Who needs a little comfort food these days? Yeah, me too. I had some leftover russet potatoes the other day and I knew exactly what I was going to make with them. Thick cut, perfect for dipping and dunking, oven baked steak fries. These tasty potato wedges get surprisingly crispy in the oven without any extra steps, like soaking or drying, making them an incredibly simple side dish. …Or main dish, if you’re like me. 😅
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Shown with ketchup, ranch, and Comeback Sauce.
What Are Steak Fries?
Simply put, steak fries thick potato wedges. Usually they’re deep fried like French fries, but I don’t like dealing with all that scary hot grease, so I baked them instead. They were still surprisingly crispy, and wayyyyy easier than dealing with getting (and keeping) a vat of hot oil to the proper temperature, and dodging splattering oil that is trying to kill you.
What is “Steak Seasoning”?
My steak fries have an extra “steak” element to them—steak seasoning. Steak seasoning, a.k.a. Montreal steak seasoning, is one of my new favorite seasoning blends. It’s a chunky blend of salt, pepper, red pepper, garlic, and sometimes other spices. The chunky nature of this blend gives you little pops of flavor as you eat the fries and also adds a little bit of delicious crunch. I love this stuff!
Where to Buy Steak Seasoning
You can get this at any major grocery store. It’s usually in the spice aisle near the other seasoning blends or grill seasoning blends. McCormick brand makes one, and that brand is in most major U.S. supermarkets. The one I used today was purchased at Aldi. You can see a photo of the bottle if you scroll down to the step by step photos section of the post.
How Are the Leftovers?
Like most types of fries, these Steak Fries are definitely best right out of the oven. The will get less crispy the longer they sit, and if kept in the refrigerator overnight the texture will be more along the lines of baked potato. Did that stop me from devouring the leftovers? Absolutely not. They were delicious dipped into some comeback sauce (recipe coming soon).
Oven Baked Steak Fries
Servings 2Ingredients
- 1 lb. russet potatoes ($0.60)
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 1/2 Tbsp paprika ($0.15)
- 1/2 Tbsp steak seasoning ($0.15)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Wash the potatoes well. Cut each potato into wedges, approximately 12 wedges per potato. (Quarter the potato lengthwise, then slice each quarter into three wedges.)
- Add the potato wedges to a bowl with the cooking oil, paprika, and steak seasoning. Toss the potato wedges until they are well coated.
- Spread the seasoned potato wedges out over a parchment lined baking sheet, making sure they're in a single layer. Transfer to the preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes, or until they are well browned and crispy. Flip the steak fries once, after about 20 minutes of baking.
- Serve immediately.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Enamelware Sheet Pan
- Parchment Paper
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
Try These Other Homemade Fry Recipes:
- Air Fryer French Fries
- Spicy Sweet Potato Fries
- Smoky Garlic Oven Fries
- Baked Zucchini Fries
- Sweet Potato Fries with Peanut Lime Dressing
How to Make Steak Fries – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Start with one pound of russet potatoes (this is two 1/2 lb. potatoes). Wash your potatoes well, because they grow under ground. In the dirt. You get the point. Cut each potato into 12 wedges. To do this I began by cutting each potato into quarters, lengthwise. Then cut each quarter into 3 wedges.
Add the potato wedges to a bowl with 1 Tbsp cooking oil, ½ Tbsp paprika, and ½ Tbsp steak seasoning.
This is the steak seasoning I used. I got this at Aldi, but McCormick brand can be found in most grocery stores. It’s just a chunky mix of salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper, and maybe a small amount of other spices.
Toss the potato wedges until they’re well coated in oil and spices.
Spread the potato wedges out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, making sure they’re in a single layer.
Bake the steak fries in the preheated 425ºF oven for about 35 minutes, or until they’re well browned and crispy. Make sure to flip them once during baking, after about 20 minutes.
Serve with your favorite sauces! Shown with: ketchup, ranch, and comeback sauce.
Made these last night to go with our sloppy joes and it was a hit with my husband. I also made the steak seasoning that accompanied this recipe.
Will definitely use this recipe again. The only tweak I did was adding Cajun seasoning to the steak seasoning to make it more spicy.
This recipe frustrates me because it’s the only normal fry recipe on the site except the garlic one, but it doesn’t say “here’s how to make a homemade equivalent of our seasoning”. Sometimes we’re here on Budget Bytes because we need to use what we have in the house.
Can you use Yukon Gold potatoes as a substitute for the russets?
