Five Guys
Five Guys Cajun Seasoning Copycat Recipe
Paprika-heavy, salty, with celery salt underneath. Ninety seconds and a jar that lasts six months.
How to Make Five Guys Cajun Fries at Home
Twice-Fried Chips in Peanut Oil, Which Is Not an Optional Detail
Chips with a glassy shell and a fluffy middle, which is entirely about frying them twice.
AI-generated illustration created for food.fast. It is not photographic evidence of a prepared batch.
Five Guys is the most expensive chain on this site per item, and a regular fries in London is a startling amount of money for what is, structurally, a potato. It is also the chain where the home version is closest to the original, because there is no proprietary par-fry and no frozen step - they cut fresh potatoes in the shop.
Two things make them what they are. Frying twice, at two different temperatures, which is the standard professional method and the thing that separates a great chip from a merely acceptable one. And peanut oil, which the company is explicit about and which contributes a real, identifiable flavour.
The seasoning has its own page and takes ninety seconds. This page is about the chip underneath it.
How this page shows its working
The method gives quantities, timings and observable cues rather than asking you to guess. The 5 cases in If it goes wrong explain likely causes and corrective action.
See the recipe verification standard · See how the cost is calculated
Why two fries at two temperatures, and what each one does
A chip has two jobs to do and they need different conditions.
The first fry, at 150 °C for six to seven minutes, cooks the inside. At that temperature the potato cooks through to fluffy without the surface browning or sealing. The chips come out pale, limp and unappetising - which is correct. What you have made is a cooked potato in the shape of a chip.
The rest, at least 30 minutes, is where the surface dries out and the starch at the surface retrogrades - reorganises into a firmer structure. This is the step people skip and it matters more than either fry.
The second fry, at 190 °C for two to three minutes, does nothing to the inside at all. It flashes the dried surface into a hard, glassy shell. Because the inside is already cooked and hot, this can be brief and violent, which is exactly what gives the shattering crust.
Try to do it in one fry and you have to choose: low enough to cook through means no crust, hot enough for crust means raw in the middle.
Peanut oil, and the honest alternatives
Five Guys fries in peanut oil and says so on the wall. It has a high smoke point - around 230 °C, which is well above frying temperature - and a faint nuttiness that is genuinely part of how the chips taste.
Groundnut oil is the same thing under a British name.
If nut allergy rules it out, the closest honest substitute is refined rapeseed oil with a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil per litre stirred in after the oil has cooled below frying temperature. That gets you a comparable nutty top note. It is not the same. Sunflower or plain vegetable oil works perfectly well and gives a cleaner, more neutral chip.
Beef dripping gives a superb chip and an entirely different one - richer, meatier, and the British chip-shop flavour rather than the American one.
The potato, and why you should not rinse these
Use a floury potato - Maris Piper, King Edward, Russet, Agria. Waxy potatoes hold together and give a dense, slightly translucent chip.
Skin on, which is what Five Guys does. Scrub them, cut out any eyes, and cut into 1 cm batons. The skin gives texture and holds the chip together during two fries.
Most chip recipes tell you to rinse the cut potatoes to remove surface starch. For this one, do not - or at least, rinse briefly and dry very thoroughly. Some surface starch is what gives the shell its structure in the second fry. What you must remove is water, not starch: pat them completely dry with a tea towel before the first fry. Wet potatoes in hot oil spit violently and steam rather than fry.
How to make it, step by step
Prepare
-
Cut to an even 1 cm and dry them completely
Even sizing matters - thin chips burn while thick ones are still raw. Then dry them thoroughly in a clean tea towel. Any water left on them will spit in the oil.
About 15 min
First fry
-
150 °C for six to seven minutes
In batches - about a quarter of the potatoes at a time. They should be tender when pressed and still completely pale. If they are colouring, the oil is too hot.
TipCrowding the pan drops the temperature and the chips absorb oil instead of cooking. Small batches.About 14 min -
Onto a rack and leave them at least thirty minutes
This is the step people skip and it is the most important one. The surface dries and the starch reorganises. They can sit for hours, or go in the fridge overnight.
About 30 min
Second fry and season
-
190 °C for two to three minutes
Again in batches. They will colour fast and float. Deep golden and visibly rigid is what you are looking for.
