Roasted Potato Wedges with Arby's(ish) Dipping Sauce

After finishing a final the other day, I came home, sat at my table, and stared blankly out of the window for a while.  I had just spent three hours writing about fun things like filius nullius (I prefer my own rhyming version: filius nillius) and child custody, and I needed a break. While I was sitting there, windows open, I got a whiff of something that smelled just like Arby's fries.  Arby's fries only make me think of one thing: Arby's Sauce.  I immediately googled it and found a bunch of recipes for both seasoned fries and Arby's Sauce.  

When I told my brother about my discovery he didn't understand why I didn't just go to Arby's and take a bunch of their sauce.  So I explained to him my issues with Arby's in Minneapolis: 1) The closest one is in the middle of downtown and appears to be quite skeezy.  2) The second closest Arby's is less skeezy.  Only marginally, though.  My friend Chris's once witnessed a fight there during a busy lunch hour.  I would rather make my own sauce than get punched in the face.  3) I do not want to deal with squeezing a miniscule amount of sauce out of a packet, and then clogging up a landfill with a bunch of Arby's Sauce packets.  So I opted for the homemade route.  

Here's the recipe I used: Arby's Sauce 

Start out with a cup of ketchup and two tablespoons of water.  

Add 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp onion powder, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce.  I didn't have regular Tabasco sauce, so I used Tio Pepe instead.  Maybe that's why the results weren't spot-on.  Maybe not.  

This picture kind of looks like a really bad party in the 70s.  

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat until it boils.  Remove it from the heat and let it cool.  Stick in the fridge until you're ready to use it.  

For the potato wedges, start with 3 or 4 large potatoes.  

Slice them length-wise to form wedges.  I probably got 12-16 wedges from each potato.  

Drizzle with olive oil.  The more olive oil, the crispier the potato.  Sprinkle with salt & pepper.  Or rosemary.  Or dill.  Or parsley.  Or toss with some vinegar.  

I attempted to replicate the Arby's fry seasoning on some of mine.  I found a recipe here, and I kind of followed it.  I mixed 2 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp cayenne, 1/8 tsp garlic powder, 1/8 tsp onion powder, and salt.  All of the recipes I saw started out with boiling the potatoes a little first and then mixing the spices with flour and egg substitute.  Egg substitute is not something I have laying around, so I skipped all that and just tossed the spices with some oiled potato wedges.  

Brush a little oil on a baking sheet, and bake at 450 until crispy.  It takes about 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the wedges.  Here's what they looked like before going into the oven.  

And here's the after picture.  The Arby's batch got a little charred.  I'm not sure if it was the crappy pan I used or not putting enough oil on the pan or putting too many dry spices without enough liquid on the potatoes.  If I make these again, I think I'll try following the actual recipe and see where it takes me.  

Here are the simple salt & pepper ones.  They were marvelous.  

We ate them with turkey burgers.  Once I make a perfect turkey burger, I will tell you all about it.  But until then, go make some potato wedges.  And some Arby's Sauce if you're into that.  While it did not taste just like the real thing, it was a nice departure from regular ketchup.