These lemon pepper fries are fermented with sourdough starter and then double-fried in duck fat for the most delicious flavor and crispy texture. Pair these fermented, lemony duck fat fries with any burger or sandwich.

Lemon Pepper Fries

These are the best lemon pepper fries you’ll ever have. First, you ferment the potatoes with a sourdough starter, which adds so much flavor to the fries. Then, you fry them in duck fat until golden brown and crispy. Last, you toss the fries in the most delicious homemade lemon pepper spice blend.

Make these lemon pepper fries if you truly want to impress guests with a side at your next burger barbeque!

How to Cut French Fries

Great french fries start with great potatoes. So you want to get some fresh, large russet potatoes at the store. I like organic potatoes for the best flavor, but conventional potatoes work too.

To start, rinse and scrub all the potatoes well. Then, using a vegetable peeler, peel all the potatoes. They do not need to be perfectly peel-free. So just peel them until most of the skin is off. It’s okay to leave little spots on peel on the potato.

Next, you’ll cut the potatoes into sticks. You can decide how thick or thin you want the sticks, but the process will be the same no matter what.

Start by cutting the peeled potato in half long ways. Then take each half, place it flat side down, and cut it long ways again, creating wedges. For the last cut, place each wedge flat on the cutting board and slice it long ways again.

After cutting, place all the sticks in a large colander and rinse them well.

Fermenting Lemon Pepper Fries

After you have all your potatoes peeled, cut into sticks, and rinsed well, it’s time to ferment!

For this recipe, we only need to ferment the potatoes for 24 hours. So you don’t need to prep these french fries too far in advance. You’ll want to start the whole recipe process about 24 hours before you plan to serve them.

The fermentation process removes the starch from the potatoes and develops the flavor.

This is not a lacto-fermentation process; the lemon pepper fries will not taste pickled. Instead of using Lacto-fermentation, I use my sourdough starter to ferment the potatoes.

You only need about a cup of sourdough starter per gallon of french fries. Also, you can use a fresh bubbly sourdough starter or sourdough starter discard. Either one should work fine. However, I prefer a fresh and bubbly sourdough starter for the best flavor.

Duck Fat Fries

I always try to avoid PUFAs and use animal fats when we eat fried foods. Frying foods in animal fats like tallow, lard, and duck fat is far healthier because the fats are more stable at high temperatures.

Animal fats also impart better flavor. As long as you do not burn the fat, you can also reuse it multiple times.

For these lemon pepper fries, I used duck fat. However, tallow is one of my go-to animal fats for making fried pickles and other fried sides.

Here are my favorite animal fats to fry with:

Lemon Pepper Fries Fried in Duck Fat

For perfectly crispy, restaurant-quality french fries, we use a double-frying process. It’s only slightly more time-consuming but worth every second.

For the first fry, carefully place some potato sticks into the hot oil. (Do not put all the potatoes in at once. You will need to do several smaller batches for best results). Once the fries are in, cook for about 5 minutes (they are NOT done yet here, trust the process). Then, scoop them out of the oil with a stainless steel strainer, allowing the oil to drain back into the frying pot. Place them on a paper towel-lined pan. Do this for all the fries.

After batch frying all the fries for the first time, it’s time for the second fry. Working it batches again, drop the fries back into the oil, and cook until golden and crispy (about 8-10 minutes each batch). Once finished, remove from hot oil and place on a paper towel lined baking sheet.

potato sticks frying in hot bubbly duck fat.

You can decide how crispy you want your fries during the second fry.

In the picture below, the fries on the left are slightly crispy and softer in the middle. They were second fried for about 8 minutes. The fries on the right are super crispy (this is how I like them) and were second-fried for about 10 minutes.

Seasoning Blend for Lemon Pepper Fries

This seasoning blend is the best, but feel free to use store-bought lemon pepper instead.

Lemon peel powder
Black pepper
Garlic powder
Cayenne
Smoked paprika

Freezing and Reheating Lemon Pepper Fries

I like making these fries in huge batches and then freezing the leftovers. These fries freeze so well, and they’re easy to reheat.

To freeze: allow the fries to cool, then place them in freezer-safe bags and freeze.

To reheat: preheat your oven to 425° F. Once the oven is hot, take the fries out of the freeze and place them on a sheet pan. Bake for about 5-10 minutes until the fries are hot and crispy.

More Recipes You’ll Love