About 8 min -
Straight into a bowl, seasoned, and tossed
Within thirty seconds. A teaspoon of Cajun seasoning per portion, added in two goes with a toss between, plus a pinch of flaky salt.
TipThe surface oil is what the seasoning sticks to, and it soaks in within about half a minute. After that, seasoning slides off.About 1 min
The oven and air fryer routes, honestly assessed
Air fryer, 190 °C for 18 to 22 minutes, shaken twice. Toss the dried raw chips in two tablespoons of oil first, and keep them in a single layer. This route uses much less oil and should produce a crisp shell and fluffy middle, though the result is not identical to deep frying.
Oven, 220 °C fan for 30 to 35 minutes. Parboil for five minutes first, drain, shake the colander hard to rough up the surfaces, then toss in three tablespoons of oil and roast on a preheated tray. The shaking is the equivalent of the first fry - it creates a rough surface that crisps.
What both lose is the specific glassy shell that comes from a 190 °C flash in oil. They are crisp; they are not brittle. It is a real difference and for a Tuesday it is the right trade.
Do the first fry and freeze, and you have your own frozen chips: par-fry, cool, freeze on a tray, then bag. Second-fry from frozen at 190 °C for four minutes. Better than any bag you can buy.
Frying safely, which is worth two minutes of reading
- Never more than a third full of oil. Two kilos of wet potato displaces a lot and the bubbling raises the level further.
- Dry the potatoes completely. Water in hot oil is what causes violent spitting and boil-overs.
- Never leave the pan.
- A lid or fire blanket within reach. If oil catches fire, turn off the heat and smother it. Never water.
- Let the oil cool in the pan before moving it. A pan of hot oil carried across a kitchen is how people get badly hurt.
- Strain and reuse two or three times for chips - kept sealed and dark. Discard when it darkens, foams or smells off. Into a container in the bin, never down a drain.
The two fries, side by side
| First fry | Rest | Second fry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 150 °C | Room temperature | 190 °C |
| Time | 6-7 min | 30 min minimum | 2-3 min |
| What it does | Cooks the inside | Dries the surface | Forms the shell |
| How they look | Pale, limp | Dry, matte | Deep gold, rigid |
What four portions cost against buying four
| Component | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Floury potatoes | 1 kg | £1.10 |
| Peanut oil, share of bottle | - | £0.72 |
| Cajun seasoning | 4 tsp | £0.08 |
| Four portions at home | £1.90 | |
| Four regular Cajun fries, UK counter price | £19.96 |
Ways to change it once you have made it once
Air fryer
190 °C for 18 to 22 minutes, tossed in 2 tbsp of oil, single layer, shaken twice.
Chilli cheese chips
Topped with Wendy's chili, grated cheese and diced onion. The best use of leftover chili there is.
Beef dripping
A completely different and excellent chip - richer and more British. Same two-fry method.
What went wrong, and how to fix it
Each entry names a likely cause as well as a correction, so the advice remains useful when equipment, ingredients or batch size differ.
Soft and floppy
- Why it happened
- Only fried once, or the rest between fries was skipped.
- What to do
- Two fries with at least thirty minutes between them. There is no way round this.
Dark outside, raw inside
- Why it happened
- The first fry was too hot.
- What to do
- 150 °C, and they should come out pale. If they colour on the first fry, the oil is too hot.
Greasy
- Why it happened
- Oil too cool, or too many in at once.
- What to do
- Small batches and let the oil recover between them.
The seasoning fell off
- Why it happened
- Added too late, or sprinkled rather than tossed.
- What to do
- Into a bowl and tossed within thirty seconds of the oil.
They spat violently
- Why it happened
- Wet potatoes.
- What to do
- Dry them thoroughly in a tea towel. This is a safety issue, not just a technique one.
Questions people actually ask about this recipe
Why fry chips twice?
The first fry cooks the inside; the second forms the shell. One fry forces a choice between the two.
Does the peanut oil really matter?
Yes - it has a real nutty flavour that is part of how these taste. Any high smoke point oil works and tastes cleaner and less like Five Guys.
Should I rinse the cut potatoes?
Briefly or not at all, and dry them completely. Some surface starch helps the shell; surface water is dangerous in hot oil.
Can I make these in an air fryer?
Yes, and they are genuinely good - 190 °C for 18 to 22 minutes, single layer, shaken twice.
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