Potato Chips
I made potato chips today. It’s really not that hard to do, and they taste so much better than ones you buy in the store.
First, you have to wash the potato very good, to get all the dirt off. You don’t have to peel it, although most people prefer their chips that way. Me, I just have a plastic scrubbie that I use to clean the potatoes off with.
Next, you have to make sure your knife is sharp. That’s because you have to slice the potato as thin as possible, maddeningly thin. It’s nice if you have a meat slicer, since those are very consistent in the thickness of the slices. If not, just be careful you don’t trim your fingernails or slice your fingers or knuckles.
Rinse and soak the sliced potato in water. You will want to change the water several times, to rinse all the starch off. Leaving the starch on will kill your oil very quickly, and I don’t know about you, but I hate changing the oil in my deep fryer – the less I have to do it, the happier I am.
Speaking of the deep fryer, it’s best if you have clean oil in it, so you don’t get fish or chicken flavored chips *blech* At this point, you can turn the fryer on, to start heating it up. 350 degrees works for me; any hotter, and you get burnt chips.
Now comes the important part. Lay a clean kitchen towel on the counter, and arrange a single layer of slices on the towel. Place another clean towel on top of the layer, and using a cutting board, press down on the towels. This will remove most, if not all of the water from the slices, and dry them out a bit. Continue until all the slices are dry.
Fry the slices for 6-10 minutes, depending on the thickness. You want to place them in the oil carefully. I do it one at ta time, to make sure they don’t stick together. Also, if you put too many in at once, you cool off the oil significantly, and end up with a greasy blob. Be very careful when you stir the chips, too, so you don’t break them into little tiny pieces.
When you see very little steam coming out of the fryer, and the chips are a nice golden color, they are ready to come out. Drain as much oil off of them as possible, and scatter them on paper towels. Paper towels are ideal for absorbing any excess grease. While they are on the towels, season with your favorite seasoning: plain salt, Cajun seasoning, barbecue seasoning, or even buttery popcorn seasoning. Put them into a gallon size ziplock bag, and gently toss them so the seasoning gets evenly distributed.
The ziplock bag is also a great way to store them, and keep them fresher, longer. However, if you slice the chips too thickly, they will be soft on the inside. What you will want to do is spread these out on a cookie sheet, and put them in a 225 degree oven until they are dried out. A convection oven works best, if you have it. If you don’t dry the thick ones out, they will ruin the rest of the chips, making them stale, and they could even spoil. We don’t want that, now, do we?
Finally, grab some sour cream, and enjoy! I did today 
