This Seafood Seasoning Blend Is All You Need For Perfect Potato Wedges

Potato wedges are perhaps one of the best tuber snacks that a person can enjoy. They feel just a little bit more formal than the french fries you can order at any old drive-thru, but they don't have the capital-D dinner connotation of a baked spud. And potato wedges can be made even tastier with a few shakes of the zippy spice blend that you might still have in your pantry from your last flavorful homemade seafood boil: Old Bay seasoning.

The blend inside that Old Bay seasoning container, with its familiar yellow label and blocky font, is a mix of 18 herbs and spices, including celery salt, paprika, and black pepper, though the rest of a lineup is mysteriously absent from its public ingredient list. The combination's resulting flavor is less enigmatic. It has a little bit of heat, plenty of salinity, and a kind of earthy quality that just gives everything it touches, especially plain, starchy veggies, a little more oomph. The list of foodstuffs that Old Bay improves includes nearly anything savory, but you might also be surprised to learn how successfully this seafood seasoning pairs with sweets like vanilla ice cream. And the humble, admittedly bland potato just becomes twice as exciting when it's cut into wedges and sprinkled with plenty of this versatile red powder.

You barely need a recipe for this classic snack, but you can always refer to our roasted garlic and za'atar potato wedge recipe for reference, swapping the za'atar with Old Bay. You'll first slice a few russet potatoes down to size (an apple corer gets the wedges perfectly uniform) and soak them in ice water to remove a bit of their crispiness-inhibiting starch. Make sure to dry the spuds thoroughly after, though.

You can then toss the wedges in some oil and the Old Bay before arranging on a parchment-lined baking sheet and cooking them in the oven. You'll know they're done when they're a little brittle on the outside and a fork sinks through easily. You can shake on any additional salt to taste after they are done. 

You can also easily make Old Bay potato wedges in the air fryer. Like with most of your air fryer preparations, you'll just want to make sure not to crowd the basket for the optimal crunch. This may take a couple of batches to achieve depending on the size of your appliance. Air fryer potato wedges will also likely require a similar time and temp as they would in the oven (400 to 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 30 minutes), again depending on your appliance model, but keep a close eye on their progress the first time you make them in any case.