Russets definitely work better for this recipe but you could try it! I’m sure they’d still be great. :)
I saved this recipe last year, though only made it today for the first time. I must admit I was sceptical, having been promised crispy wedges numerous times before, but was really pleased with these. They are, as promised, easy to prepare and turned out crispy and delicious.
I have one tip to pass on .. try to lay them on the baking paper all facing the same way – it makes it easier to tell those you have, or haven’t, turned over!
Beth I made these my way but needed your oven temp setting.
That said, oh my goodness, I love your “about me” prose. You are on it!!! This is exactly the way I think and I don’t need to! Yet, I grew up in a “need to” environment and so it’s me.
These days, while I can dine every nite at the finest restaurants, I don’t. I choose to stay home, create my own delicious meals, enjoy quiet company, refresh my beverage at will, and not deal with a server or others around me. And, Beth, all the while, I am smiling because my broiled salmon, rice pilaf, and asparagus cost under $5 per meal. The Tito’s for me, the Pinot for her… let’s call it another $5. So $15 at home for what would likely be $20 per meal or more and stupid price for beverages and a tip.
I can’t wait to subscribe and peruse your website. Thank you Beth. Lol also, I love your picture… it’s cute and yet says , “hey, huh uh, I’m not paying your stupid prices for great food I can make at home.”
Thanks again Beth!
Hahah, great minds think alike, Frank! Glad you found your way here! :)
I tried your steak fries recipe and it was great. I used a little sea salt as I don’t think anything can have too much salt. I also don’t think you can have too many steak fries, french fries or potato chips. I had the steak fries with BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and later in the evening had the left over steak fries while watching a movie. Thanks for the recipe.
just made this and it was very good 5/5 would make it again
can i substitute olive oil for vegetable oil? we are on vacation n i don’t have any
Totally! ~ Marion :)
Totalled?
Olive oil is not only the healthiest oil but if you like a bit of that taste would be the best choice. This isn’t a kind of recipe where the particular oil would matter much. Most other oils have little or no flavor. Canola oil is a close second in heart healthiness.
I’m planning on making this recipe tonight and have a question: how do you flip the fries? I’ve never done anything like that before.
Great question! You should take the sheet pan out as quickly as possible and close the oven door so you don’t lose heat. Place the pan on top of your stove, or other heat-proof surface. Use tongs, a spatula, or a fork to flip the wedges. XOXO -Monti
These were so good! So good my husband wouldn’t believe I made them. He actually went to the garbage to check for potato peels. Will be making them again soon.
It would be better health and tastewise to leave them unpeeled like Marion did.
These are very well made. Mine turned out great as well. Thank you
Omg! My kids love potatoes thank you for sharing this awesome recipe and easy to make perfect for an afternoon chill time with my babies!
Super easy and turned out nice and crisp and way better then frozen I agree! I eye balled all of the measurements and still turned out great!
These are the BEST oven fries I’ve ever made!
*Disclaimer: I had to sub seasoned salt for steak salt. I chose bacon grease for my cooking oil and, ahem, may have used three times what the recipe called for… Wink wink.
Bacon grease!! GENIUS. I bet those WERE the best fries you’ve ever had! …now I’m drooling.
These were great!! I made them to go with the Budgetbytes Black bean burgers, and they totally stole the show– they got nice and crispy in the oven. The only change I made was using a smaller amount of Lawry’s seasoned salt instead of the steak seasoning.
Delicious, easy to make recipe that far exceeds frozen fries. Thanks!
I have another “Dad” recipe that my son will ask for. He loves these, and it’s such a simple recipe and went great with (who would have thought) steak.
The Montreal steak seasoning was a little salty for my taste, but it was a big hit.
Use less.
I only had spicy steak seasoning on hand and they ended up being too spicy for me, but my husband loved the extra heat. Next time I’d either cut back on the amount of seasoning or try just regular steak seasoning. The fries themselves were easy to make and perfectly crisp.
Oh my God it tastes so good!!!! My kids loved it. Thanks for sharing.
I made this yesterday and it was really delicious. I decided to try again today and experimented with your seasonings. I added 1/3 tbsp of Maruchan’s Chicken Ramen flavoring with McCormick’s Steak Seasoning and some Paprika and it added this amazing savory-sweet depth to the fries which they didn’t previously have, it pairs very very well with the other two seasonings. Thanks so much for this amazing recipe, it’s so easy and tasty!
This is the best oven fry recipe that you have shared with us. Perfect for evening snacks. I am going to try this recipe for my lovely kids.
