by Tierney O'Hara

Created on: January 03, 2010

Homemade potato chips, made from white or sweet potatoes, are a snap to make but be warned: you will need to make quite a few chips as they’ll be eaten up as fast as you fry them up.

You can make chips without having a slicing mandolin, but it’s much easier and quicker if you do have a way to slice your potatoes to a uniformly thin size which is exactly what the mandolin will help you to do.  Also, trying to hand slice your potatoes into almost see-through “chips” can be dangerous if not done carefully.

Even if you don’t have a mandolin, you can still have fresh fried potato chips.  Take your washed and peeled potato and slice off as little of the bottom of the potato as you can but still create a solid flat surface which will keep the potato from “rocking or rolling” on the cutting board. Once you’ve got your potato stable, thinly slice it into chips.

Take the thinly sliced chips, whether they have been sliced on the mandolin or by hand and dump them into a large bowl of ice water.  Continue to slice and dump the chips into the cold water until you have as many chips as you wish.  (I strongly recommend you make more chips than you think you might need!)

Once you are done slicing, it’s time to remove the potato slices from the water.  Drain them for about 30 minutes then spread them out on paper towels, dish towels or even paper bags to continue to drain and dry.

While your chips are drying, get your frying kettle out and place it on a burner.  You will need about 20 ounces of vegetable oil for frying approximately 3 pounds of potatoes.

Let the oil heat until it reaches a temperature of 350 degrees – often accomplished by putting the burner on medium.  Drop a small piece of bread into the oil and bubbles should surround it instantly and it should turn brown in a few seconds. 

Pat your potato slices with a towel to be sure you have removed all the excess moisture on the potato slice’s surface.  Watery potatoes will make the grease spit and alter the temperature of your frying oil.

Carefully lower the chips into your kettle and watch them turn brown before your eyes.  Speaking of eyes, do not take your eyes off your chips as they cook in a blink of an eye! 

The thinner the chip the quicker they cook.  Have a slotted spoon or "spider" ready to lift them from the hot oil and let them drain over the pot for a few seconds before you place them on a cookie tray covered in absorbent materials like brown paper bags, paper towels or newspaper covered in a brown bag or paper towels.

Salt your chips with Kosher salt or table salt while they are still hot.  You can also put your cooked chips into a brown bag and salt them while they are still in the bag.  Shake the bag so all of the chips get salted and pour out into a bowl.

If you want to make designer chips, use spices like garlic or onion powder, cumin or paprika, even cinnamon and sugar and turn an everyday potato chip into a culinary masterpiece.

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