This Post May Contain Affiliate Links. Please Read Our Disclosure Policy.
Bye bye, fast food! You won’t need the drive-thru anymore if you have a bag of frozen french fries and an Air Fryer! The Air Fryer crisps up ready-made french fries better than anything, and they truly taste deep-fried. If you’re looking for homemade air fryer french fries, you’ll love our crispy fast-food style recipe!
Before You Get Started
- You most likely will NOT need to cook your fries a full 25 minutes! That’s why we have you check on the fries every 5 minutes. We also included a list of estimated cook times for a variety of different types and styles of frozen french fries. Most types of fries will be ready after 10-12 minutes in the air fryer.
How to Make This Recipe
See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.
Prep.
Preheat your air fryer to 400° Fahrenheit, then spray the basket with a neutral-flavored oil that’s safe for air fryers. From there, load up your frozen fries and start cooking!
Shake & bake… & shake.
The most important part of this whole process is that you pause the air fryer, take out the basket, and shake or toss the fries every 3-5 minutes. It’s non-negotiable! If you don’t, you will definitely, absolutely burn your fries.
Cheryl’s Tips: Adjust the cook time depending on how crispy you like your fries or how thick they are. For softer or thinner fries, decrease the time. For crispier or thicker fries, increase it.
I cooked my fries (crinkle cut) at the specified temp, gave them a shake twice and stopped the cooking 4 min. earlier. They came out crispy and perfect.
What I Love About This Recipe
- Air frying french fries is perfect because there’s no messy oil to deal with like when you deep fry them. They’re also amazingly crispy, which is not always the case if you bake fries in the oven. Light and simple, with really incredible results. What could be better?
- Not only is this method unbelievably easy, and the results are unbelievably perfect, but it’s also a super fast way to get a batch of your dream french fries. You don’t even need to defrost the fries first – just take them right out of the freezer and plop them right into the air fryer basket.
- Don’t be afraid to get a little creative! Frozen french fries make a great base for a variety of things. If you want to enjoy the fries on their own, you can still dress them up with any of your favorite seasonings. Try garlic or onion powder, seasoned salt, or even chipotle powder for fries with a kick. If you want to take them to the next level, though, then load the cooked fries up with your favorite condiments and toppings. Like nachos, but with fries! We did a fun twist on that with our Baked Brie and Steak Cheese Fries and oh, man, are they good.
Regarding Cook Times & Temperatures
This method was tested and perfected using both a Chefman basket-style air fryer and a Cosori basket-style air fryer. In both, we cooked our fries at 400°F for 20 minutes total.
Every air fryer behaves differently, though – even two of the exact same model.
Be sure to keep an eye on the fries the first time or two you cook them this way, and make any adjustments to the cook time or the temperature that you need to make based on your specific air fryer.
Toaster-oven-style air fryers tend to take a little longer than basket-style. The age of your air fryer can affect the results, too. Newer air fryers can cook hotter and faster than older ones.
Recipe Variations
- Find Your Style: You can cook any type, any flavor, any cut, and any number of frozen french fries in the air fryer. Seasoned fries? Check. Curly fries? YES, PLEASE. Steak fries? You bet! Shoestring fries? As long as they’re not so small they fall through the basket.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions or variations listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Air Fryer Frozen French Fries
Equipment
- air fryer basket-style or oven-style
- neutral spray oil must be safe for air fryers
Ingredients
- 1 bag frozen french fries
- salt or other seasonings, optional
Instructions
- Preheat air fryer to 400° Fahrenheit. Once air fryer is preheated, lightly spray basket with neutral oil, covering bottom and sides of basket completely.
- Add 1 bag frozen french fries to basket. Lightly spray tops of fries with additional oil.
- Sprinkle salt or other seasoning over fries if desired, then place basket in air fryer. Air fry french fries 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, remove basket from air fryer. Shake basket well to toss fries. If fries are not yet cooked to desired doneness, return basket to air fryer. Cook fries 2 to 5 minutes more.
- After 2 to 5 minutes, remove basket from air fryer. Shake basket well to toss fries. If fries are not yet cooked to desired doneness, return basket to air fryer.
- Repeat process as needed until fries are cooked as desired. Important: Pause cooking to shake basket and check fries every 3 to 5 minutes or fries will overcook.
- When fries are as cooked as desired, remove basket from air fryer.
- Transfer prepared french fries to plate or bowl. Repeat entire process with any remaining fries until desired number of fries has been cooked.
- Serve fries hot with desired condiments and/or toppings.
- ❗️Important: You MUST shake the basket every 5 minutes! This helps the fries cook evenly, which will also reduce the chances of them overcooking. Taking the basket out of the air fryer also gives you a great opportunity to check the doneness of the fries, so you can be sure they’re not getting crispier than you like.
Suggested Cook Times
Different types of fries will cook differently. For example, shoestring fries would not need the same cook time as steak fries since they’re much smaller and thinner. In general, start with the cook times below and adjust as needed. If you’re cooking multiple batches of fries, keep in mind that the later batches will need less time to cook than the earlier batches.- Shoestring Fries: 6-10 minutes
- Waffle Fries (a.k.a. Lattice Fries): 10-12 minutes
- Crinkle-cut Fries: 10-12 minutes
- Curly Fries: 10-12 minutes
- Steak Fries: 12-15 minutes
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
Did You Make This Recipe?
Tag @40aprons on Instagram and be sure to leave a review on the blog post!
More Easy Recipes You’ll Love
- Air Fryer Chicken Breast
- Yuca Fries
- Air Fryer Tater Tots
- Sausage in the Air Fryer
- Instant Pot Frozen Chicken Breast
- Bean and Cheese Taquitos (4 Ingredients)
- Air Fryer Frozen Chicken Nuggets
- Rutabaga Fries (Low Carb, Gluten Free)
- Air Fryer Salmon with Brown Sugar Crust
- Crispy Air Fryer Chicken Wings in Buffalo Sauce
- Pizza Rolls in the Air Fryer
Never Miss A Meal!
New Recipes Straight To Your Inbox
A curated selection of our most recent recipes, delivered straight to your inbox once a week.
Leave A Review
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I made this. It is really good.
Thanks for the awesome review!
I love these fries. I make them all the time. They are delicious.
I always follow your recipes. Made this last night. Really like it
Glad you liked it!
Just came across this recipe via Google and gave it a shot. Fries came out great. Thank you 😊
Thanks for sharing!
I had already preheated my air fryer (Crux AirPro Macy’s edition) before I found your page by Googling “frozen fries air fryer”. I followed your instructions for spraying the basket and the fries. I sprinkled salt on the fries. I only cooked one batch so 10 minutes was enough time. They turned out top notch.
So happy you liked them, Renée!
Do you NEED to spray them with oil (meaning I don’t have any spray oil)?
I like to so they cook well and don’t get too dried, but you can also brush them or toss them in a little oil.
The best frozen French fries! Why bother cutting the potatoes, rinsing them, drying them and waiting for them to cook. Takes to long and inferior results. I don’t play around with friescanymore just buy them at the frozen counter.
Right?? Sometimes I love homemade french fries, but these are so easy, especially for my kids!
Perfect! Made this for the first time today in my power air fryer 360, used krinkle cut Oreida fries straight from frezer to basket. Used spray canola oil, sprinkled salt, set air fryer for 30 mins. Fries turned out rated perfect by kids, teens and adults.
It’s amazing how much crunchier they are!!
Yep, that’s why we say to check on them! Each air fryer is different. 🙂
Made these last night and they were perfect
YAY! I am so happy to hear that