These In-N-Out Animal Style Fries are smothered with caramelized onions, special sauce, and melty cheese. It’s an easy recipe that uses frozen french fries, and everything is cooked on a sheet pan. Burger nights just got a whole lot better!
Table of Contents
What Even Is “Animal Style?”
Being from California, it’s practically a rite of passage to have grown up eating In-N-Out. They truly do have one of the best and most affordable fast food burgers, period.
Unpopular opinion: Their fries are terrible. They’re always soggy or burnt to a crisp — there is no in-between! The only way I enjoy them is Animal Style. Animal-style fries are a “secret” menu item at In-N-Out (although it’s really more of an open secret at this point, because so many people love In-N-Out fries this way!).
Instead of a regular basket of french fries, they come topped with grilled onions, special burger sauce, and lots of cheese. Rather than lament the sad and soggy fries I’m always served at In-N-Out, I made this easy copycat animal-style fries recipe to enjoy at home with perfectly crispy fries.
It’s an absolute game changer and I love serving these fries alongside grilled burgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, grilled beer brats, and more!
Jenny’s Tips for Making Animal Fries
Use frozen fries for ease. I love making as much of my food from scratch as possible, but this is one recipe where a good-quality bag of frozen fries works so much better than homemade. Frozen fries can be baked or air fried until super crispy, plus all you have to do is rip open the bag and dump out the fries!
Don’t crank up the heat when caramelizing the onions. That’s a surefire way to cook them quickly — but then they won’t actually caramelize! Check out my caramelized onion mashed potatoes recipe for even more tips on caramelizing onions.
Caramelize the onions in advance, if needed. Caramelizing the diced onions takes several minutes (at least 10, but often even longer). If you’ll be serving these fries at a bbq and want to get most of the prep work out of the way, I suggest caramelizing the onions a day or two ahead of time and refrigerating until you’re ready to serve.
The 4 Main Ingredients
- Frozen french fries. Choose your favorite here! I used classic straight-cut fries for a true copycat In-N-Out effect, but you can play around with waffle or even curly fries if desired.
- American cheese. Kraft singles or any brand of American cheese is best. Now’s not the time to bust out that fancy sharp cheddar you’ve been meaning to try!
- Onion. I like using yellow onion because they caramelize well.
- Burger sauce. I make my burger sauce with mayo, ketchup, mustard, finely diced onion, relish, and a bit of paprika. I suggest making it yourself instead of buying it in a bottle; it takes less than 5 minutes and the flavor is so much better than any pre-made kind.
Kitchen Tools I Recommend
How to Make Animal-Style Fries Like In-N-Out
- Cook the fries until crispy. I like to air fry mine, but baking them in the oven works great too.
- Caramelize the onion. Diced onion caramelizes faster than sliced onion, but this process will still take a good 10+ minutes. Don’t try to rush the process by cranking up the heat; that will cook the onions, yes, but they won’t caramelize and become jammy.
- Mix together the burger sauce. Just whisk everything together and chill until ready to use.
- Cook the fries … again! Once the fries have cooked, you’ll load them up with American cheese and bake them until the cheese has melted.
- Make them animal-style. Immediately spread the caramelized onions over the gooey cheese and then drizzle with burger sauce. Enjoy ASAP, and have some napkins close to hand — this will get messy!
Serving Suggestions
Here are some of my favorite recipes to serve alongside animal-style fries:
If you do give it a try, be sure to let me know! Leave a comment with a star rating below. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter and never miss a new recipe! You can also snap a photo & tag @JENNYGOYCOCHEA on Instagram. I LOVE hearing about & seeing your SMF creations!
More Easy Fry Recipes to Make
This post may contain affiliate links from which I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Affiliate links allow me to keep providing great recipes for free and I never recommend products that I don’t love and personally own.
Copycat In-N-Out Animal Style Fries Recipe
Ingredients
Burger Sauce
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 teaspoons yellow mustard
- 1/4 cup finely minced yellow onion
- 2 tablespoons dill or sweet relish
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
Fries
- 32 oz frozen french fries
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 6-8 slices American cheese
Instructions
- Cook the fries. Cook the fries according to package instructions. I prefer to air fry them when I can!
- Caramelize the onion. While the fries cook, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat and once the butter is melted and foamy, add the diced onion. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon sugar. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is deeply golden. Season with salt and pepper.
- Mix the burger sauce. Combine all the burger sauce ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Preheat an oven to 400 F.
- Bake the fries. Spread the cooked fries out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper so that the fries are all fairly close together. Arrange the cheese slices over the top to mostly cover the fries. Bake for 5-8 minutes, until the fries are hot and the cheese is melted.
- Finish. Top the fries with the caramelized onions. Drizzle all over with the burger sauce and serve right away.
Rate & Review This Recipe
No comments yet — be the first to rate and review!