Ex-McDonald's Chef Claims You Can Buy the Famous Fries at the Grocery Store
If you constantly crave a batch of McDonald's top-rated French fries, today is your lucky day. A McDonald's insider just revealed where to find a remarkably similar grocery store version of the fries—and how to prepare them so they taste just like the classic Mickey D's menu item.
Mike Haracz, a former McDonald's corporate chef and TikToker (@chefmikeharacz), recently went viral with a video where he revealed how to buy and recreate McDonald's French fries at home. Haracz encouraged viewers to first go purchase Walmart's frozen Great Value Thin Cut French Fried Potatoes, the ingredients for which are "almost identical" to McDonald's French fry ingredients. But to ensure the Walmart fries taste identical to McDonald's fries, customers will need to cook them in a very specific way.
Haracz directed viewers to deep fry the Great Value potatoes for the best results even though the packaging doesn't include deep fryer instructions. The oil you use in your deep fryer is also key to replicating that signature McDonald's taste.
McDonald's adds beef flavoring to the oil blend it uses to cook its fries. To mimic that taste, Haracz told viewers to add about two tablespoons of beef tallow to every cup of oil. Vegetarians will have to skip this step, of course, but they'll still be rewarded with "really good French fries" even without the beef tallow.
He recommended heating the oil 360 to 370 degrees and cooking the fries for around two minutes, but noted that exact cooking times could vary depending on the fryer you're using.
"McDonald's fryers are incredibly efficient and they only fry a certain amount at a time. So you're going to want to do it in small batches until it reaches the color that you want."
You'll need to season the fries immediately after removing them from the oil with Morton Salt, which Haracz says is the same salt McDonald's uses for its fries. After that, you're free to dig in.
This method does require a little more time and effort than just picking up an order of fries from your local McDonald's. Still, it's a great trick for customers who want 24/7 access to the popular side.
This isn't the only time that Haracz has revealed where customers can find dupes for fan-favorite McDonald's items at the grocery store. Earlier this week, he determined that was Aldi's frozen Season's Choice Hash Brown Patties are the closest match to McDonald's Hash Browns after comparing their nutrition details and ingredients. Haracz also says that Walmart's Great Value Fully Cooked Original Pork Sausage Patties and Great Value Secret Sauce are very similar to McDonald's breakfast sausage and Big Mac sauce, respectively.
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