item I put in my mouth. Also that certain foods are always bad. Like potatoes.

At such a young age, I put potatoes in the same category as the devil, smoking cigarettes (thank you, DARE program), Bowser from Super Mario, and Ursula from the Little Mermaid. It was a motley crew in the “bad guy” corner of my mind.

That being said, as I have become a healthy adult I have learned so much about BALANCE in health. I refuse to categorize anything that God made for us to eat as “bad”, but do recognize which foods have more or less health benefits and adjust how much or how often I eat them accordingly. Needless to say when I am on a road trip I will partake in some glorious Chick Fil a waffle fries most happily, and I will also gleefully slice moutains of red potatoes on the regular to make these crispy delicious wonders.

I have been roasting my own fries for quite awhile now, and feel like I have finally tweaked it to having nailed the perfect combo of method + flavor into something fantastic.

Garlic + Rosemary is one of the best flavor combos you can find, and mix it with a crispy roasted potato and you may just find your feet dancing back for more!

Do yourself a favor + serve it with some homemade garlic mayo sauce like I do, or with ketchup (100% NOT homemade) like Patrick… or both, like Elias. Or just eat them plain. They’re that good.

INGREDIENTS:

- 4 Large Red Potatoes

- Olive Oil

- 1 tsp Garlic Powder

- 1/2 tsp Rosemary (dried, add more if using fresh)

- Coarse Salt + pepper to taste

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 420F degrees.

Slice potatoes into matchsticks. You do this by slicing the potato in half lengthwise. Take one half and slice lengthwise into slices. Lay all slices onto cutting board and slice lengthwise yet again into thin spears. (you can watch the video below to see how I do it.)

Repeat to the other half and remaining potatoes.

Submerge the potatoes into a bowl of cool water to rinse off excess starch. This will help keep your potatoes from sticking to the baking sheet.

Drain water and pat the potatoes dry. Toss them onto the baking sheet.

Drizzle the potatoes with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt + pepper, garlic powder and dried rosemary. Toss to coat + see if you need more. Don't over salt, but also make sure to get some on there! Once they are set, slide into the hot oven.

Let them roast 30-40 minutes, until brown and crispy.

Sometimes if I am feeling saucy, I will Broil for 2-5 minutes at the end to get them nice and crisp.