Chips (United Kingdom and Commonwealth) or French fried potatoes – shortly French fries or fries – (North America) are long, narrow pieces of potato that have been deep fried.
Where "chips" is the common term, "French fries" usually refers to the thin variant (U.S. "shoe string potatoes"). In North America "chips" usually means potato chips (called "crisps" in the UK), which are deep-fried thin slices of potato. In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, "chips" can mean either potato chips or French fries; French fries are also called "hot chips" or (in South Africa) "slap chips" (IPA slup; 'slup' is Afrikaans for "soft").

French fries have numerous variants, from "thick-cut" to "shoestring", "joe joes," "crinkle", "curly", and "waffle-cut". They can also be coated with breading and spices to create "seasoned fries", or cut thickly with the skin left on to create "potato wedges" or without the skin to create "steak fries", essentially the American equivalent of the British "chip". Sometimes French fries are cooked in the oven as a final step in the preparation (having been coated with oil during preparation at the factory): these are often sold frozen, and are called "oven fries."

In France, the thick-cut fries are called "pommes Pont-Neuf", cut about 10mm square. Thinner variants are "pommes allumettes" (matchstick potatoes), 3-4mm square, "pommes pailles" (straw potatoes), somewhat thinner, and "pommes gaufrette" (waffle potatoes), cross cut. The two-bath technique is standard. (Bocuse)

In the British Isles, Australia, and elsewhere, the term French fries is only used by fast-food restaurants serving narrow-cut (shoestring) fries. Traditional chips in the United Kingdom are usually cut much thicker, typically between 3/8 and ½ inches square in cross section and cooked twice, making them less crunchy on the outside and fluffier on the inside. Since the surface-to-volume ratio is lower, they have a lower fat content. Chips are part of the popular British takeaway dish fish and chips. In the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, very few towns or villages are without a chip shop.

According to American culinary celebrity Alton Brown, Belgian pommes frites are usually fried in horse fat. Others maintain that traditionally, ox fat was used, although now nut oil is usually preferred for health reasons. Belgian fries must be fried twice, and about 10-13mm thick. Fries with Mayonnaise is a national dish of Belgium, often eaten without any side orders. Even the smallest Belgian town has a frietkot (a Dutch word literally meaning 'fries shack' which has also been adopted by the French speaking part of the country in addition to the French friterie; two alternate Dutch forms are frituur, from French friture, and frietkraam, which means about the same as frietkot).

Boardwalk fries, are brine soaked fresh-cut potatoes, that are quickly deep-fried in 100% peanut oil, served in paper buckets, sprinkled lightly with salt and malt vinegar. Perhaps one of the most famous vendors of boardwalk fries is Thrasher's French Fries of Ocean City, Maryland, United States, founded in 1929 by J.T. Thrasher. Thrasher's fries are often enjoyed with Old Bay crab seasoning, made available at the stand. The term "Boardwalk Fries" was registered by brothers Dave and Fran DiFerdinando as a franchising company trademark in 1982. In 2006, they opened two Boardwalk Fries locations in Baltimore's Oriole Park baseball stadium.

In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the word chips is used for both forms of fried potato; although the phrase hot chips unambiguously refers to French fries or chips.

Some home cooks who prepare French fries from scratch, cook them a single time in a generous amount of oil pre-heated to a temperature around 375 °F (190 °C) until they are golden and slightly crisp. The method recommended by most cookbooks, and used by many restaurants, especially those reputed to have excellent French fries, cook them in two stages: first at a temperature at around 350 °F (177 °C), until the fries are nearly cooked but still limp and pale; then, after they have been removed from the oil and allowed to cool, at a higher temperature, generally around 375 °F (190 °C), until they are golden and crisp, which normally takes less than a minute. A third method, invented by the celebrated French chef Joël Robuchon for the home cook, is to put the sliced potatoes into a saucepan with just enough cold oil in it to cover the potatoes, then cook them over high heat until golden, stirring occasionally. Frozen French fries are widely available in supermarkets; it is not unheard of for them to be baked instead of fried.


The Belgian way of cooking frites is generally in two stages.

First fries are 'pre-fried' ('voorgebakken' in Dutch) for about 6 to 10 minutes in oil or – traditionally – beef fat preheated to about 130 to 160 °C, to cook the inner part without burning the outside, while most of the moisture is driven out. Then they are taken out, tossed to avoid clumping, and generally allowed to cool down. This intermediate product can be either frozen for "instant" deep-frying later, or as several batches of "pre-fried" fries prepared (e.g., when fries stands are opened for the day, or at home ahead of a company of guests) for rapid frying and almost simultaneously serving later.

The second stage involves frying for about two to four minutes in oil or beef fat preheated to 175 to 195 °C (as high as the oil or fat can safely stand: a too high temperature breaks it down to rather poisonous compounds). The (cool) batches must be small enough relative to the quantity of oil or fat for its preheated temperature to stay sufficiently high already during the first half minute of the frying process. Generally the cook is guided more by the color of the product than by timing

and by experience with the particular variety of potato. As rule-of-the-thumb one might wait till the fries start to float near the surface. Once more the fries are sturdily tossed and preferably also kind of centrifuged (vigorously swerving the batch around in a wide recipient, in the shape of the base of a cone upside down, held in front of the cook's belly – common for professional batch frying), and shortly tossed again – thus removing excessive fattiness and preventing loss of the outer crispness.

Ideally, the fries have a golden to gold-brown appearance and a bite through the crispy outside reveals a soft inside. For a given depth of the crispy crust, the balance with the soft cooked potato inside is determined by the thickness; no less than 13 mm traditionally to 10 mm towards the end of the 20th century, before frying, are typical for Belgium. Some restaurants may cut as thin as 5 mm. In a good professional friterie stand, the cut is done in a single action by driving the whole peeled potato standing vertically, through a horizontal raster of crosswise sharp blades. This easily removable (for cleaning) and exchangeable set of blades defines the thickness of the frites.