(potato) chips are down...

December 30, 2016 12:29 PM

I came up with the idea of making a bunch of different potato chips (crisps) as a small NYE gathering with friends. Please help me make this a better reality.

I have made potato chips before, but just basic salted ones, baked in butter. I have tried various oils, pan-frying, baking... but the baked in butter came out the best. That was many years ago, and I have visions of salt and vinegar chips, onion (I can just use onion powder?), and other flavours.

I have a deep fryer, a full kitchen, mandoline for slicing, various herbs/spices, your typical established suburban kitchen. What is the secret to American style potato chip nirvana? How do I make salt and vinegar chips, splash after cooking? How do I get the crisp-est chips? We are planning for this to be a small activity, so complex or involved is OK. I can do some prep work tonight/tomorrow as well.

posted by kellyblah to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Best answer: I would start here, serious eats is always very thorough on proper technique.
posted by deadwater at 1:19 PM on December 30, 2016

I feel like an onion dip mix should probably be involved somehow but I don't know. I think this party sounds delicious!
posted by Night_owl at 1:20 PM on December 30, 2016

Best answer: I saw an episode of Martha Stewart's cooking show where she pressed parsley leaves between two thin layers of potatoes to make stained-glass chips. At the time I thought "who would ever do that?" But it sounds like it might be the perfect project for you! Recipe.
posted by GoldenEel at 1:28 PM on December 30, 2016

Microwave potato chips!
posted by St. Peepsburg at 1:56 PM on December 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Try branching out from potatoes too! Try sweet potatoes, parsnips and beets as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:56 PM on December 30, 2016

I know that the microwave thing sounds like nonsense, but it totally works.
posted by freezer cake at 2:06 PM on December 30, 2016

Response by poster: I have/will make classic onion dip (from scratch!) and I am thinking of some other stuff, too. Dip is important. We will also have sweet potatoes, those have already been acquired. Reading the Serious Eats article now, that is what I need! And, might try the stained glass ones, maybe with rosemary, and sage as well... keep it coming!
posted by kellyblah at 2:11 PM on December 30, 2016

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thrillist.com/amphtml/recipe/new-york/oiji-korean-honey-butter-chip-recipe?client=safari

These are frustratingly, schockingly, disgustingly good even when homemade with Lays. Lik, they come to the table, and the entire table just goes silent shoving them into their respective mouths as quickly as possible.

Fresh out of a deep fryer, I think they could stop wars.
posted by joyceanmachine at 2:47 PM on December 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

They are so good, in fact, that we use them in our house as a joking way of expressing affection. Make a hot dinner for the other person, and you get called sweetie. Make a hot dinner AND clean up the kitchen, you get called. Make a hot dinner AND do all the cleanup AND it's my favorite AND you made enough for me to take into work as leftovers next week?

Honey butter chips.
posted by joyceanmachine at 2:52 PM on December 30, 2016

Vinegar powder is a thing. Not totally sure but I think that's what goes on chips (rather than splashing them with liquid vinegar).
posted by somedaycatlady at 6:27 PM on December 30, 2016

I recently made potato chip-like things by spiralizing potatoes with an apple peeler/corer/slicer (the "cores" made great fries) and deep frying them (electronic deep fryer, so I've got no tips on deep frying except that the manual had the times way off so watch them carefully).

You can make your own vinegar salt for salt and vinegar chips (ideally use malted vinegar, because yum!).

Powdered buttermilk makes homemade popcorn taste like Smartfood, so I bet it would make awesome cheesy chips. Or you can get cheese powder, which you're less likely to find on an average supermarket shelf, but it totally obtainable.

Smoked paprika has an amazing flavor. I like to mix it with powdered garlic.

And this Bloody Mary spice mix would probably be a lot of fun. I've got some home-dried tomatoes that are definitely being turned into tomato powder.
posted by carrioncomfort at 8:53 AM on December 31, 2016

Response by poster: We did salt, buttermilk ranch, nutritional yeast, and, bacon and chive with the Serious Eats vinegar par-cook then deep fry. I did the Martha Stewart one, too, but used dill instead of parsley. Yum. Next time, I would do the par-cook step the day before, or hours before, as it is a bunch of work. Thanks, all!
posted by kellyblah at 6:13 PM on January 1, 2017