Fried Potatoes - Mom's American Fries

Growing up, we went through some rough times.  My mom was the queen of throwing together a full meal out of random items she found in the pantry.  One of her dishes was fried potatoes, or as she called them, American fries.  Potatoes are one of the cheapest vegetables you can buy, so we always have an abundance of them.  I like to switch up my mom's original dish slightly from time to time, but here is what I like to refer to as her original recipe.  You see, my mom's original recipe doesn't have exact measurements.  She likes to eyeball a lot of things.

Ingredients

4-6 potatoes 

1 yellow onion

1 tbsp hot sauce

5 tbsp soy sauce

4 tbsp butter

Directions

Cut your potatoes into small, uniform, bite size pieces.  Chop your onion as well.  Melt 2 tbsp. of butter over med-high heat.  Add onions.  Saute until almost caramelized (they will continue to cook more, so don't over cook them).  Add the remainder of the butter as well as the potatoes, hot sauce, and soy sauce.  Stir and cover with a lid.  Cook over medium heat.  Stir every so often to ensure the potatoes don't stick.  Cook for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.

For my version pictured above, I didn't have onions on hand (shockingly).  I used half the amount of butter and used 3 tbsp. of canola oil instead (to give the potatoes more of a fried crust on the outside.  I also added Monterey Jack cheese to the top after I plated my potatoes.

You can take something with a mild flavor such as potatoes and add anything to it to give it a completely different flavor!