Why You Shouldn't Throw Out Leftover French Fries

Ahhh, french fries... Salty, crispy, a little greasy — fries basically make the world go 'round. The experts make it look irritatingly easy to achieve perfectly crispy, crave-worthy french fries. Sadly though, like a fresh blowout on a humid day, the leftovers are quick to go soggy and limp. If you find yourself with leftover fries on hand that are quickly becoming weird and gross in your fridge, you're in luck. The world wide web has been hard at work, developing ways to save your fried potato friends from the trash. BTW, where'd you get the willpower to ignore french fries? Asking for a friend. 

The folks at Wonder How To suggest reheating leftover french fries in a bit of oil on the stove top as the best way to rescue them, unless you prefer the cleaner, lazier method of a quick blast in the oven. Avoid the microwave at all costs, though. It does nothing but take a bad french fry to worse in a hurry. But what if you don't want plain ol' leftover fries? There's a solution for that, too.

Perhaps the best glow-up for leftover fries on the web? French fry waffles. Serious Eats has hit the nail on the head with this one: Simply load the fries into the waffle iron and let it do its thing. Not only does their method of crisping up leftover fries in a waffle iron avoid every pitfall of reheating your carby treasure, it also produces a compact, handheld result where "every nook and cranny is fully crisped." If you ever need to get someone's attention, just refer to crispy nooks and crannies. The genius behind this method lies in the fat. The waffle iron coaxes some of the fat out of the leftover fries, allowing them to cook in that fat until perfectly reheated and delicious. And, since part of enjoying leftovers is pairing them with something awesome, Serious Eats suggests a chipotle mayo dipping sauce. Crispy fried food plus spicy mayo is always a win.

If you don't own a waffle iron, and somehow aren't persuaded by the promise of french fry waffles to buy one (seriously, your willpower is annoying), then consider a frittata. My Recipes explores the premise that anything (even pasta) can go into a frittata, thereby creating the french fry frittata. The bonus here is this recipe circumvents the whole reheating task because the fries "will heat up as the egg mixture cooks." Okay, the real bonus is you get to eat french fries a second time this week, and they happen to be dressed up in a fancy-looking egg dish — just toss them in your favorite frittata recipe and call it a day. Again, tasty garnishes like chives, salsa, and sour cream seal the deal for this leftover french fry rescue. Now, look at you, you're officially a repurposing potato boss.