Perfect Potato Wedges

by | Jun 30, 2017 | Recipes

The key to great potato wedges is not to wedge them.  Instead, slice them.  That way the pieces are uniform thickness, so they’ll be the same done-ness throughout.  I get pretty much perfect results using this recipe/technique every time.

Ingredients:

  • Russet  potato
  • Oil of choice (I like to use cooking spray as the potatoes don’t stick as much with it)
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Other spices as desired

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  • Slice the potato into approximately 1/4 inch slices
  • Spread/Spray small amount of oil on a small sheet pan.
  • Sprinkle oiled pan with salt.
  • Place potato wedges on pan and press into oil.
  • Spread/Spray a small amount of oil on top of the wedges.
  • Salt, pepper, and use any additional spices (rosemary would be nice)
  • Bake for 15 minutes, then flip the wedges and cook an additional 10 minutes*.
  • Remove, and allow to cool long enough not to burn your mouth.
  • Serve and eat.

*10 minutes works 90% of the time.  If the slices are thicker than usual, or if you live at high elevation, try letting them go for another 5 minutes.  The tops should be brown.  If you see the tops blister, then pull them out; they’re done.

Calories/Macros

When I used to make this with coconut oil or olive oil, I used about half a teaspoon of oil.  With the cooking spray, the bottle is anywhere from 0-5 grams lighter after using it.  Either way, you’re talking probably less than 3-4 grams of fat (30ish calories).  So the vast majority of calories come from the potato.

Even a massive 350g potato only has 62g of carbohydrates and 260 calories (including a bonus of 7g of protein).  Compare that to 350g of French Fries (using Wendy’s fries as a comparison) with 1192 calories (partly because cooked potatoes have less water).  Okay, let’s do an apple to apple…uh…potato to potato comparison.  If you eat the same amount of carbohydrate (62g) of French Fries, you get 475 calories.

So the potato wedges have about 200 calories less than an equivalent amount of fries due to the lower amount of fat.  This let’s you eat more chocolate!