If you want to have McDonald’s french fries at home, you could go the drive-thru or delivery route. But you could also make them at home: All you need is a trip to Walmart and a deep fryer.
That’s the advice of former McDonald’s corporate chef, Chef Mike Haracz (@chefmikeharacz), who’s become a font of McDonald’s knowledge on TikTok. In this video, put up on Wednesday and getting nearly 750,000 views in a single day, Haracz says it’s possible to make McDonald’s fries at home. To do it right, though, you want a deep fryer. In a Daily Dot interview on Thursday morning, he said that “even a basic one can work.”
And you want to go to Walmart and get its Great Value brand Thin Cut French Fried Potatoes.
He said he compared the McDonald’s ingredient statement for its fries to what’s on the Great Value fries’ ingredient list, and “they are almost identical.”
He does note that Great Value doesn’t provide instructions for how to deep fry on its bag, “so you are going to have to do a little R&D yourself.”
Haracz recommends frying at 360 to 370 degrees for about two minutes, and doing it in small batches to replicate the efficient fryers that McDonald’s has invested in.
But what to fry them in, you wonder? Well, if you want to reproduce the current McDonald’s fries, with just a hint of beef flavoring in the oil, he recommends two tablespoons of beef tallow per two cups of vegetable oil.
However, if you want to go old-school and fry them in 100 percent beef tallow like the legendary McDonald’s fries of yore, you can do that too.
In the video, Haracz said of beef tallow-fried fries, “Those are going to be great,” but also cautions, “Those are going to be different than current McDonald’s french fries.”
Walmart sells both a regular beef tallow and Wagyu beef tallow. And if you want to make your own, the Daily Dot previously covered a meat expert who shared how to while also explaining why you should never buy ground beef from Sam’s Club.
Haracz told the Daily Dot if you’re just spiking your oil with beef tallow, “It’s more for flavor over function, and no need to spend the money on the Wagyu stuff, but it does taste a little better in my opinion.”
No matter what route you go, Haracz recommends finishing with plain Morton salt, as the fast-food giant does.
@chefmikeharacz Former #McDonalds corporate chef tells you where to buy McDonald’s fries. #mcdonaldshacks #McDonaldshack #mcdonaldssecrets #McDonaldsSecret #mcdonaldslife #McDonaldsMenu #McDonaldsTikTok #FastFood #FastFoodSecrets #fastfoodfries #fastfoodtiktok #Fries #FrenchFries #McDonaldsFries #mcdonaldsfriesaresogood #mcdonaldsfriesmhmm #mcdonaldsfriesislife #mcdonaldsfriesathome #FYP ♬ original sound – Chef Mike Haracz
One commenter perked up at the beef tallow mention, saying, “WAIT are you telling me I can have my childhood French fries if I fry them in JUST beef tallow? the old fries were sooo much better.”
One wasn’t sure why you’d go to the trouble to make fries at home, saying, “I’m pretty sure you can get French fries that taste exactly like McDonald’s in McDonald’s.”
But another inadvertently revealed why you might want to do this by cracking, “How long do I let them sit out first to get cold and soggy like they often are these days?”
Another joined in with, “1-10 minutes under a heat lamp and then 5-30 minutes sitting in the bag during the drive home.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to McDonald’s via email.
