Welcome back from the weekend! I am still trying to get into the swing of things from the holidays. Sometimes it’s just really hard to jump back into concentration and productivity. Today we have a pretty simple recipe for Polenta Fries. These little sticks are cut from a slab of polenta and then lightly fried. This recipe is pretty versatile, you can serve them as a side dish to something delicious and meaty, appetizers, or our favorite, as party food! With Super Bowl coming up soon these would be perfect. We served ours with sides of our marinara sauce and a simple tarragon aioli. I love the texture of the polenta, and I prefer to give them a real good pan fry, the crispier the better, just how I like my In and Out French fries well done. Enjoy and happy Monday!
♥ Teri
Polenta Fries
Ingredients
basic tarragon aioli
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons minced tarragon
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
marinara
- 1/2 cup Our Best Ever Marinara Sauce or marinara sauce of your choice
polenta fries
- 4 cups low-fat milk
- 1 ½ cups coarse ground yellow cornmeal
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 2 ½ ounces goat cheese
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Instructions
- For Basic Tarragon Aioli: Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisk together. Season with salt and pepper and set aside until ready to use.
- For polenta fries: Pour milk into a medium saucepan, place over medium heat and simmer.
- Slowly whisk in cornmeal until fully incorporated, lower heat to low and continue to stir for about 5 minutes.
- Fold in butter and goat cheese and season with salt and pepper.
- Stir until no lumps remain, then pour mixture into a lightly greased 9”x13” baking sheet with a 1” lip.
- Evenly spread and allow mixture to cool for about 20 minutes before placing into the refrigerator. Refrigerate for about 1 hour.
- Remove polenta from refrigerator and invert onto a clean cutting board. Cut polenta into ½”x 3” sticks.
- Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and add oil. Lightly fry polenta stick for 2-3 minutes on each side, in batches, making sure not to overcrowd the pan.
- Place finished sticks onto some paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Serve fries with basic tarragon aioli and marinara sauce.
outstanding! my dad would love this, will have to try these out in the fry daddy when I’m home this weekend!
I LOVE Polenta Fries….more than normal fries! I am so glad I have a good recipe to follow now! Obesity here I come!
B x
oh my goodness… how delightful!! I will be making these for sure… Simply genius!! <3
I will most definitely be making these–possibly this week. I love polenta and the fries shape is perfect for my little ones. Thanks for the inspiration!
I love polenta fries, these are perfection!
I’m always so pleased by polenta fries (even when they’re ridiculously hot and scald the roof of your mouth). They’re just so rich and creamy… and FREAKIN FRIED! Really, what’s not to love? Love the tarragon aioli too! Must try!
I’m with you, the crispier, the better! The aioli sounds amazing!
Any suggestions if I wanted to make them in the oven instead? Trying to stay away from frying but I just love polenta in any form!
Yum! I wonder if you can bake this instead of frying it and still get the same crunch.
I’ve never tried polenta, either in a restaurant or preparing it myself, but after reading this I’m really intrigued. Beautiful photos too!
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Never made polenta fries but they look seriously yummy! On my list of things to make for 2014
Oh I love polenta. I’ll be making these soon. Thank you!
What a great idea! We’re going to have to try this with our line of Organic Polenta and see which one makes the best fries.
So happy to see the tarragon aioli. I think people tend to overlook this herb.
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I had these at a bar in Montreal years ago and completely forgot about how much I loved them until now. Thanks for the reminder – cocktail snack this weekend!
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These look delicious! Have you every tried frying them in coconut oil? I
I have not, but I bet that would be incredible!
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Those polenta fries look TOO good! I bet the goat cheese takes them over the top. The dips look amazing, too. What perfect party food. Can’t wait to make these – thanks for sharing this beautiful recipe!
My 4 year old loves polenta. I will have to make these for him. I think it will be a big hit. Thanks for the recipe!
Wow do these ever look good!
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Is the cooking time in step #3 correct at 5 min.? We made these this weekend, and ended up cooking the cornmeal for 50 min. to get something that was “spreadable.”
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I tried this recipe with whipped cream cheese in place of the goat cheese, since I didn’t have any on hand. It came out great. I also tried frying and broiling the fries. I think I actually preferred the broiled fries.
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i making these for my sea+star dinner tomorrow night (dinz with my 2 sisters) to munch on as we play Cards Against Humanity and sip vino. love polenta. love grits. i love mexi polenta for breakfast! poached egg on top of creamy polenta with mexi spices, cilantro, dollop of greek yogurt. avo, roasted tomato…hello. can it be morning already??!! thanks for this recipe! i am very stoked to give it a try.
made these last night using coconut oil in the pan. delishhh. i’ve never tried using just milk when making polenta. such a fan!!!
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Recipe fail. When frying, they just came completely apart in my cast iron skillet. I had sticky polenta slosh everywhere but not a single neat little polenta fry as shown. Would not recommend this particular recipe, though the website has a lot of winners so check out the crispy drumsticks and cream cheese stuffed crust pizza!
Oh no! This is one of my faves and I haven’t had an issue before. A couple things I can recommend to aid in the sticking issue is to lightly dredge each of the sticks in flour before frying, as well as use a good quality nonstick pan or a very well seasoned cast iron skillet (which is what I always use!) I really hope you’re willing to give this recipe another shot as it is so freakin good when the fries fry up properly :)