Air Fryer Greek-Style Feta Fries
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I don’t know about you, but I can never turn down French fries! If you follow my posts and stories on Instagram, fries totally make up a significant part of my diet! I think I enjoy fries at least four days a week! Whether I’m air frying fries for a quick and more health-conscious options, or if it’s a special occasion and I have oil ready to go and I deep fry my fries, fries are always fun and near and dear to my heart!
Because fries are so much fun, that’s why I decided to host a collab on YouTube for the month of July called #funfries. Whether or not you have a YouTube channel, I encourage you to explore what you can do with French Fries this month! While I’ve been a French fry lover for as long as I can remember, and while simple fries will never go out of style, it is fun to experiment with new ways to enjoy fries, and that’s my objective with this theme! I give more details about how having a theme can expand your horizons in the kitchen and get you excited to try some new projects in my 5 Tips To Make Cooking Fun! Sign up for the newsletter to get this free guide along with the Live to Cook one month challenge! Be sure to tag me on social media so I can see and share your awesome French fry creations! You can certainly use your French fry dishes as part of the Live to Cook challenge!
To fully grasp the concepts of this recipe, be sure to check out the video at the bottom of this post! If you haven’t already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel! Don’t forget to hit the bell icon so you’re notified when all my video recipes go live! I love how video recipes are tangible, so this will give you a full picture of how to make the perfect Air Fryer Greek-Style Feta Fries at home! Let’s get cooking!
What Are Greek Fries?
At restaurants, you’ll find Greek-style fries that are deep fried French fries topped with salt and oregano, and optionally feta cheese. The potatoes are usually thickly cut instead of julienned as you’d see for steak frites. The Greek name for these fries are patates tiganites. When I first tried feta fries, my mind was totally blown away! I just knew I had to try to recreate them myself! If you’ve never had them before, then you’ll totally love them! They’re salty, crispy, and just extremely satisfying! If you’re looking for the ultimate side dish, then transform your typical French fries with these feta fries!
We’ll follow a similar formula, however, instead of deep frying my fries I’ll air fry them here. I’ll still add olive oil to my fries for cooking and on top to keep the amazing Greek vibes going on! Our fries will still be incredibly crispy and delicious in the air fryer, and I’ll show how to make a quick and flavourful feta mixture for topping!
What Potatoes are Used to Make Feta Fries?
For all of my French fry recipes I recommend that you use Yukon gold yellow potatoes. You may see many French fry recipes use russet potatoes. I don’t like them because I find they aren’t as flavourful and have a bit of an after-taste. If you want to use russet potatoes then that’s fine. Yukon gold yellow potatoes and russet potatoes are your best choices for French fries because they are fluffy when cooked and absorb less water. Furthermore, these potatoes tend to be long and large, allowing you to cut perfect fries!
How to Cut Potatoes for Feta Fries
Rinse and wash the potatoes well. You may peel the potato or keep the skin on.
Slice each potato into 1/2 inch thick slices.
Then, stack 2-3 slices at a time and cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch matchsticks.
WHY SOAK THE POTATOES?
You need to soak your potatoes in order to get the ultimate crispy French fries! As you rinse rice before cooking it to get perfectly separated grains, you need to rinse off excess starch for potatoes in order to get them amazingly crispy and remove the gumminess of the starch. I know it adds some time, but it’s totally worth it! Just ensure to plan for the soaking - it’s only thirty minutes and you can prep your toppings and the rest of your meal!
Why Boil the Potatoes?
You need to boil your potatoes if you don’t want them to take forever to cook! To get your potatoes perfectly crispy, this is a crucial step. Boiling the potatoes helps get them par-cooked on the inside so you don’t get soggy and limp potatoes. The air fryer mainly acts to get them crispy, and we add some olive oil to help them get the perfect colour and texture!
Tools For Greek Feta Fries
What Air Fryer Do you Recommend For French Fries?
The air fryer I have is the Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 2-Basket Air Fryer. This air fryer is excellent if you’re making two components of your meal that require air frying so that you don’t have to wait on one dish - you can cook them at the same time! For instance, if you wanted chicken wings to go with your French fries, then those can cook in its own basket at their appropriate setting and the fries can do their thing! I love that aspect about this particular air fryer! It also has six different settings, which include:
Air Fry
Air Broil
Reheat
Dehydrate
Bake
Roast
Though to be fair I mostly use Air Fry, and occasionally Air Broil. I really should test out the other settings! For a more detailed review of this air fryer, check out my first impressions video!
