Homemade Russet Potato Chips

I’ve been making homemade potato chips ever since the wife gave me a mandoline. I like my chips nice and thick, and I can control what goes into them when I make them at home. It’s taken me a while to perfect the process, but I’ve finally gotten to the point where I thought I’d preserve my pointers for posterity.

Here’s everything you need:

I’d prefer to use peanut oil to fry the chips, but it’s just too expensive. Instead, I use canola oil.

Bring the oil to about 340-345° on the stove top over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot (which takes about 15-20 minutes), chop one potato down the middle. Use a mandoline to slice half of it into 1/8 inch thick rounds. You really need a mandoline for this. You can’t get uniform slices like this with a knife. I know; I’ve tried.

Carefully drop the potato slices to the hot oil one at a time and cook until they’re crisp and golden brown, about four minutes. Make sure to keep dunking the chips in the oil with a slotted spoon so both sides brown evenly.

The temperature of the oil will drop to around 310°. That’s normal, so resist the urge to crank the heat up to compensate. Remove the finished chips, shake off any excess oil, and lay them on some brown paper bags. Immediately sprinkle kosher salt on top. The bags should absorb most of the grease, but I usually move the chips to a rack to dry once they’re cool enough to touch.

Once the oil has returned to 350°, slice the other half of the potato and repeat.

This might seem like a cumbersome process, but you have to do it in this order. Overcrowding the pot makes the temperature of the oil drop too much and you end up with soggy, greasy chips. Slicing all of the potatoes at once gives them too much time to release their starches, resulting in brown, slightly burnt-tasting chips. Trust me, this is the best way to fry chips on the stove top.

I made some fresh French onion dip to go with the homemade chips. It was really good.

NOTE: I’ve tried lots of tips and techniques for making homemade potato chips. Some resulted in soft and soggy chips, and others were crisp but burnt. I’ve even gone through the labor-intensive process of parboiling and drying the potato slices to rid them of excess starch so they maintain a light color. The end result just wasn’t worth the effort. So even though this recipe might seem like it takes a long time to make, I promise you that it could take a whole lot longer.