How to make healthy beef tallow French fries in an air fryer using smart preparation techniques to enhance nourishment and avoid the formation of toxic acrylamides.
One of my adult children recently purchased an air fryer to make his homecooking endeavors faster and more convenient.
While not fan of these appliances myself (the many pitfalls of air fryers are detailed in the linked article), I can understand younger folks struggling for work/life balance needing a homecooking method that does not involve unnaturally irradiating food with a microwave or resorting to toxic takeout.
To help him out (he’s becoming quite the chef!), I devised a method for making homemade French fries as healthy as possible using an air fryer.
Psst…here is my method for making stovetop tallow fries if you don’t have an air fryer.
The five keys for making air fryer French fries safely include:
- Use a stainless steel air fryer (this is the model my son bought). Never air fry food in the cheaper models (like the Ninja) made with plastic food trays!
- Always use organic potatoes and chop them fresh for each batch. Frozen commercial fries have many toxic additives, and commercially grown potatoes have pesticide residues from the nasty, chemical soil they are grown in.
- Blanch the uncooked fries before air frying them (this reduces the formation of carcinogenic acrylamides significantly).
- Generously coat the fries with pastured beef tallow after blanching (I prefer to use organic tallow rendered at home, but you can also buy it. I suggest this brand or this brand). Never make air fryer fries without a healthy fat! The fat is ESSENTIAL to greatly reduce a negative blood sugar spike from the potato starch. Fat also greatly improves nutrient absorption from the potatoes!
- Air fry at a lower temperature to stay below the tallow smokepoint.
I hope you enjoy this recipe. My son loves it. He whips up a small batch of fries (about half an organic Russet potato) with his grassfed burger on a healthy bun anytime he wants! It’s faster, far healthier, and less expensive than Uber Eats!
Beef Tallow French Fries (in an Air Fryer)
How to make healthy beef tallow French fries in an air fryer using smart preparation techniques to enhance nourishment and avoid the formation of toxic acrylamides.
Ingredients
- 1 medium organic Russet potato *do not use conventional potatoes due to heavy pesticide residues
- 2 Tbsp beef tallow
- filtered water
- sea salt to taste
Instructions
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Wash and scrub the organic Russet potato. Do not peel as there are valuable nutrients in the skin.
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Chop the potato into French fries. I do this by cutting the potato into quarters. With each potato quarter, I then cut uniform-sized French fries.
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Bring a small to medium-sized pot of filtered water to a boil on the stovetop. Add the freshly chopped, uncooked French fries to the boiling water (they should be covered) and blanch for 3 minutes.
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Remove the pot from the heat and quickly drain off the boiling water.
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Place the damp fries on a clean cotton towel and pat dry briefly.
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Place the still warm, blanched fries in a medium bowl and pour the melted tallow over them. Stir with a spoon to evenly coat.
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Spread the tallow-coated, blanched French fries evenly on the air fryer pan.
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Select the "French fries" setting on the air fryer and manually adjust the temperature down to 350 °F/ 176 °C.
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When the fries are done, remove the air fryer sheet and place the cooked fries on a large plate. Sprinkle with sea salt to taste.
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Enjoy immediately! Refrigerate cooled leftovers and reheat for later meals for up to 4 days.
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