Omg these fries are sooooooo good. And so amazingly easy. I made the cabbage pancakes from this site with the sriracha mayo and then was thinking the mayo would be good with fries. I was going to buy a bag of the frozen sweet potato fries but after looking at the ingredients thought I had better not and then this recipe popped up. Perfection. Will make again this week.
This is the best oven fry recipe I’ve ever made!!!
Can you use red potatoes instead of russet? Does it change the baking time??
Thank you! I love all of your recipes and I’ve made tons of them over the last year or two!
You can do this with just about any type of potato, but they all have different textures, so they won’t turn out exactly the same. Russet is my favorite for this type of fry. :) Roasting time does change with the size and shape of your potato. Unfortunately I can’t predict exactly how long they’ll take, but you can just keep an eye on them, make sure to flip them after about 15-20 minutes, and take them out when they’re browned.
My dad ruined Montreal seasoning for me b/c he always used too much haha but I had to retry the flavor because I live by your recipes :). Winner once again, thank you!
Just made these for lunch and they are delicious!!! I used a steak seasoning I found at Lidl. I’m trying my best to save the rest for my son but I may end up making him his own pan. Great recipe! Next time I’ll have the come back sauce ready for dipping.
Delicious! I used some Penzey’s steak seasoning that I had on hand, and I peeled my potatoes ’cause they’d been around for a while. SO GOOD! Crisp and flavorful…a real treat! Thanks, Beth! This recipe made a wonderful lunch with some mayo/ketchup dipping sauce. I love everything about your website! Enough information, but not too much. Info about cost and nutrition. Photos! Easy-to-print recipes. Thank you!
Phenomenal-can’t wait to make these again!
Beth, I loveBudget Bytes and have since 2014! You have taught me to cook- honestly. My mother died when I was 20 and I couldn’t scramble an egg. I lived on fast food and Kraft Mac and cheese until I found your recipe for One Pot Chili Pasta. Since then, I’ve gotten much more comfortable in the kitchen but even though I have more money and cooking skills now, I still come back to Budget Bytes each week.
I have wanted to tell you how much this blog and your work has meant to me for years. In recent weeks I have been heartened to see that you have provided tips and advice for surviving this pandemic. If you are ever doubting why you do what you do or if you’ve made an impact, I want to let you know that you have made a huge difference in my life.
With that said, I would love to see you speak out about systemic racism in our society. Many black communities suffer from poverty and food insecurity; while it’s not a recipe, I think it would mean a lot to many of your readers to see you stand with the black community. This moment in history is so important and I hope you are able to use your platform for change.
Hi Amanda! Thank you for that heartfelt message. :) I’m sorry that my communication about racism haven’t reached you. I’m definitely learning as I go and that process will involve many mistakes. I’ve been speaking out a lot about this issue on social media over the past couple of weeks, and in our weekly newsletter. Racism and all social justice issues have always been very important to me, but I realized this past week that what I was doing just wasn’t anywhere near enough. I was letting myself be comfortable at the expense of others. Most of my activism before was offline because I told myself that posting online was like shouting into a void, or it just seemed like vanity plating. Well this week I saw the true power of social media, and it was beautiful! I know now that this platform can’t be taken for granted and that I need to use it responsibly. And since food and racism are fully intertwined, I will be using my platforms to speak out, support, and share what I learn as I go. :) <3
Amanda, thank you so much for saying this. I’ve been following BudgetBytes for years and it was also my introduction into cooking, particularly because I’m a low-income POC (not Black though). It heartens me to see other people starting these conversations about systemic racism and anti-blackness, especially in food/cooking spaces where it’s all too easy not to talk about it.
Beth, thank you for being receptive to this message and for speaking up both offline and on. I’m so glad to hear about your activism, and it’s made me go from ‘casual supporter’ to ‘diehard fan’ of BudgetBytes. Downloading the app now!
Made these last night and was able to get my picky child to eat them. Thank you for another great recipe Beth!
I love all your recipes!
One thing that sets you apart from other food sites is your step-by-step photos! I find myself scrolling through them over and over.
I also appreciate that you don’t write a “book” every time you post about a delicious and inexpensive recipe. Thank you Beth! I have missed you!
I second this. You give exactly the helpful amount of detail and I always make your recipes from the step by step part. Now, I’ve got to look up comeback sauce. Hmmm.
Looks delicious, but the nutrition information lists the serving size as 1g and that seems just a bit too small.