Hi everyone! I know I’ve said it before, but I love chips. I could live a very happy life eating nothing but chips. And my very favorite chip is the potato chip.
I was recently in a couple of local Melbourne, Florida grocery stores. The first store I was in had a good supply of chips in the chip aisle, but the price of the bags was scary, particularly when you go through a bag of chips as quickly as I usually do. Then, in the second store I was in, I turned down the chip aisle and was shocked to see empty shelves. That sight sent shivers down my spine. Now I don’t know if they were just slow in restocking, but that sight prompted me to action.
I went home and did some research on potato chips, and I found a lot of recipes for microwave potato chips. The recipes were all very similar, used very few ingredients and didn’t involve frying of any kind. Since I am well versed in using the microwave, I thought I would give it a shot.
The only part of the recipes with a higher level of difficulty was using the mandoline. Every time I have mentioned a mandoline to anyone I know that cooks, they always have a cautionary tale about a friend or relative that has come close to loosing a finger (or at least a good deal of skin) while using it, so I am extra careful whenever I pull it out of the drawer.
For those of you that haven’t used a mandoline, it is utensil used to cut firm vegetables into uniform slices. I love using it for au gratin potatoes. The main part is a metal plate with a dial to control the thickness of the slices. It comes with adjustable blades that allow you to make the slices pretty shapes, if you want to. It also comes with a food holder – very important! You stick the food holder into the vegetable you are slicing so you don’t slice your fingers at the same time you slice the vegetable. As an extra precaution, I also wear a cut resistant glove. I’m not sure how much protection the glove would give me with the mandoline (I think the mandoline would win), but wearing it makes me feel better.
The recipes I found said to use a Yukon Gold potato because it has less starch. However, I looked online, and some folks say that russets are best. But I did go with a large Yukon Gold. I sliced it (using the food holder) in about 1/8 slices. The slices were translucent, and so thin you could see through them.
The most important part of all the recipes is soaking the potato slices to remove any starch. You need to keep soaking the slices, frequently changing the water, until the water stops clouding up and remained clear. It took 4-5 changes of water, but it finally remained clear.
Then the next most important part of the recipes is drying the potato slices as much as possible. I don’t think I dried the first batch well enough, and they just didn’t crisp up at all. I took much more care drying the next couple of batches, and they got nice and crispy.
My one potato gave me about a full bag worth of potato chips, but I did use a lot of paper towels making them. I also used salt to flavor the chips, but you can sprinkle them with any seasoning you like. Here are the instructions:
Ingredients
1 Yukon Gold potato
Spray cooking oil
Salt (to taste)
Instructions
Slice the potato on a mandoline set for 1/8 to 1/16-inch thick slices.
Put the potato slices in a bowl of cold water. Move the slices around until the water becomes cloudy. Drain the water and refill the bowl, repeating moving the slices around. Keep repeating this until the water remains clear. You can let most of the slices remain soaking in the clear water while you work with about a dozen slices at a time.
Dry the slices between paper towel. This step is important, because if the slices remain damp, they will steam instead of crisp up. I saw one recipe that suggested you spin them in a salad spinner to help the slices dry.
Arrange as many slices as will fit in a single layer on a microwave safe plate lined with a few paper towels (I actually have a rubber mat in my microwave, because my plates get too hot to handle, and I just laid the paper towels with the potato slices on that). Make sure the slices do not touch or else they stick together. If desired, sprinkle with salt or other spices. For richer-tasting chips, brush the slices with olive oil first. Give the slices a quick spray with cooking oil spray, or lightly brush the slices with oil. Sprinkle with salt to your taste.
Microwave the slices at 100% power for 3 minutes. Flip the slices over and microwave at 60% power for another 2 minutes. Remove any chips that are starting to crisp and brown. Continue cooking the remaining chips at 60% power in 1 minute intervals until they are all crispy and golden.