Serving suggestions for Feta Fries
You can enjoy Greek-Style Feta Fries with many sauces and mains! Let’s go over a couple of ideas, but this side dish is totally ver versatile! Of course you can enjoy these on their own and they’ll be amazing!
Mains
Sauces
Ketchup
Tzatziki
Lemon dill sauce
INGREDIENTS For Feta Fries
Let’s see what we need to make our Air Fryer Greek Feta Fries. For the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD with all ingredients and their quantities, scroll to the bottom of this post! You can save the recipe for later and you can scale the recipe based on how many portions of fries you want to make! You can make these Greek feta fries as an appetizer for a romantic date night in for two or serve these for a family Greek feast - no need to mentally calculate your ingredient quantities!
How to make Air Fryer Greek-Style Feta Fries
For the Air Fryer Fries
Add the peeled, cut fries in a large bowl and fill with cold water and soak for about 25 minutes (see tip for a shortcut). In the meanwhile, set a large pot of water to boil.
Add soaked fries to the boiling water and boil for 3-5 minutes, or until the potatoes are partly cooked but still firm. Add only enough potatoes that will comfortably fit in your air fryer basket in a single layer.
Drain the potatoes onto paper towel and gently pat dry. Then, transfer the fries to a large bowl and coat with olive oil. Gently toss the potatoes in the oil and arrange fries in a single layer in the air fryer basket.
Set Air Fryer to Air Fry mode at 400F and cook for 20 minutes.
If making a multiple batch, transfer the fries from the air fryer basket to a bowl/baking sheet and repeat steps 2-4 for the remaining portion of fries.
Once all the fries are crispy, you can toss all the fries in a single basket to refresh the fries at 375F-390F for 3-5 minutes.
For the Feta Mixture
Remove the leaves of the fresh oregano from the stems. Fill a small bowl with water and rinse the leaves. Transfer onto a paper towel and pat dry.
In a large mixing bowl, add crumbled feta, oregano leaves, salt, olive oil and lemon zest. Mix well.
To Serve
Place the French fries on a serving plate. Top with olive oil and season with salt, then add the crumbled feta mixture.
Serve immediately and enjoy!
Tips for Perfect Crispy Greek Feta Fries
Be consistent with the thickness of the fries as you cut them. The more even the shape and size of the fries, the better consistency you will see with the doneness.
Soak the fries in cold water to rinse off excess starch to help get the fries crispy.
In case you are short on time and patience soak the potatoes in cold water only until the water comes to a boil.
Boil the potatoes in batches large enough to comfortably fit in your air fryer basket in a single layer.
If making multiple batches of fries, once the last batch is ready, you can toss all the fries in a single basket to refresh the fries at 375F-390F for 3-5 minutes.
I recommend you buy cubed feta instead of crumbled feta. I find the taste is a bit different in cubed feta, and you'll have more control over the shape and size of your crumbles.
Be careful not to mash the feta. If you do not gently mix it, you will lose the nice chunks which we want!
Serve the feta mixture over your fries immediately. You do not want the feta to dry out. Feta is purchased in the containers with water to retain its moisture, so you cannot make this in advance!
HOW TO REHEAT AIR FRYER FRIES
You can store the French fries themselves in the fridge and reheat them. However, I wouldn’t top your fries with the feta mixture until ready to serve. Only make the feta mixture when you’re going to serve, as discussed in the tip above.
To reheat the fries from the refrigerator, toss all the fries in the basket of your air fryer and Air Fry at 350 F for 5-10 minutes or until heated through!
I don’t have an Air Fryer! Can I bake Grek Feta Fries?
Yes you totally can! To bake your fries, pre-heat your oven to 475 F, and follow the steps to soak and boil your potatoes. When it’s time to bake, transfer fries to a large enough bowl and season with salt and olive oil. Layer a large baking tray with parchment paper and place the fries on it. Bake the fries on the middle rack for 20 minutes or until they are light golden brown. Once lightly browned, move the rack and tray to the lowest oven rack bake until crispy, about 15-20 minutes flipping once to ensure each side is crisp. Proceed with finishing the fries with your feta mixture!
MORE FRENCH FRY RECIPES!
Watch How to Make Air Fryer Greek-Style Feta Fries Here:
Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cookingwithanadi. Thank you!