Last Updated on 23rd April 2022 by
In-N-Out has a very small menu but is known around the country for their animal style fries. It’s pretty amazing that a fast food joint with so few choices does do well and has such a great reputation. I guess it is a case of making what you know and getting really good at it.
The animal style fries they offer are a big hit, and places that don’t have an In-N-Out Burger establishment often learn about those famous fries from people who have tried them. Word gets around about good food, even when it isn’t available in the area. The rumours about the taste may be blown out of proportion into parts of the US that don’t have In-N-Out, so I thought I could help people set the record straight by showing them how to make In-N-Out animal style fries at home.
This is also going to be helpful for people who know and love the burger joint and their fries. They don’t have to go out to eat and pay those higher prices when they can just make it at home. They can save money and enjoy the convenience of having their own high quality animal style fries in the comfort of their own home.
Whether you have never tried animal style fries or you already like them, this recipe is for you. It’s pretty simple to make, and I will show you step by step what to do and what you’ll need to make it happen. You will be able to create a great copycat dish that is practically indistinguishable from the In-N-Out animal fries. Best of all, you don’t have to be a chef to make this dish. It’s simple and fairly quick.
How to Make Animal Style Fried In-N Out’s Way
There are plenty of copycats out there that take the formula In-N-Out has created and tweak it in one way or another. That is fine, but if you use one of those customised recipes, the dish won’t have that authentic, signature flavour. If that is what you are looking for and you want your fries to taste like the real deal, then this is the recipe to follow.
Start with some fries, obviously. Frozen fries work just fine for this dish, and we’re not too particular about the kind of fries used. In-N-Out uses the long, thin standard cut fries, so that’s what we are going to use for our animal style fries. If you want to make your fries as In-N-Out authentic as possible, you can use fresh cut potatoes. Slice the potatoes vertically to get long, thin slices.
How to make animal style fries with all of the toppings? You want to start with the toppings that don’t need to be hot. That would be the animal style sauce. This is a dish that needs to be served hot and fresh for best effect, so focus on the parts that take more time to make first of all.
While your fries are cooking, you can be mixing together the special animal sauce. How to make animal style fries recipe sauce? Mix together the following ingredients:
How to Make Animal Style Fried In-N Out’s Way
Ingredients
- Kosher salt
- 2 tbsp of mayonnaise
- 2 tsp of sweet relish
- 1 tbsp of ketchup
- ½ tsp of distilled white vinegar
- ½ tsp of sugar
Instructions
- Mix all of this together in a bowl until it is well blended. That will be your animal sauce, but there is more topping to make up. Set that to the side and let’s get started on the onions.
- To caramelize the onions for this dish, you will need to cook them in butter and sprinkle them with kosher salt. Cook them on low heat for about 10 minutes, until they start to turn brown. You’re not done yet, though. Next, add in a little water until that evaporates- about a quarter of a cup. Do that a total of three times and keep stirring the onions the entire time. You don’t want them to stick to the pan and burn. Once you have gone through this entire process, the onions are done.
- Once the fries have come out of the oil, be sure to dry the oil off the fries before you put anything on top. Next, layer the animal sauce and the onions on top of the hot fries. Then, add a couple slices of American cheese to the top of your pile of food. They should start to melt over the fries and onions as the heat warms them up.
That’s how to make In and Out animal style fries that taste exactly like the fast food version. If you followed the directions precisely, you should have no trouble getting them to taste like they should. As you can see, this is a pretty simple dish to make.
Making Animal Fries with Modifications
There are a few different ways to make these fries to suit particular tastes. One of the more common modifications people will recommend is to double fry the French fries. That’s not how In-N-Out makes theirs. Their fries are notoriously only fried once, and while some people may be fine with it, the vast majority of people are used to crispy double fried fries, like what you get from most fast food restaurants.
To do that, you can use frozen fries, which are already cooked once, and then fry them up in hot oil to give them a crispy outer surface. If you are making fries from scratch, using fresh potatoes, you can just fry them a second time after they cool down from the first frying session. That takes a while, but it does make the fries extra crispy, so if that is what you are going for, then now you know how to get that texture.
The texture isn’t the only thing some people like to change about their animal style fries. You can also change the cheese you use and create your own cheese sauce. Whatever kind of cheese you use, it needs to be able to melt over the fries and other toppings. Otherwise, it won’t be authentic animal style. You could use shredded cheese, which may melt somewhat, but American cheese melts best. So, making a cheese sauce can be a good alternative, or you can just buy cheese sauce in a jar from the grocery. Not everyone likes American style cheese, and I understand that, so that is why I offer this solution to just use cheese sauce instead.
You can add all sorts of stuff to this dish to make it more to your liking. I personally like to add some bacon bit, and parsley is a good addition as well. Giving it more colour or some added flavour or meatiness is often a great idea to change things up and personalise the fries to your liking.
I'm Pauline, a mother of four grown children, my passion for cooking stemmed from the joy i get cooking for my family. I love to try new dishes, especially when dining out but creating and sharing my own recipes is my favourite thing to do!
