3-Ingredient Disco Fries Recipe

Disco fries – hot, crispy, salty fries smothered in brown gravy and melted mozzarella cheese — are a late-night munchies dream food. They are hearty, delicious, and with this simple three-ingredient recipe, an absolute breeze to make. In just half an hour, you can get this platter of cheesy, savory goodness from the fridge to the table — and most of that time you'll just be waiting on the fries to bake.

Disco fries hail from New Jersey, where they are a late-night diner staple. The story goes that the dish first popped up in the 1970s, during the heart of the disco era. Diner booths would fill up late at night with folks who were famished from hours of dancing and needed something filling and delicious. And what sounds better at a time like that than a big plate of fries loaded down with gravy and cheese? Not much.

But just because disco fries were popularized by late-night diners on their way home from dance clubs doesn't mean that they need to stick to that milieu. We are here to tell you that disco fries are delicious at all hours of the day and night. They may have started as a late-night snack, but they also make a delightful dinner served alongside smashburgers and a brilliant brunch with a couple of fried eggs on top.

As the name of this recipe implies, you'll only need 3 ingredients to make it. Grab your favorite brand of frozen crinkle cut fries, a packet of instant gravy mix, and a block of mozzarella cheese and you're ready to disco.

Preheat the oven according to the package instructions.

Spread the frozen french fries on a sheet pan.

Place the fries in the oven and cook for half of the suggested time.

Make the gravy according to package instructions, by slowly whisking water into the powder and cooking over medium heat until thick. Remove from the heat and set aside for now.

At the halfway point in the fry baking, take the fries out of the oven and flip them. Return them to the oven for the second half of the bake.

Grate the mozzarella cheese.

Five minutes before the fries are done, remove the pan from the oven and top the fries with the gravy and cheese. Then return the pan to the oven.

Bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly, then remove the tray from the oven. Allow the disco fries to cool for around three minutes before serving.

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This three-ingredient disco fries recipe is about as simple as it gets. Frozen crinkle cut fries, brown gravy from a packet, and a bit of grated mozzarella. If what you are looking for is a low-effort late night snack, it doesn't get much better than this. But if you're looking for ways to elevate these loaded fries, you have plenty of options.

The first place you could add a personal touch is the gravy. At its simplest, homemade gravy is just butter, flour, and broth. Make a roux with the butter and flour, add some broth, and cook it til it's as thick as you like it. If you want to boost the flavor, the options are endless. Toss in garlic powder and onion powder, maybe some dried herbs, and suddenly you have a whole new gravy. You can spike it with cream to make it extra luxurious. The cheese is another place where it would be easy to take things up a notch. Grated mozzarella is traditional for this dish, but rules like those are made to be broken. You could mix in some Parmesan for added depth, or swap it for pepper jack to add a hint of jalapeño.

Making your own fries is probably too much work for this kind of dish, unless you're trying to impress someone, but some simple garnishes can add both color and interesting new flavors. Try sprinkling chopped parsley over the fries for freshness, or maybe minced sage leaves to complement the gravy.

Topping a plate of salty, crisp fried potatoes with an array of interesting and complementary toppings seems to be a universal delight. While poutine is likely the most famous dish of this type, there are variations on loaded fries all around the world. But when you set them side by side, disco fries and poutine are pretty similar.

A traditional Canadian poutine recipe consists of french fries topped with gravy, just like these disco fries, but the cheese is very different. Disco fries recipes typically use shredded mozzarella, which is melted over the fries to give you those excellent cheese pull moments. Poutine, on the other hand, must be made with squeaky cheese curds. Cheese curds are fresh, unaged, and unpressed cheese, often cheddar. Rather than being pressed into blocks, cheese curds are left in their natural state and are considered a delicacy in dairy regions.

The other big difference between disco fries and poutine is the fries. While poutine is made with all different varieties of fries, disco fries are traditionally of the crinkle-cut variety. Now, we're not going to tell you that you can't make disco fries with steak fries, shoestring fries, or any other variety, but if you want it the New Jersey diner way, stick to crinkle cut.

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