Give Homemade French Fries Extra Crispiness By Tossing Them In One Ingredient Before Air Frying

You can cook a variety of foods in the air fryer. However, when it comes to making French fries, the cooked spuds can turn out lacking in texture compared to the crispy lightness they'd get from deep-frying. Despite its name, an air fryer works more like a convection oven, circulating heat to cook your food evenly and consistently. Still, you can use the appliance to make fries with a nice exterior crunch and soft, tender inside. All you need to do is toss them in potato starch. 

Often, simply cooking potato wedges in an air fryer at high heat leaves them tender on the outside. Coating cut potato strips or wedges with starch first creates a sealing effect, which promotes browning and locks in the moisture that can escape during frying. To enhance your favorite air fryer French fries recipe with a crisp coating, add 1 tablespoon of potato starch to the cut potatoes, oil, and seasonings before transferring them to the air fryer.

Alternatively, you can make a slurry of water and potato starch, which adheres nicely and coats the potatoes evenly. However, if you don't have potato starch on hand, corn starch is an alternative that can be used to achieve the same crispy results, whether added directly to the cut fries or in the form of a slurry.

Potato starch is also the magic ingredient for other crispy fried foods, including crunchy fried chicken, too. However, when adding potato starch to fries before air frying, make sure the starch is evenly distributed across the potatoes. This is one benefit of using a slurry, as it coats each potato slice evenly for optimal crispiness across the board. However, as mentioned, a light coating of starch — 1 tablespoon for every four to five potatoes — will do the trick to lock in moisture and crispness. Avoid adding too much potato starch, as this could create an excessively dry and crumbly coating.

For perfectly crisp fries in the air fryer, the temperature is also key. You'll want to cook them at a relatively high heat of approximately 375 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (though temperature can depend on the cut and thickness of your fries) to promote optimal browning and crisping of the fries' surface.  Some people also like to par-cook the potatoes at a lower heat before raising the heat to as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit. This can help develop a tender inside, along with the crisp outer crunch from the starchy coating.