RECIPE: How to Recreate Courtyard’s Classic Dirty Skinny Fries at Home

Marti shows you how simple it is to make this cheap, decadent, and sure-fire hangover fix!

dirty fries
(Image: Marti Stelling)

I swear, Courtyard’s dirty fries are laced with something.

A pint of Strongbow and an order of dirty skinny fries are my go-to Courtyard order. They are just SO good at any time of day.

As I sat in Courtyard one afternoon, my friend and I had a conversation about our mutual love of this Courtyard classic.

“But they’re nowt special”, my friend said. “It must be the BBQ sauce they use.”

So, as I have a bit of time on my hands now that my time at uni is coming to an end, I decided to take on the challenge of making my own dirty skinny fries.

You will need:

  • Chicken breast, diced into small pieces
  • Bacon, diced into small piece
  • Oven fries
  • BBQ sauce
  • Grated cheese

I began by roasting some chicken breast. I added some chargrilled chicken seasoning for a bit of *flavour*, but feel free to season with whatever you have in!

Then I cooked my oven fries. I used the McCain skinny fries, but any thin cut fries will work!

Whilst these were in the oven, I chopped some smoked back bacon into small pieces and fried on a medium heat.

While the bacon browned, I grated some cheddar cheese. Now, I am sure that the Courtyard uses catering cheese, so use whatever you have in already! The loaded fries at Courtyard have lots of cheese, so don’t be afraid to be a bit heavy handed with it!

Once my fries and meats were cooked, it was time to assemble my dirty fries. On the tray which my chips had cooked in, I added the grated cheese, bacon pieces, and chicken. I put this back in the oven until the cheese had melted and transferred to a plate. Courtyard serve theirs on a small tray, but I figured a plate would suffice. Then I loaded up with BBQ sauce (HP, though I would love to know which one CY uses) and voila! Dirty skinny fries at home.  

Concluding thoughts:

While these were nowhere near Courtyard’s delicious quality, they weren’t bad. I will say that they were a little dry unlike Courtyard’s and I think that next time I will substitute cheddar cheese for Mozzarella.