Your Cheese Fries Deserve A Creamy Southern Twist

What's better than a salty, ultra-crispy batch of french fries? Cheese fries, of course. Although a standard spread of nacho cheese or a melty Mexican blend works just fine, your fries deserve the ole Southern grandma's kitchen treatment with a generous dollop of pimento cheese.

Pimento cheese, or Southern pâté if you're down in the Peach State, is a creamy dairy spread made from cheddar cheese, pimentos, mayonnaise, and spices. This beloved staple is perfect for slathering on crackers, spreading across sandwiches and burgers, or, in this case, melting over a batch of fries. Rich, peppery, and tangy, pimento cheese adds a creamy and flavorful depth to fries in a way that other one-dimensional cheese varieties can't. Despite its thick and hearty consistency, pimento cheese melts like butter on a piping hot skillet, delivering a cheese-pull worthy of a Texas cook-off gold medal. Need we say more?

The best way to make pimento cheese fries is by roasting or baking the potatoes until golden brown before dolloping the savory, tangy spread across sections of the fries and broiling it until its ooey-gooey goodness is evenly melted across the fries and ready to enjoy. Pimento cheese melts quickly, so don't let it cook for more than five minutes or the ingredients will separate.

Pimento cheese alone is enough to transform a humdrum platter of fries. But why stop there when you can introduce additional ingredients that complement its multi-dimensional flavor profile?

To turn this Southern snack into a full-fledged meal fit for a cowboy, bathe pimento cheese fries in chili to give it a saucy, protein-packed finish that will leave you satisfied for days. Juicy, tender, slow cooker pulled pork is an equally satiating option that's only marginally less messy. If chili or pork is a bit too heavy for the occasion, savory, crunchy bacon bits are a more tame pimento cheese fry topping.

Despite being made with peppers, pimento cheese isn't particularly spicy. If you want to turn up the heat, introduce some freshly chopped or pickled jalapeños to give the Southern-inspired cheese fries a fiery kick that cuts through their richness. For a fresher and less sharp veggie topping, smother your pimento cheese fries in a zippy schmear of lime-tinted guacamole. Just don't forget to wash it all down with an ice-cold sweet tea to complete the Southern dish.