How Exactly Does Wingstop Season Its Fries?

Wingstop's chicken is decidedly solid, but anyone who has picked up a meal from the 'Stop knows that its fries are the star. A little salty and a little sweet, the seasoning on its fries is fiendishly addictive, especially when the potatoes are piping hot and served fresh from their grease-spotted cardboard tray. Frozen french fries tend to turn out awful, but we feel confident that, with Wingstop's seasoning, we could recapture the magic we experience when we place a takeout order. But what, exactly, is the secret recipe that Wingstop sprinkles on its signature side?

Like so many other chains, Wingstop isn't sharing. Luckily, the internet exists. Copycat Wingstop fry seasoning recipes are abundant, and they mostly agree on the same ingredients: white sugar, brown sugar, salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, and paprika. Most well-stocked pantries already contain all these spices, although you can make brown sugar at home with just two ingredients if you are out. The internet disagrees a bit on how much of these seasonings to use in the ideal blend, however.

A Reddit thread begging for the Wingstop fry seasoning recipe was telling in terms of just how much folks disagree on the ingredient ratios of their copycat fries. There wasn't a lot of argument about the salt, pepper, or garlic powder (no need for tricks to peel fresh garlic when handy granules do the trick) but some irritated commenters griped about the inclusion of sugar. On the other hand, multiple Redditors argued that sugar, specifically brown sugar, was the star ingredient, pointing out that white sugar alone was not getting the job done. Others hypothesized that brown sugar added to Cajun seasoning from the grocery store could be utilized in a pinch.

If you are trying to recreate Wingstop fries at home, you may need to experiment a bit with your seasoning to make the perfect dupe. Taste is subjective, but it's a safe bet that the ingredient you'll need to tinker with the most is the sugar.