Animal-Style Fries

I live in England, far away from the US fast-food chain In ‘n’ Out Burger, however I have always known about animal-style fries and have wanted to try them for years. Since I’m unlikely to find myself in California anytime soon, I made them at home. It’s safe to say, I wasn’t disappointed.

What are animal-style fries?

In ‘n’ Out Burger’s animal fries are French fries topped with American cheese, a secret burger-style sauce, and onions. I believe they are technically on the restaurant’s ‘secret menu’, but that menu is not so secret in reality.

How to make animal-style fries at home

There are 4 steps to making animal-style fries at home: cooking your fries, caramelising onions, making the secret sauce, and making a cheese sauce.

First, decide on how you’re going to cook your fries. To make things quick and easy, I bought frozen oven-cook French fries from the supermarket. If you want to really elevate your fries, however, then feel free to make yours from scratch and deep-fry them!

Secondly, you will need to caramelised your onion. This is super-simple and just takes a little patience. Simply fry diced onions in butter with a pinch of salt and sugar. Fry them over a low heat, stirring often, until they are sweet and golden. I recommend doing this for at least 45 minutes, but ideally one hour.

Once your onions are done you can make the sauce. I made my sauce using mayo, ketchup, mustard, chives, dill pickles, vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, sugar, garlic and some of the caramelised onions. Simply combine all of the ingredients in a bowl.

Finally, make the cheese sauce. The original In ‘n’ Out animal-style fries simply have slices of American cheese on their fries. I, however, made a Cheddar and American cheese sauce to make my fries extra special.

To do this simply make a roux using butter, flour, and milk and stir through grated Cheddar and American cheese until melted.

Similar Recipes

If you liked this recipe you might also like more of my loaded fries recipes:

• Vegetarian Nando’s dirty fries
• Cheeseburger fries
• Korean kimchi loaded fries

Animal-Style Fries

5 from 1 vote

French fries loaded with cheese sauce, burger-style sauce, caramelised onions, and chives. Copycat recipe of the In 'n' Out Burger animal-style fries.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Course: Party Food

Cuisine: American

Calories: 678

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 600g/1⅓lbs frozen French fries

Caramelised onions

• 2 large brown onions diced
• 2 tbsp butter
• ½ tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp salt

Sauce

• 40g/1½oz dill pickles/pickled gherkins finely diced and patted dry
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• ¼ cup ketchup
• 2 tbsp dijon mustard
• ⅓ caramelised onions
• 2 tsp chives finely sliced, plus extra to serve
• 1 large garlic clove grated
• 1 tsp vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
• ¼ tsp sugar

American cheese sauce

• 1½ tbsp butter
• 1½ tbsp plain flour
• ¾ cup milk
• 70g/2½ American cheese slices diced
• 45g/1½ grated Cheddar

Method

 

Caramelised onions

1. First make the caramelised onions. Melt the butter in a frying pan or sauce pan over a medium heat.
2. Once the butter is bubbling, add in the onions, sugar and salt. Stir to combine.
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring often until the onions are caramelised. Turn down the heat if the onions are starting to brown too quickly. Set aside.

Fries

1. Cook your fries according to packet instructions. Time this so they will be ready soon after the onions have finished cooking.

American cheese sauce

1. Meanwhile, make the cheese sauce.
2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a medium heat.
3. Whisk through the flour and cook for 30 seconds.
4. Whisk in the milk gradually. Continue cooking and whisking until the sauce has thickened.
5. Turn the heat to low and whisk in your cheese until melted.
6. Take off the heat, cover and set aside.

Sauce

1. Whisk together all of the sauce ingredients, except the onion, in a bowl. Once the onions are cooled, stir them through.

Assembly

1. Gently reheat your cheese sauce. Add the fries to a large bowl and load them up with the cheese sauce and burger sauce. Top with the caramelised onions and more chopped chives, if you like.