A few years back, food bloggers went all wacky for homemade microwave potato chips. I remember making the things, and while they were good, they were a bit of a pain in the butt. Basically you sliced a potato, sprayed the slices with non-stick spray and laid them out on a plate and microwaved them for 5 minutes. Problem was – some microwaves are more powerful than others, and if you had a not especially powerful one, it often took 7 or 8 minutes to get the chips crisp. Given that you could only do one plateful at a time, it could take half an hour or more to make a small bowl of chips.
I always knew you could do something similar in the oven, and figured that it would probably take about the same amount of time. So over the past few days, I’ve been experimenting. It’s crazy cold outside, and my body wants comfort food and that generally means chips – or French fries. But it’s still January and I’ve been mostly good about keeping to the resolutions, so I wanted to avoid the greasy salty bagged potato chips from the variety store. These have a bit of oil, just to keep them from sticking, but I’d still count them as being healthy – leave the skins on and they even have fibre.
And – they’re really good. Not nearly as greasy as fried ones, but still crisp and satisfying. And way cheaper than a bag of crappy junk food chips.
My next project is to play with some other root vegetables; sweet potato chips, beet chips, parsnip chips… definitely cheaper than those bags of root chips from the health food store. And probably better.
Homemade Baked Potato Chips
Per person:
1 medium russet potato
1 tsp organic canola oil
pinch each of salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a food processor or on a mandolin, slice potatoes as thinly as possible. Put potato slices in a bowl and drizzle with the canola oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix well, making sure that all the slices are separated and are coated with the oil and spices.
Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper and lay the potato slices close together but not touching – one medium russet potato should just fill the two baking sheets. Sprinkle with additional salt if desired. Place in the preheated oven on the middle and lower racks and bake for 12 minutes.
Remove pans and flip each chip (I have asbestos fingers, but use tongs if you find the chips too hot to handle). Switch location of pans so that the pan that was on the bottom previously is now on the middle rack and vice versa. Bake for an additional 12 minutes. Chips should be golden brown and crisp. Allow to cool slightly and serve.
Notes:
- I used russets because that’s the potato chip standard – other varieties may have a different water content so watch their progress and adjust cooking times as necessary.
- Feel free to experiment with flavourings such as rosemary and garlic, cajun spice mix, parmesan, etc, but use a light hand – as the potatoes dehydrate, the flavouring will become more intense.