This recipe—if you can call it that—is so simple that you could make it blindfolded. Actually, no, no you couldn’t, because you’d end up hurting yourself; so please, keep your eyes on the potatoes. But seriously, these quick and easy oil-free home fries are exactly what the title says they are. Quick and easy.
They’re also oil-free. Are you confused? I know, I was too the first time I tried Alex’s home fries. Yes, this recipe was inspired by my lovely daughter and blogging partner, Alexandra the great. The first time I tried them was at her apartment on a Saturday morning. We were going on a nice long run along the Chicago lakeshore and I noticed that there were fries sitting out on her kitchen counter. Being the food Nazi that I am, I blurted out in my most irritating motherly voice, “You’re eating fries at eight-o-clock in the morning?”
When Alex told me that they were oil-free I didn’t believe her. They were so puffy, and perfectly browned and crisp. How could you possibly make home fries like that without the help of oil? That was the day that my daughter, once again, taught me something. She taught me lemon juice is a magical thing.
Do you remember my ever so popular oil-free zucchini and carrot fritters? Those babies were the BOMB! They held together beautifully, they were baked, not fried, and they didn’t have a drop of oil in or on them. And, they were nice and crispy on the outside. The secret ingredient that made them as crispy and delicious as these chipotle home fries was lemon juice.
I made a big batch of these a few days ago and I swear that my son literally had a dribble of drool on the side of his mouth as he impatiently waited for me to finish photographing them. I let him try one before I started taking the pictures, and like that Lay’s potato chip logo goes, you can’t eat just one! He drove me so crazy as he tried to steal fry after fry, that I had to threaten to kick him out of my office (breakfast room) if he kept putting his hands near my set.
You’re going to fall in love with these quick and easy oil-free chipotle home fries. If you can slice potatoes, squeeze the juice out of lemon, sprinkle dried chipotle pepper, and grind salt and pepper, you can make these. This is cooking 101, y’all!
You can use any kind of potato you want, russet, golden, red, or purple will work. Just scrub them clean and dry them, then slice them evenly. You want the slices to be uniform so they cook evenly. Once you’ve sliced them, put them in a large bowl and squeeze the juice of a large lemon over them and then sprinkle in a thin layer of dried chipotle pepper. Toss well so the juice evenly coats the potatoes. Let the potatoes sit for a minute then toss again. Now spread them out on a baking pan lined with parchment paper, grind salt and black pepper over them, and bake for fifteen minutes in a 400° oven. Flip them and bake for another ten minutes or so. They should look nice and puffy and golden brown.
My family loves spicy food. If you don’t, you need to temper the amount of chipotle pepper you sprinkle on your home fries, or you could just forget about that ingredient and stick to salt and pepper. As you can see, we are so crazy that we dip our spicy fries into hot sauce, like sriracha or green hot sauce. If you want to cool down the heat, dip them in plain old sweet ketchup.
What you’re going to love about this recipe most is that you can eat these for breakfast (guilt free), like Alex and Max occasionally do. Potatoes get a bad rap, and it’s just not fair, because they’re so good for us. When you take away the fat, such as oil, butter, sour cream, cheese, and bacon, which are some of the favorite toppings that people like to put on their potatoes (why?!), they’re actually incredibly healthy. Potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin B6, potassium, copper, vitamin C, manganese, phosphorus, fiber, vitamin B3, and pantothenic acid. They're literally a superfood!
Thank you Alex! You’ve taught me to make one of my favorite snack foods healthy, not healthier, but actually healthy. You ROCK girl!
Tell me:
What’s your favorite condiment to dip your fries in?
Do you like spicy food as much as I do?
When are you going to make these?
Quick and Easy Oil-Free Chipotle Home Fries
Ingredients
- 4 medium potatoes – scrubbed dried, and uniformly sliced
- Juice from one medium lemon
- Dried ground chipotle pepper
- Ground sea salt
- Ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
- Uniformly slice the potatoes so they are similar in size to ensure that they bake evenly. In a large bowl, toss them in the lemon juice and sprinkle with a small amount of chipotle pepper. Let sit for one minute and then toss again to coat.
- Evenly spread the potatoes on the baking sheet. You may have to make two batches or use two baking sheets. Make sure that the potatoes don’t overlap. Sprinkle with a bit more pepper if you like spicy food, and the salt and pepper. Bake for fifteen minutes or until the potatoes start to puff up and begin to brown. Flip and bake for ten to fifteen more minutes or until puffy and golden brown.
- Note: I have a convection oven, if you don’t you might have to adjust the temperature or baking time to get the same results.
- Enjoy!
Nina Stark says
have you tried this in an air-fryer?
Linda Meyer says
Hi Nina! Not yet, but I'm sure they would be fabulous.
Rosanna says
That sounds easy... have never used lemon, so that I will try!.. What I do is bake them in the middle rack for 30 minutes at 400 deg and then broil for 3 minutes on high.. I will try your way!
Linda Meyer says
Hi Rosanna! Yes, this is so easy and they get nice and crispy on the exterior.