Listen up! Stop serving potato chips with everything and wow your guests with these homemade fries. This recipe is not difficult, but I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s time consuming. The good news is that you can make a huge batch and save some for later.

Here’s what you need:

• A deep fryer. These are small, portable, and not that expensive. I recommend using an actual fryer instead of a pot full of oil with a thermometer, because it’s so much easier to control the temperature.
• Oil for frying. Use vegetable, canola or peanut oil. You can debate all day about which is the best, but they’ll all get the job done. Vegetable is my default.
• Your favorite potatoes.
• A potato peeler.
• A mandolin slicer, French fry cutter or simply a knife.

Ok. Let’s begin. I recommend doing most of these steps a day in advance. First peel the potatoes and slice them. I like my fries about the same thickness as McDonald’s fries. I’ve found that size works best for this cooking method as well. Place them in a large mixing bowl and rinse with cold water. Keep filling up the bowl and lightly rinsing the fries until the water that fills the bowl is clear. Set aside for 3 hours.

After 3 hours, drain the water from the fries and transfer the fries to paper towels to dry. I use large disposable baking tins and I make layers of paper towels and fries so they dry. Now get your oil into the fryer and heat it to 260°-275°. Once the oil is ready, you’re going to start frying. Fill the basket about half way and submerge the fries. Check the fries after about 7 minutes. You want the fries to be like soft gelatinous noodles. If they aren’t there yet, then dunk them again and keep checking every minute or so until they’re done. Remove the fries from the oil when they’re done and arrange them on paper towels like before to dry them. And there you go! The best fries you’ve ever had! Just kidding guys. Obviously no one wants soft gelatinous noodle-like French fries. That’s just the first round of frying. Yep. We’re going to double fry these things. Double frying them is what gives you that perfectly cooked inside, and a crispy outside. Place the noodles in the fridge to cool them down for at least a few hours. If you’re going to save some or you aren’t going to make them in the next 24 hours, you can put them in plastic bags in the freezer.

Now the long part is over. When you’re ready to eat the fries, just heat the oil to 350°-375°. Take the fries out of the fridge or freezer (don’t heat up or thaw), and dunk them in the oil once it’s up to temp. They’ll cook fast so check them every few minutes until they are to your desired crispness. When you take them out of the oil, put them in a mixing bowl immediately and toss with salt. Done!