Decent potato chips without deep frying?
Discussion
I cant stand oven chips so want to start doing chips the proper way from potatoes (not that oven chips arent made from potatoes, but you know what I mean).
Ive seen the Tefal Actifry cooker but wanted to find out if there was a simple way to cook nice chips without needing to spend £100 on one of these, but still not use a load of oil while doing so?
Ive seen the Tefal Actifry cooker but wanted to find out if there was a simple way to cook nice chips without needing to spend £100 on one of these, but still not use a load of oil while doing so?
We got rid of our old fryer as you could smell the oil for days throughout the house.
Instead, we quite often make our own potato wedges. Just chop up your potatoes to the required size, add some olive oil to a sandwich bag, fling in the potato wedges and give it a good shake to get them well covered.
Bung the wedges in the oven on a baking tray for 25-40 minutes (depending on how good your oven is), turn them once or twice and you end up with perfect wedges every time. We do them at 180C with a fan assisted electric oven for about 25-30 minutes.
You can add a bit of salt/pepper or any other garnish either to the oil in the bag, or while they are on the tray.
You could also cut the potatoes a bit thinner for chips - but make sure they have some spacing on the tray so they all cook properly.
Olive oil is a much healthier way of cooking them if they get done in fresh stuff every time. (Olive oil is not good for a deep fat fryer I am led to believe - something to do with the proteins breaking down when heated multiple times).
Instead, we quite often make our own potato wedges. Just chop up your potatoes to the required size, add some olive oil to a sandwich bag, fling in the potato wedges and give it a good shake to get them well covered.
Bung the wedges in the oven on a baking tray for 25-40 minutes (depending on how good your oven is), turn them once or twice and you end up with perfect wedges every time. We do them at 180C with a fan assisted electric oven for about 25-30 minutes.
You can add a bit of salt/pepper or any other garnish either to the oil in the bag, or while they are on the tray.
You could also cut the potatoes a bit thinner for chips - but make sure they have some spacing on the tray so they all cook properly.
Olive oil is a much healthier way of cooking them if they get done in fresh stuff every time. (Olive oil is not good for a deep fat fryer I am led to believe - something to do with the proteins breaking down when heated multiple times).
Potato variety can make all the difference here, many of the new ones with names refering back to their south american heritage (Peruvian/Mayan/Inca etc) are a different strain to our traditional ones. They break down much quicker (meaning they are not really suitable for boiling) & are fantastic roasted/wedged/oven chip with no par boiling required before hand.
eta however a quick search of Tesco & Sainsburys appear to show none of these at present.
eta however a quick search of Tesco & Sainsburys appear to show none of these at present.
Edited by AndyAudi on Tuesday 18th January 12:49
Tokoloshe said:
Nice one, thanks petercam, so you dont boil them a little first? I thought the middle might be a bit hard otherwise, but Ill give your directions a go and see how they turn out.
I don't boil them at all, but it will depend on your oven how they turn out, If they don't look done, don't be afraid to bung them back in for an extra 10 minutes or so, and make sure you turn them at least once - sometimes I need to swap the outside ones for the ones in the middle, as the middle ones don't get as much heat.Right now I have some King Edwards from Tesco and they are pretty good. I have used the Tesco bog standard washed potatoes as well and they seem fine too.
Another thing, if you are using olive oil, I would recommend a good clean of the oven tray afterwards. If you reuse the tray without cleaning it you get a gunky sticky mess on the tray that is hard to remove.
You can mop up the excess oil with a paper towel, a squirt of washing liquid and a splash/scrub with very hot water is usually enough. But some people prefer the acquired taste of a thousand roasts - thats not really my thing, especially if it's olive oil being used.
You can mop up the excess oil with a paper towel, a squirt of washing liquid and a splash/scrub with very hot water is usually enough. But some people prefer the acquired taste of a thousand roasts - thats not really my thing, especially if it's olive oil being used.
Haha! That reminded me of my mum's chip pan when we were kids. Full of solid lard, stuck on the hob till it liquefied and started to boil, fry chips, fish whatever then leave pan to cool and the lard to re-solidify and then just left in larder until next frying time.
I believe it was months between oil changes
I believe it was months between oil changes
petercam's anwers are on the money here.
We never fry chips and hardly ever buy them from the chippy these days.
One other thing I do is give them a stir a bit earlier than I should on the tray. This is when they have softened a bit, are just a little bit stuck and you end up getting some nice crunchy surfaces and crispy bits when they are finished. More or less the equivalent of breaking the surface by banging parboiled spuds round the pan before roasting to get them crunchier.
It's a bit of a bodge but works.
We never fry chips and hardly ever buy them from the chippy these days.
One other thing I do is give them a stir a bit earlier than I should on the tray. This is when they have softened a bit, are just a little bit stuck and you end up getting some nice crunchy surfaces and crispy bits when they are finished. More or less the equivalent of breaking the surface by banging parboiled spuds round the pan before roasting to get them crunchier.
It's a bit of a bodge but works.
croyde said:
Haha! That reminded me of my mum's chip pan when we were kids. Full of solid lard, stuck on the hob till it liquefied and started to boil, fry chips, fish whatever then leave pan to cool and the lard to re-solidify and then just left in larder until next frying time.
I believe it was months between oil changes
and it never did you any harm I believe it was months between oil changes
croyde said:
Haha! That reminded me of my mum's chip pan when we were kids. Full of solid lard, stuck on the hob till it liquefied and started to boil, fry chips, fish whatever then leave pan to cool and the lard to re-solidify and then just left in larder until next frying time.
I believe it was months between oil changes
I almost saw my dinner again after reading that.I believe it was months between oil changes
Rank.
To help them stop sticking to the oven tray, put it in the hot oven for a few minutes before you put your wedges on. No idea why, but it helps to stop them sticking.
I do them in the same way as in the second post, with olive oil in a sandwich bag, but add a few good pinches of salt and black pepper. Sometimes some rosemary as well...
I do them in the same way as in the second post, with olive oil in a sandwich bag, but add a few good pinches of salt and black pepper. Sometimes some rosemary as well...
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