These In-N-Out Animal Fries taste just like the secret menu version topped with cheddar cheese, caramelized onions and special sauce!
Ingredients and substitutions
- Frozen fries – for an exact restaurant replica, use extra-crispy straight-cut fries. You can also try using crinkle-cut, curly or waffle fries or try using sweet potatoes fries for a healthier version.
- Olive oil – feel free to use any neutral flavor oil that you like. Sunflower oil, vegetable, canola, or avocado oil are all great substitutes.
- Onions – white onions caramelize beautifully, as do yellow and red onion.
- Cheese – for a different flavour, swap out the cheddar cheese and use any other type of meltable cheese. Pepper jack would be a fantastic substitute!
- Mayo – to cut down on the fat a little bit, you can use light mayo or Miracle Whip. You could even swap out the mayo completely and use Greek yogurt or sour cream instead.
- Ketchup – make your own ketchup if you don’t have any on hand using tomato paste, vinegar, brown sugar, salt, molasses, corn syrup and water.
- Relish – chopped dill pickles would also be good here.
- Dried minced onion – you can use onion powder in a pinch.
- Vinegar – white vinegar is best or you can leave this out altogether.
- Cayenne pepper – this gives the sauce that amazing kick but you can try using paprika instead.
How to make animal style fries
Step 1: Fry the onion.
Dice the onions and add to a pan.
Step 2: Caramelize the onion.
Fry in a pan with olive oil for 20 minutes until onions slightly caramelize.
Step 3: Cook the frozen fries.
Preheat oven to 450 F. Add frozen fries to a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake according to package instructions (usually 10-12 minutes per side).
Step 4: Add on the cheese.
Grate cheese and mix sauce ingredients together. Remove fries from the oven about 5 minutes before the end of cook time, and add cheese.
Step 5: Bake until cheese has melted.
Bake remaining 5 minutes until fully melted.
Step 6: Top with onions and sauce and dig in!
Remove from oven and top with caramelized onions and special sauce. Serve and enjoy!
Animal Fries In-N-Out Sauce
Just like McDonald's uses a special sauce on their Big Mac, In-N-Out has their own special sauce for their animal fries.
It tastes similar to thousand island salad dressing, but it has a tiny little kick of spice from cayenne pepper. There isn't much, but it's just enough to make the sauce completely irresistible!
To make it, all you have to do is mix together the mayo, ketchup, relish, dried minced onion, vinegar and cayenne pepper. Add it on to your fries with the caramelized onions and you’ve got a delicious plate of animal style fries. Easy-peasy!
Frequently Asked Questions
If you're familiar with the In-N-Out restaurant chain, then chances are, you know all about this secret menu item. Animal fries are crispy French fries loaded with delicious toppings including melted cheddar cheese, caramelized onions and the restaurant's signature sauce.
According to In-N-Out, their French fries and onions are cooked in sunflower oil. As a result, these animal style fries are vegetarian and completely meat free. They do have cheese and mayo though, so unfortunately, they aren’t vegan.
One serving of my animal fries recipe has 517 calories. The restaurant’s version has 750 calories per serving, so you’re saving about 225 calories using my recipe. There are some substitutions you can make to lighten the calorie count such as swapping out the mayo for light mayo or using sour cream or Greek yogurt. You can also use light cheese, or use half the amount of cheese and sauce listed. There are always workarounds to eat the foods you crave without the extra calories!
Storing and reheating
If you have any leftovers, I will be surprised – these animal style fries are really delicious and super addictive! But if you want to store some to enjoy later, cover them with some aluminum foil and store them in the refrigerator or store them in individual portions in glass meal prep bowls for up to 3 days.
You can reheat them in the oven at 350° Fahrenheit for 10-15 minutes, but keep in mind that if you have any In-N-Out sauce on them, it probably won't be as tasty when hot and fresh out of the oven. I recommend adding the sauce to individual servings in case you want to save the rest for later.
Freezing this recipe
Unfortunately, you can't freeze animal style fries, but since the main component is the frozen fries, they're super easy to make!
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More loaded fries recipes
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- Store leftover fries in glass meal prep bowls.
- Save time and use this pre-made special sauce – it's very similar to the real thing!
In-N-Out Animal Style Fries {Secret Menu}
Ingredients
- 1 bag frozen fries
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 onions, diced
- 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Special sauce
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 2 tbsp relish
- 1 tbsp dried minced onion
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 1 dash cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 F. Add frozen fries to a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake according to package instructions (usually 10-12 minutes per side).
- Meanwhile, dice onions and fry in a pan with olive oil for 20 minutes until onions slightly caramelize. Then, grate cheese and mix sauce ingredients together.
- Remove fries from the oven about 5 minutes before the end of cook time, and add cheese. Bake remaining 5 minutes until fully melted.
- Remove from oven and top with caramelized onions and special sauce. Serve and enjoy!
Comments & Reviews
RedWouldForrest says
Hi Taylor! Love your recipes, and you are fantastic! Keep up the exceptional work.
Question: Which type of vinegar would most closely replicate In-N-Out’s special sauce?
(And as a side note: In-N-Out does exactly ONE thing wrong – they single-cook their fries. Due to this fact, I believe yours are even better than theirs, since your recipe calls for premade, frozen fries which inevitably turn out with a better texture & density than In-N-Out’s… And a tip for you: when using any oil to cook potatoes, try Peanut or a Peanut/Canola combo – the flavor is unbelievable!)
Taylor Stinson says
Hi there, thank you for the kind words 🙂 I just use regular white vinegar, any brand like Heinz would work. Hope that helps!