How do I cook chips (french fries) in the oven?

There are a couple tricks I've learned from Cook's Illustrated about making oven fries:

1. Soak your cut potatoes in warm water to rinse off excess surface starch. Drain them and dry them very well (I use a salad spinner and paper towels).

2. Use a heavy duty sheet pan on the bottom rack of a hot oven to focus the heat on crisping the bottoms of the potatoes.

3. Oil your sheet pan well, and sprinkle salt on it. This will act kind of like ball bearings under the potatoes to prevent them from sticking too hard.

4. For the first 5-10 minutes, tightly wrap the sheet pan (with the potatoes) with aluminum foil. This will essentially steam the potatoes and help get a really nice creamy interior. After that, remove the foil and flip the potatoes halfway through. Make sure you use a thin metal spatula when you flip them.

These techniques work well for potatoes in general, and really do turn out some fantastic spuds.

I do this routinely. I do about half an hour at 375 and then turn it up to 425 to crisp them. Don't turn them often - typically I will just turn them once when I'm putting the heat up. I've tried assorted varieties and never really noticed any difference.

To help your thick cut chips cook I suggest par-cooking them before putting them in the oven. You can do this by boiling them or microwaving with some water. Then dry them out, coat them in oil and bake at a high heat to get them crispy.

This is a much simpler adaption of Heston Blumenthal's chip cooking technique. Much more viable for the home cook with limited time.

For extra reading and inspiration here is some chip research/science on recreating McDonalds fries and a video from McDonalds explaining their actual process.

I pre cook my fries. I cut them into medium thick fries, wash them and put them in a pan with cold water. Bring them to a boil and let them cook for about 4-5 minutes, drain them. Then I spray my baking sheet with Pam, then put my fries on the baking sheet and pray them again with Pam. Bake them for half an hour in a pre-heated oven on 415 F, turn them after 20 minutes. This recipe is for medium thick cut fries, if you want steak fries, add about 5 to 10 minutes oven time. Mine have never failed me and I am a french fry lover, but this way I have them somewhat healthier then when you prepare them with oil Enjoy!!!