The best chips you have ever tasted recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to the best chips? ›

Mark Hix reckons there's more to it than just flavour: "Beef dripping or lard … is the ultimate chip cooking fat because it gives a crisper, tastier result," he says, before admitting that, because animal fats burn easily, they use vegetable oil in his restaurant kitchen. I try the Maris Pipers with dripping.

Three obvious things are important on your journey to perfection – your choice of potato, your choice of oil and your choice of salt. For me, the Maris Piper potato wins every time, and you want to use nice large ones. On oil, sunflower and sunseed are very efficient, and many people swear by using groundnut oil.

Peel the potatoes and cut into 1cm-thick chips. Parboil the chips in boiling salted water for 8 to 10 minutes, or until soft but keeping their shape. Drain in a colander and leave to steam until completely dry – this is very important before frying.

The difference lies in their starch content and structure. Waxy potatoes are amazing for boiling as they keep their shape, but floury potatoes fry up crisper. Use a floury (also called mealy) potato such as Russet or Shepody for your chips and you'll have better success.

☃ Top one: Lay's

Frito-Lay is one of the largest snack food manufacturers in the United States, which is the best selling chips. Lay's chip flavors include barbecue, sour cream & onion, salt & pepper, ham and many others.

Puffy Dorito chip (very rare)

Canola Oil:

Canola oil (AKA rapeseed oil), known for its low levels of saturated fats and high smoke point, is a fantastic choice for deep-frying fries.

A minority of vendors in the North of England and Scotland, and the majority of vendors in Northern Ireland, still use dripping or lard, as it imparts a different flavour to the dish. Lard is used in some living industrial history museums, such as the Black Country Living Museum.

Do chips taste better cooked in lard? ›

You can use beef fat or good vegetable oil for frying chips. If you prefer a traditional flavor, you can use lard. Beef fat or lard produces a full-flavored chip and, if cooked properly, the chip will be crisp and brown on the outside and soft within.

Why are my homemade chips not crispy? It's likely that too many chips were cooked at once (a crowded pan is never a good thing) and doing so means the temperature of the oil decreases, resulting in soggy, greasy chips.

The perfect chip should be light and fluffy on the inside and crisp on the outside; triple-cooking chips is the best way of ensuring that this is the case.

The potatoes are peeled and cut and then soaked in a solution of Drywhite and water. It keeps the chips looking white and fresh during storage and stops them from darkening too much during frying. This is what helps to keep 'chippy chips' looking evenly golden.

Spread a layer of store-bought kettle cooked potato chips on a baking sheet and sprinkle with finely grated Parmesan cheese (Pecorino also works well). Grind some black pepper on top, then do another layer. Think of it like making nachos: you want every chip to get at least a little bit of action from the toppings.

The high intensity of the frying process causes the glutamate to dehydrate and cyclize, forming pyroglutamic acid. This also exhibits umami flavor. Frying simultaneously drives off most of the water in the potato, concentrating the pyroglutamates in the chips.

The oil used in making the potato chips matters, too, the experts say. In particular, "we want to be mindful of saturated fat," Stahl Salzman says, which we want to reduce in order to support our overall health. Look for chips made with avocado or olive oil, the experts say.