I love home made chips. I love love love them. And yes a labor of love. I’ve said love too many times.
I make these with baby potatoes, larger Yukon as well as garnet yams and covington sweet potatoes. I also really enjoy the sweeter Japanese white potatoes (see photo way below) that happen to taste great even cold out of the fridge the next day. Yum.
So – how do you make these? You slice, mandolin or Cuisinart. Back in the day I sliced. But then I wanted faster and more even slices. So I bought a handy mandolin. That was great. Just great until I had a piece of my palm on the tray. Yikes. That was brutal. A trip to urgent care – glue and no potatoes that night. I’ll spare you that photo.
Rob bought me a lovely pair of safety gloves because he too loves these guys. So – that worked until one day I was rushing and forgot the safety glove. And took off the side of my finger. That was really bad and incredibly painful. Made worse by the orthopedist (!?) at urgent care who tried to cauterize my missing chunk without anesthesia! Oh my gosh. Even more brutal. Luckily Andy was home ( I was cooking for his friends) and he finished the potatoes while Rob took me in. Infection and pain ensued and that photo is even more awful so I will spare you again.
Rob bought me a Cuisinart next! And oh what joy!
The message is – be careful! Please.
Preheat the oven to 325 or so – convection or convection bake – you might have to fiddle. Spray your sheet pans with olive oil spray.
Cut your potatoes – the thinner the less time to cook. The thicker the more time. Rob likes them thick, I like them verrrry thin.
Place on sheetpan and do not overlap. Spray with olive oil. Sprinkle with Maldon salt. I like to add pepper to my Yukons.
Pop in the oven. If very thin might be as little as 10 m. If thicker longer. These guys bake at different speeds and you will also have hot spots in your oven. So have some tongs and oven mitts nearby and as they cook, pull off the ones that are nice and brown. Place those on a plate. And put the sheet pan back in the oven. This is one job that makes sense to stay by the oven – keep setting the timer – and keep looking and checking. Listen to a podcast, music or book. Rotate the pans and sometimes (especially if thickly cut) flip the slice over with your tongs if looks like it needs it. Obviously a very loose recipe.
I sometimes make 5-6 sheet pans at a time – for company or for us. And that is time well spent in the kitchen 🙂
You can make these in advance and reheat as needed. All varieties of sweet potatoes are especially good the next day. The regular potatoes not so great even reheated so keep in mind.
Enjoy
