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Meleyna Nomura
Meleyna Nomura
Meleyna is a recipe developer, food photographer, and champion of home cooking. She is likely to be found on the sidelines of the Little League field (with a full dinner for four packed in a cooler) or waiting in line for a Trader Joe’s sample.
published Mar 5, 2022
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These crispy sweet potato chips take under an hour to make.
Serves1 to 2Makesabout 3 cupsPrep5 minutesCook35 minutesJump to Recipe
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In a quest to find a sturdy homemade sweet potato chip, I baked up pounds and pounds of sweet potatoes. I tested a range of thicknesses, lined and unlined pans, oven rack positions, and temperatures ranging from 250°F all the way up to 425°F. I ate many soggy chips (still good!) and tossed many burned ones. (Awful! So bad! Don’t pretend they’re “caramelized” — they’re just burned!) All my hard work payed off, because I cracked the code on how to make the very best ones.
How to Best Slice Sweet Potatoes for Chips?
While you can use a sharp knife to slice sweet potatoes as thinly as possible for chips, a mandoline is your friend here. Not only does a mandoline help you slice sweet potatoes into super-thin 1/8-inch slices, but it also helps ensure an even thickness from end to end. One of the trickiest parts of making sweet potato chips is uneven thickness, leaving you with one burnt half while the other is still floppy. A mandoline solves this problem.
How Do I Choose Sweet Potatoes for Chips?
This recipe uses orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. The most important thing to look for when choosing sweet potatoes is to pay attention to how wide they are around. Sweet potatoes can range wildly in size. It’s important to pick one that will fit in your mandoline. If it’s too wide, it won’t sit flush against the blade, making it impossible to get even slices.
How Do I Ensure Crispy Sweet Potato Chips?
Even slices, a thorough coating in oil, and a two-step baking process give you chips that are crisp rather than soggy or burnt. Tossing the slices in olive oil adds flavor and an additional spritz of nonstick spray on the baking sheets ensures all sides are coated.
During testing, lower oven temperatures took too long to crisp up, while the higher temperatures burned quickly. The sugar content of sweet potatoes means you can go from lightly browned to black very quickly. A two-step cooking process gives the best and most consistent results.
- Initial cook at 300ºF: This first 20-minute trip to the oven cooks the slices through without giving them too much color.
- Final blast at 400ºF: Returning the sweet potato slices to the oven for another 15 minutes at this higher temperature turns potato slices into potato chips.
Small variations in chip thickness and width as well as oven temperature all affect how quickly and evenly your chips cook. You’ll need to pay close attention during the last few minutes of cooking and remove chips a few at a time as they finish cooking.
- If one side of the chip is clearly browned, remove it because it’s done. The thickness of this chip was likely uneven and one side cooked faster than the other.
- Chips may be lightly browned at the edges with golden leopard-like “spotting” on one or both sides.
- A crispy chip won’t fold over when picked up at its edge with tongs. This is a better indicator than color.
- If a chip doesn’t crisp up after a minute on the cooling rack, return it to the oven for a minute more. Just be sure to err on the side of caution because all you can do with a burned chip is throw it away.
What Do I Serve Sweet Potato Chips With?
In a word, dip! Seasoned with just salt, these chips are well-suited to a variety of flavors, but the natural sweetness pairs particularly well with spicy dips. Homemade chips are an easy way to level up any dip you picked up at Trader Joe’s or Costco, but pairing them with something homemade really puts it all over the top. Dip for dinner, anyone?
- Creamy Avocado Dip
- Cheesy Sausage Dip
- 4-Can Skillet Nacho Dip
- Baked Jalapeño Popper Dip
- 5-Ingredient Creamy Mushroom Dip
- Cheesy Hot Crab Dip
- Muhammara
Sweet Potato Chips Recipe
These crispy sweet potato chips take under an hour to make.
Prep time 5 minutes
Cook time 35 minutes
Makes about 3 cups
Serves 1 to 2
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
Cooking spray
- 1
medium sweet potato (about 1 pound)
- 2 tablespoons
olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon
kosher salt, plus more as needed
Instructions
Arrange 2 racks to divide the oven into thirds and heat the oven to 300°F. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray.
Cut 1 medium sweet potato in half crosswise (no need to peel). Using a mandoline, use firm, even pressure to slice into 1/8-inch thick slices. Place in a large bowl, drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil, and toss to coat.
Arrange the sweet potato slices on the baking sheets in a single layer. Coat the tops of the chips with cooking spray and season with 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt.
Bake for 20 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 400°F. Flip the sweet potato slices over. Return to the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets between racks and from front to back, and bake for 5 minutes more.
Remove the baking sheets from the oven. Transfer any of the smaller chips that have browned to a wire rack. Flip the remaining slices again. Return the baking sheets to the oven and continue baking until the chips no longer bend or fold when picked up by the edge, 3 to 5 minutes more. Exact timing depends on the width and thickness of your chips. Chips may be lightly brown at the edges and underneath, but remove before they have darkened too much. Color is not as good an indicator as firmness. You will likely need to remove a few chips at a time as they are done cooking.
Transfer all the chips to the wire rack, where they’ll crisp up slightly more. Season with more kosher salt if desired.
Filed in:
Ingredient
Potatoes
vegetarian
vegan
Gluten-Free
Vegetables
