Home Made Oven Chips | Community Recipes | Nigella's Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Why are my homemade oven chips soggy? ›

Starch on the surface of the chips locks in moisture and causes them to go soggy. Drain the chips and rinse under cold water, then dry thoroughly before cooking. 2. Using enough of the right oil.

If the oven isn't hot enough to brown the chips on the 'air-side', or if there's not space for the heat to circulate around each chip, they'll be unevenly crisp. Deep-frying also means the oil can penetrate the craggy, broken edges on all sides to make an extra crisp surface.

Floury potatoes contain much less moisture but can fall apart if overcooked. For chips, we recommend using a maincrop floury potato, like a Maris Piper, which will give you a fluffy inside and crisp outer coating. They will absorb the oil when fried to give you the crunchy chip you're looking for.

Parboil the potato chips, skin on, for about 10 minutes in boiling salted water. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, smash the garlic bulb and chuck in the cloves, then add the potato chips. Toss in the oil and season with pepper. Bake on the preheated tray for 15 to 20 minutes until crispy and golden.

Add herbs and spices for extra flavor.

"Add a bit of gourmet flair to your fries by sprinkling them with some garlic powder, fresh rosemary, seasoned salt, or fresh virgin-olive [oil] or truffle oil," Koeppe said. As well as adding flavor, a drizzle of oil can also help keep fries from sticking together in the oven.

Turn the heat up under the oil and return one blanched chip to the oil as a guide again. Once it's floating and golden the temperature should be about 180°C, which is perfect for frying and will give you chips with those all-important crispy outsides and fluffy middles.

Starch can make the surface of the potato sticky – which can make the chips stick together on the baking tray. However! We're coating the chips in a little oil – which will stop them sticking together.

Don't salt the oil, and don't overcrowd the pan, or the oven. Steam is the arch nemesis of the crispy chip. Cook the chips at a high temperature, and turn them halfway through.

If your potato chips aren't crispy, it's likely because your potatoes were not completely dry before you started cooking, or you did not soak and rinse them long enough. Using too much oil could also make your potato chips less crispy.

It's imperative you soak your potatoes for at least 30mins. This helps remove most of the starch in the potato, resulting in a crispier finish. It also means that some of the natural sugars are removed, meaning that the outside won't burn before the middle is cooked.

What are the top 3 potato chips? ›

By rinsing the chips well, we can eliminate surface sugars that will brown too quickly, or even burn. Slice the chips, then give them a bath in cold water, agitating them and even changing the water once or twice until it runs clear.

Put oven chips on a large baking tray. Drizzle over vegetable oil and sprinkle over smoked paprika, smoked or regular sea sealt flakes, dried rosemary, a small pinch of cayenne pepper and garlic granules; toss well to coat. Bake the chips to pack instructions until golden and crisp.

Gordon Ramsay's chunky oven chips

Blanch in a large pan of boiling water for 3 mins, then drain well. Shake the potatoes out onto a roasting pan, drizzle with oil, ensuring each chip is evenly coated, then season well. Bake for about 15-20 mins, turning the potatoes at least twice, until golden brown and crisp.

He demonstrates how the factory would blanch the potato to allow the starch in the potato to soak up the water and create a fluffy outside, which is then pre fried for a short time to crisp the outside before being frozen. This process enables oven chips to have a third less fat than ordinary chips.

To begin with, Magda recommends cooling the leftover chips as soon as possible, putting them in the fridge with a "loose cover" to prevent bacteria growth. It is vital the chips are dry when you reheat them, this can be done by patting them with a kitchen towel or by using salt to draw out any excess moisture.

If you wash potatoes and don't give them enough time to dry, the excess moisture on their surfaces will lead to the fries steaming rather than browning and crisping. Many fry recipes will also call for soaking the cut potatoes in water to remove extra starches, which can help you get the crispiest fries possible.