A Chip off the Old Block

Have you ever caught yourself wandering up and down the potato chip isle just looking at all the varieties of chips on the shelves?

Everybody we know has a favorite potato chip flavor, whether it be Cheddar and Sour Cream, BBQ, or Salt and Vinegar.

We were inspired to try to make homemade chips after doing extensive research on the itraweb. Okay, maybe not so extensive, but we did do research. Turns out, it really is a lot easier than we thought (not as easy as going and getting a bag from the shelf, but truly, much more satisfying).

We decided to get all sorts of fancy and make sweet potato chips as well.

Homemade Potato Chips:

russet baking potatoes (peeled or unpeeled, there’s no fast rule here. Remember you can also sub out sweet potatoes, or do a combination)- The amount will depend on how many chips you want to make … slice up 1 and see if you think that’ll be enough for you.

Oil for Frying

Salt

Slice potatoes, each slice should be about 1/8 of an inch thick (if you have a mandolin, this is a great use for it).

Place slices between sheets of paper towel, just to remove a bit of moisture.

In the meantime, pour 3-4 inches of oil into a dutch oven, and start heating. If you have a candy/oil thermometer, again, this is an ideal place to use it (you’ll want the oil at about 390). If you don’t, one of our tricks is to take a small piece of bread, if when it hits the oil it immediately starts bubbling, the oil is ready to go.

Before starting chips, set up a drying station. Cover a rack with paper towels to absorb all excess oil from the chip.

Place small batches of potatoes in the oil, you don’t want them crowded. Keep an eye on them so they don't get too dark. You want the chip to be a nice golden brown (or in the case of a sweet potato fry, you want it to be a dark orange).

Once finished, place the chips on the paper towels, and sprinkle a small amount of salt over each.

Continue until you’ve finished… then eat (if you're like us, the eating part didn't actually wait until you were finished)!

Notes:

- Do you have a fryer? Just follow the instructions and fry away.

- Keep an eye on the oil temperature. The batches of potatoes will lower the temp., give it a bit of time to come back up to cooking temperature before dropping in the next batch.

- Looking to be healthy… umm, healthier. You can also bake chips, we found a good recipe on epicurious


- Try making veggie chips. Use vegetables that are similar in texture to potatoes. We found that beets and butternut squash work well (so well that by the time we were ready to take pictures, they had disappeared from the plate).


- If you want flavored chips, try tossing the partially cooled chips in a bit of dry ranch dressing mix, or our favorite, taco seasoning mix.

Have fun, happy chipping!!