The effects of preliminary vacuum drying (VD) and pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment on characteristics of fried potatoes were studied. The samples were preliminary dehydrated to a different levels (with moisture ratio of MR ≥ 0.2) using VD at sub-atmospheric pressure of p = 30 kPa, and two different drying temperatures, T_v = 40 °C and 70 °C. After dehydration the samples were fried for different frying time at 130 °C. The effects of PEF included significant shortening the VD time and absence of starch gelatinizing during the VD. Both application of PEF treatment and increase of temperature allowed shortening the drying time. For example, the drying time for the untreated sample dried at 40 °C was by ≈ 2.45 times higher than for the PEF treated sample dried at 70 °C. Increase in level of preliminary VD dehydration resulted in decrease of moisture content and oil uptake in fried samples. For PEF treated samples the moisture contents were significantly smaller than for untreated ones and the PEF treatment also resulted in significant decrease in oil contents. For example, at T_v = 40 °C and MR_v < 0.2 the oil uptakes were O_f = 0.26 ± 0.02 and O_f = 0.17 ± 0.01 for untreated and PEF treated samples, respectively. Preliminary VD dehydration allowed preservation the starch granules in fried potato.