Give Frozen Fries The Love They Deserve With This Unexpected Cooking Method

As the weather heats up, home cooks start looking for ways to limit the amount of time they spend in the kitchen prepping meals and standing over a hot stove. When it comes to french fries, you know you can skip the arduous task of peeling and slicing potatoes and buy some great frozen versions. You need more than a baking tray to make sure your frozen fries are evenly cooked in the oven, but what if you could skip the oven altogether? It may sound crazy, but you can even take those frozen spuds right out to your grill, and, in just a few minutes, enjoy a perfect summer meal of burgers and fries, cooked entirely in the great outdoors.

Whether you decide to cook the fries on a propane or charcoal grill doesn't matter; either option will work, although a charcoal grill imparts a pretty specific, smoky flavor that you may or may not want on your fries, and there may be a bit more work involved in maintaining the proper temperature with charcoal. Be sure to select a bag of fries that indicates it's safe for grilling. The label on your bag of fries should read "grill-ready" or "grilling fries," and the instructions should indicate heat levels at which the fries can be cooked. This should give some indication as to whether you can grill them at home, or even specific grilling instructions, including whether they need to be thawed or not. Beyond these basic words of caution to keep in mind, grilling is a simple, quick method for cooking fries that come out crispy and bursting with summer grilling flavor.

First, you'll need to be sure that you have either a flat-top griddle on your grill or some sort of grill basket to ensure your fries don't fall through the grill grates. Ore-Ida, whose frozen fries are among our favorite store-bought frozen fry brands, suggests grilling frozen fries in a foil pan coated with a nonstick cooking spray, while others suggest simply placing the fries in aluminum foil packets. Then preheat your grill. Generally, you'll want to heat it to medium-high, as Ore-Ida suggests, or shoot for the 400- to 450-degree Fahrenheit temperature range. Preheating ensures that the fries begin cooking right when they hit the grill, rather than turning soggy and disintegrating when they stick to the basket.

Then prepare your foil pan, griddle, or grill basket by spraying it with cooking oil or nonstick spray, or tossing the fries themselves in a little bit of cooking oil. Lay it on the grill to get it nice and hot. Then add the fries, keeping an eye on them and tossing them once or twice to be sure they cook evenly. Try to keep them in a single layer. Some recipes suggest cooking them for 10 to 15 minutes while others suggest longer, up to 20 minutes. Every grill is different and cooks at its own speed, so the key is to carefully watch the fries and pull them off when they've reached your desired doneness. Then simply toss them with some salt and other seasonings, or maybe try some out-of-the-box toppings to add a touch of flavor to your fries.