Poutine
Serves 2–4 Time 15–20 minutes Difficulty 3/5 Ingredients 4 Steps 8
Poutine is common dish throughout the Quebec, Ontario, and Atlantic regions of Canada, made of French fries, cheese curds, and gravy. This recipe uses pre-canned gravy and fries the potatoes from scratch.
Ingredients
- 1 L vegetable oil for deep frying
- 1 can (290 g) of poutine sauce (French: mélange à sauce poutine) or gravy
- 5 medium potatoes
- 2 cups fresh cheddar cheese curds or mozzarella
Steps
- Slice the potatoes into finger-width fries. Rinse well.
- Warm the gravy slowly on low heat.
- Heat oil to 185°C (365°F).
- Fry the potatoes about 5 minutes.
- Optionally remove and fry again about 1 minute to crisp the outside.
- Remove the fries from the oil. Optionally drain on a paper towel mat.
- Move the fries to a serving dish. Top with room-temperature cheese curds.
- Pour the gravy over the top. Serve before the cheese curds start to melt.
Notes from the original
- Fresh cheddar cheese curds (preferably less than one day old) and crispy fries are considered essential to heighten the dynamic contrasts in texture, temperature and viscosity for which the dish is known. Air and moisture seep out of the curds over time, which alters their acidity level and causes proteins to lose their elasticity. This causes the curds to lose their complex texture and squeakiness. Food safety practices require refrigerating curds more than a day old, but this suppresses the properties of their texture. Because fresh curds are not always available, mozzarella cheese may be an unavoidable substitute.
- The sauce is traditionally a light and thin chicken gravy. A light gravy will more easily coat all the fries, emulsifying into the remaining frying oil and unifying the dish. A sauce brune which is a combination of chicken and beef stock may also be used.
- The high dynamic contrasts make eating poutine a rich sensory experience. Even small variations—relative temperatures, the size of the curds, the oil used for frying, or spices in the gravy—can result in a distinctly different poutine.
- Restaurants that specialize in poutine, called poutineries, often have dozens of varieties, most of which add a meat topping with the gravy adjusted for balance.
- There are many internationally inspired variants which replace some or all of the ingredients but maintain the contrasts of a crispy element, a dairy-like element, and a unifying sauce:
- Replacing gravy with salsa, the cheese curds with sour cream, adding diced onions and tomatoes turns poutine into mexipoutine, an item also carried by the likes of Taco Bell under the name "Fries Supreme".
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Poutine” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-12-03, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.