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

FAQs

Why are my homemade oven chips soggy? ›

Give your chips an ice bath, and leave for 15-20 minutes if you have the time. This will wash off some of the starch – you'll see as the water goes cloudy. 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.

The key to the perfect chip, is to use a floury potato like King Edward or Maris Piper, and ensure they're cut into evenly sized, uniform fries. This means you'll get evenly cooked chips at the end with a crispy outer shell, but a soft and fluffy centre, rather than the half frazzled, and half undercooked.

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.

Remove chips from packaging and spread evenly on a baking tray. Make sure that there is enough space for the chips to cook. Place your tray of chips in the centre of the oven and cook for 20 - 25 minutes. After about 12 minutes, toss and turn your chips to ensure an even crispness.

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.

The trick to getting the chips to taste like they are straight from the chip shop is to fry them twice in the hot oil. The first fry is at a lower temperature and softens the potato; the second turn in the hot oil is at a higher temp and achieves that signature crispy exterior.

But, if you're after flavour, cooking chips in beef tallow (rendered beef fat you can get from your butcher) gives you better flavour and colour – the choice is yours. Finally, on salt, being an Essex boy, in my house it has to be Maldon sea salt.

Baking powder can be used to achieve a crispy outer texture while keeping the inside of fried foods tender.

Use a floury (also called mealy) potato such as Russet or Shepody for your chips and you'll have better success.

How are oven chips manufactured? ›

The main processing steps are sheeting, baking, and flavoring. The potato chips are baked in the tunnel baking oven rather than fried in the frying machine and then seasoned. Chips of different flavors could be made by spraying different flavored powder, such as tomato flavor, seaweed flavor, spicy flavor and so on.

If they're not quite as crispy as you'd like, this is almost always because they need more time to cook or they are overcrowded on the oven tray.

Having hot oil is key to getting the potatoes not to stick to the tray and getting a perfect crisp skin. Toss the chips in the hot oil, salt, and place back into the oven. Cook for 20-25 minutes until golden. That's it – there isn't anything more to it.

If the oil isn't hot enough, this sealing process takes longer. Meanwhile, the moisture that's meant to stay in the body of the chip is excreted, making what is supposed to be a crispy outer layer, damp and steeped.

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.

Remember, fries are full of water. The more fries you add to a tray, the more steam they'll be releasing in your oven, reducing crispness. Load the oven quickly. This prevents heat loss that can result in soggy fries.

First, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Then, spread your French fries out on a parchment-lined baking sheet, making sure none of them are touching (if they're too crowded, they won't get as crispy). Heat them in the oven for about eight to ten minutes, then give them a quick toss.