Potato chips are one of our favourite snack foods. We enjoy the crunchy, salty good chip on occasion. It is also a nice treat to make a potato chip at home, but we aim to make ours a little healthier than those we buy in the store. One way to do that is to bake the potato slices instead of frying. Some may argue that the crispy, crunchy factor is no longer there when the potato is baked, but we disagree. The crunchiness comes from the thickness of the potato slice. That is, the thinner potato slice will have more crunch to it than the thicker. We aimed to make these chips crunchy, and almost got there! Our slices should have been a little thinner, but the flavour was delightful.
The baked potato chip needs only a few ingredients and can be prepared in about 25 minutes. It is a great after school snack that you can get the younger generation involved with making (and eating).
For this recipe, you will need the following:
3 russet potatoes
1 Tablespoon oil (we used olive today, but you can use other types of healthy oil)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1-2 teaspoons Greek oregano
To make this recipe, you will start by scrubbing the the potatoes and slicing them. The slices should be across the potato, not down the length. Slice as thinly as you can, trying to keep the slices of even width all the way down the length of the potato. We thought about using a mandolin or a food processor with a slicing blade, but for 3 potatoes, that seemed like a lot of clean up for a little work. We did ours by hand with a serrated chef's knife, to make the slicing more fluid. Use a sharp knife that will easily cut through the potato starch.
Once the potatoes are sliced, put them in a bowl large enough for mixing. Add the oil. Mix the oil very well to make sure to coat all sides of the potato slices. The potatoes may stick to each other, but you have to mix to separate them and coat them with oil. Then, add the salt, pepper, and oregano. Mix again so that the spices are evenly distributed over all of the potato slices.
Then, lay the potato slices on a prepared cookie sheet. You can use parchment paper, as we did, or if you have non-stick cookie sheets, use a little pan spray on the cookie sheet. Lay the potato slices in a single layer, not overlapping at all. We found that if we laid all the large pieces in rows, we could use the smaller pieces of potato to fill in the gaps between the large slices. Or, you can just line up the rows, trying to keep the smaller slices in the middle of the pan, and the larger slices on the perimeter. It depends on your oven and where the hot spots are located.
Once the tray is full, put it in the preheated, 450 F oven for 10-15 minutes. Once again, this depends on your oven. The potatoes will take on a beautiful golden colour, and they will become nice and firm. Our oven took almost 20 minutes to achieve the crispiness, but the colour was reached at 15 minutes. There is no need to flip the potato slices since they are so thin to start, they bake right through the middle! Now, serve these hot! They will be crisp and flavourful and a nice snack.
“If God is slow in answering your request, or if you ask but do not promptly receive anything, do not be upset, for you are not wiser than God.”
St. Isaac of Syria
These were great! Thank you for the idea/recipe.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nick. We are thrilled that you enjoyed them as much as we have. Kali Sarakosti!
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