McDonald's Hash Browns made faster and better at home.

what if i told you you could wake up tomorrow morning at 7 a.m and be sitting down with soft scrambled eggs and a crispy mcdonald's style hash brown by 7 15 am all without leaving your house now i'm obviously pretty biased but i can confirm it's a pretty fantastic way to start the morning [Music] hey everyone i'm ethan a home cooking nerd and on this channel we explore how to make better food at home so today i'm going to show you how to make these mcdonald's style hash browns and since the point of fast food is to make it fast i've developed this recipe to be as quick and convenient as possible while also using very basic ingredients that everyone should have so we'll meet you back here for a taste test in a couple minutes but let's dive into the recipe to start get out four or five medium sized russet potatoes and peel them and this will be enough potatoes for about six 100 gram hash browns so you can use more or less depending on what you need [Music] then after peeling them just rinse the smooths off under the sink and get out a box grater and put it in a large bowl where we will grate the potatoes now i'm using russet potatoes here on purpose as it is one of the highest starch content potatoes which according to this chart from the food lab will give us crispy edges and a fluffy interior compared to different varieties once grated many hashbrown recipes will say you need to wash them in cold water now i tried both washing and not washing and didn't find any real differences other than a slight discoloration due to oxidation so i'm not bothering to do it because why add another step if it doesn't really add that much to the final product so instead lay out a clean towel and spread the grated potatoes all over it now pick up the four corners of the towel and twist it to form a sack of potatoes then twist and ring the towel as tight as you possibly can to squeeze out the excess water of the potatoes and the reason we are doing this is that in order for the potatoes to get crisp the water must be steamed off so the less water we start with the faster this will happen [Music] next open up the towel and lightly spread the potatoes around and just let them hang around for a minute or two and meanwhile we'll head over to the stove and set up a cast iron over medium low heat and add about 2 inches of peanut oil you want to bring the oil to right around 200 degrees fahrenheit and once you have verified the heat with the thermometer lower in the potatoes and this is a moment where you should really be using a bigger pan so it's not overflowing the top i thought i had much less potatoes than i did anyway you want to bring the oil back to around 200 degrees fahrenheit and set a timer for six minutes and let the potatoes cook while stirring occasionally set a timer for five minutes this par cooking process is critical for the hash browns as it softens and expands the starches on the exterior of the potato pieces and these starches will recrystallize when we freeze them and provide a perfectly crispy exterior when we cook them again now you could do this same process with boiling water however in my test the oil was far superior the oil ones were much more crispy and a deep golden brown compared to the ones that i boiled in water which were much less crisp and a lighter color once the timer is up take the potatoes off the heat and set a metal strainer over a metal bowl pour the potatoes into the strainer and we can set this oil aside to cool and then we will strain it out through a paper towel again so we can reuse it never waste your oil now it's time to season and form these you're going to sprinkle in a large pinch of salt into the potatoes and i'm also going to add 8 grams of corn starch another critical ingredient that i found in my test mixing in the corn starch roughens up the potatoes a bit and helps them stick together better than just oil flour also works well too but i like the corn starch for a lighter texture and also a little goes a long way i'm only using about 8 grams or a tablespoon of cornstarch for this entire bowl once mixed place a piece of parchment paper over a baking sheet and to form these i find it's best to add them to a small bowl or dish first and really squeeze them tightly together i had issues with falling apart in some of my tests when i formed them by hand once the potatoes are squeezed into the dish just flip it out and form it into that classic mcdonald's style hash brown shape with your hands and continue to do this for the rest of the hash browns [Music] now for specific measurements mine ended up being roughly 4 inches high 2.5 inches wide and a half inch thick and weighing in around 100 grams each once all the hash browns are shaped we're going to place them in the freezer for about two hours until completely frozen through after two hours get out a plastic bag or a container and just toss them in you want to mark them and then store them in the freezer and these should be good for two to three months whenever you are ready to cook them and now is the fun part how do you cook them so you can deep fry them shallow fry them or bake them and they will all turn out great but in general i think deep frying yields the best result shallow frying is the quickest and then baking would be best if you are making a bunch at once for each one you want to cook them straight from the freezer don't worry about defrosting them for deep frying place about an inch of oil into a pot and heat it to 350 degrees fahrenheit again use a thermometer to ensure that the temperature is reached and then slowly drop in the hash brown and agitate it slightly you want to fry until it's golden brown all over and in my test this usually took around five to six minutes once they are golden brown just transfer them to a wire rack over a baking sheet and then after each of these preparation i like to give them a little sprinkle of salt for shallow frying get out a cast iron and place about a quarter inch of oil into a skillet enough to come about halfway up the hash brown again you ideally want to bring the oil to around 350 degrees fahrenheit and then just lower the hash brown down and cook on one side until it's starting to brown probably about two minutes and then you can flip it to the other side let this side brown up and flip each side one more time now to get even browning you want to use a spoon and baste the hot oil over the hash brown just like a steak until it gets to your desired doneness for me this usually took between six to eight minutes again this method is probably the quickest because you don't really need to wait much time at all for that oil to heat up and you could probably do multiple in a bigger pan like this lastly you can bake them preheat the oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit and add a thin layer of peanut oil on a sheet pan then place that pan in the hot oven for about five minutes then you take the hash browns out of the freezer and add it to the pan bake it in the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes then you want to flip it once and cook for another five to ten minutes until they are nice and brown and crisp and also you could definitely do this with a convection oven or air fryer it will probably just cook a little bit faster but it's the same basic process so no matter how you cook them you now have mcdonald's style hash browns ready at a moment's notice with great power comes great responsibility let's do our taste test all right everybody it is taste test time nice and crispy still i'm sure you can hear that it's wild how crispy these things stay let's give it a little ketchup dip too and i am shocked at just how close they are to the mcdonald's they're crunchy they're fluffy in the center they're salty fatty pair them with some scrambled eggs it's just a killer breakfast combination you've got the nostalgia factor and then just everything tastes really really good so the full written recipe for these will be up on my website if you do want to follow it but however you cook them just get them in your freezer and you'll have these at a moment's notice i'll catch you all in the next one check out some of my other videos if you enjoyed this one and see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Ethan Chlebowski

Views: 2,728,545

Keywords: Ethan Chlebowski, mcdonalds hash brown recipe, mcdonalds hashbrown recipe, homemade hash browns, mcdondalds hash brown at home, mcdonalds hash brown asmr, hash browns, hash browns in oven, hash browns recipe, homemade mcdonalds hash brown, mcdonalds hashbrown, hash brown recipe, how to make hash browns, secret recipe

Id: L1toV9WrLGg

Length: 7min 52sec (472 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 03 2020