There are so many recipes out there for making potato chips.

All of them involve thin-slicing the potatoes. Anddddd… I don’t always feel like using my mandoline, and my knife skills are more than a bit lacking.

Some include baking in the oven — but the only way to get them super-crispy that way is to almost burn them (which I don’t mind, but it takes a lot of time to get there, and attention to not accidentally let them go a bit too far).

Others involve deep-frying, which results in delicious chips, but I always feel that the amount of set-up and oil involved results in not enough chips for the work. And I’m not a huge fan of cooking over hot oil if I can avoid it. It freaks me out. Spattering. AHHHH!

lays

So for a while, I’ve been thinking of making some chips in the style of Pringles or Baked Lay’s. You know the ones. They’re NOT slices of potato. They’re super-thin “slabs” of potatoes, somehow made crispy!

With the help of my awesome immersion blender and my amazing dehydrator with the non-stick sheets, I did it. And now that I’ve done the experimenting one potato at a time, and found what works, I can fill up the whole dehydrator and make lots of chips at once!

Step 1: Cook your potatoes however you’d like. Bake, microwave-steam, or boil. Just make sure they’re cooked. I’ve made “potato chips” in the dehydrator before by just using raw potato slices, and they’re not good… raw potatoes really have an unpleasant starchy taste you won’t enjoy. Let the potatoes cool enough so that you can handle them, then peel. (If you’re boiling them, you could peel them first. For baking and microwave-steaming, you should leave it on for the first part.)

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Step 2: Once your potatoes are peeled, cut them up into smaller pieces so that blending them will be easier.

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Step 3: (Here you can see that I played with sweet potatoes too. They work great!) If you want to add seasonings or spices IN your chips, make sure they are very finely ground. I used a mortar and pestle to grind up some rosemary for the sweet potato chips.

For EACH potato you’re using, add 3/4-1 cup of water, and 2 Tablespoons of a fat. You can play with the fats a bit. I used bacon grease in my white potato chips (with Ranch seasoning) and olive oil in the sweet potato chips. I think next time I do the sweet potato ones, I’ll use 1 Tablespoon of olive oil and 1 Tablespoon of a flavorless oil like expeller-pressed coconut oil.

This is a huge reason homemade is going to be way better than the “real” Baked Lay’s chips. You get to choose whatever fat you’re most comfortable with, instead of the corn oil that is in the factory-made ones (they also add soy lecithin, corn starch, and sugar).

Note — you CAN make them without a fat. My first batch didn’t have any added oil… but they will be a lot harder. With a fat added, they’re just as crunchy, but not as hard. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, try it. You’ll see. The fats give them a much more pleasant texture.

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Step 4: Whir the potatoes, water, fat, and optional seasonings with your immersion blender until it looks like baby food or wallpaper paste. It’s not that attractive, but it’s what you want.

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Step 5: Use a spatula to smear the potato glop onto your nonstick dehydrator sheets. Spread it as thinly as you can without making “holes” in it. You’ll be able to fit about one medium potato per sheet/tray. So if you have the 9-tray dehydrator I have, you can make about 8-10 potatoes’ worth at once.

Step 6: Optional step — if you want any seasonings on top of your chips, add them now. I added sea salt to my olive oil/rosemary sweet potato chips.

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Step 7: Slide your trays into the dehydrator, and turn it on to about 145 degrees. Let them dehydrate about 6 hours, then pick up the large chip on each tray and flip it over, then dehydrate several more hours to dry completely. When I’ve made them, I got them in the dehydrator around noon, flipped them around dinner time, and took them out in the morning. But I’m SURE they don’t NEED an overnight… the timing is just convenient for me!

The sweet potatoes like to stay flat, but as they dry and shrink, they’ll get cracks in the “big chip” like this:

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…and white potatoes like to stick together, but curl up as they dry. Like this:

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It doesn’t matter either way though. Because once the big chips are completely cool (it doesn’t take long), you break them up into smaller chips anyway.

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Our favorite so far is the white potato/bacon grease/Ranch seasonings combo.

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I’m excited about trying other combinations! I’ll post links here as I make each one.

  1. The Best Sour Cream & Onion Chips!
  2. Salted Caramel / Butter Toffee Potato Chips
  3. Zingy Lemon Pepper Potato Chips
  4. Since potatoes are naturally sweet, adding coconut oil (not expeller-pressed … virgin, so it has the coconut flavor) and cocoa powder might be fun to try!
  5. Sweet potatoes would be amazing with butter and cinnamon.
  6. Blending in grated parmesan cheese would probably be delicious.
  7. Using half unflavored oil and half sesame oil, and blending in some Nori would be really fun. You could sprinkle those with sesame seeds too.
  8. Something I HAVE TO try is using dill pickle brine in place of the water. I LOVE pickles and pickle potato chips would be so fun!
  9. Blending in sun-dried tomatoes and basil would be a nice summery flavor.
  10. Adding spinach during the blender stage would make a GREEN chip that’s packed with vitamins and iron.
  11. Lime juice, chili, and cumin would make a south-of-the-border flavor combination.
  12. Using your favorite grilling rub (like Ron’s Rub) as the seasoning would probably give you barbeque-esque chips.

What flavor combo would you want to try first?

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48 Comments

  1. Are they really crispy?How is it possible if oils don’t dry?

    • Yes! They really are. It’s like the potatoes still dry completely and crunchy but the oils end up giving it flavor. If you did it without any oil, you’d have gross dry dehydrated potatoes, not chips.

  2. Just saw this on Facebook so I too try it with some leftover mashed maple cinnamon sweet potatoes. They were to die for if I do say so myself

  3. I like this method. My roasted potatoes did not do as well as the boiled ones. Basically I made mashed potatoes without the milk and with water instead. Added spices. And smeared on a thin layer. They are tasty and much heartier than the store-bought ones. Thank you for the recipe!

  4. I can’t for the life of me figure out what I’m doing wrong. The regular potato chips come out fine but the sweet potato chips do not come out well at all. They shrink so much that when they’re done, they’re more like bread crumbs than chips ( the shrinking is much more sever than the shrinking & cracks in your picture). I tried add more oil thinking maybe that would help them stick together better but it didn’t help.

    • hmmmm maybe try a little less oil, and if they’re so thin they’re crumbling like crumbs, try them a bit thicker?

  5. Does anybody have a knock off for the last sweet southern heat seasoning? They are really hot, but quite sweet. I can’t get it just right.

  6. How much water to use for 4 small potatoes

  7. Just got a dehydrator and thought I might try some potato chips. This recipe sounds perfect! I have a basic wee machine – a Presto – and it has racks rather than solid trays, so I will use parchment paper. However, I also purchased Presto trays to make fruit leather – will these be suitable for making the chips, you think?

      • Great, thanks! I think I’ll try that this week – I’ll certainly let you know how it goes.

  8. i have had a dehydrator for YEARS and have done very little with it. I bought a 50 lb bag of potatoes and started drying them and I have become so hooked! I cannot wait to try some of these ideas!

  9. Hello! I saw this post and HAD to try to make them! But I ran into different proportions! I used 4.5 potatoes (4 standard and one small one) and it made enough for 4 baking dishes! Yikes! Haha. Well, I guess I’ll have to go the extra mile and eat them all 🙂 hehe. Anyways, I used half the water you mentioned, otherwise it would have been VERY liquidy. I think it’s because my potatoes are probably much smaller than yours? I don’t know.

    Second point: Have you tried it in the oven yet? I don’t have a dehydrator and I don’t plan on buying one… Limited space and all in the kitchen… So I’m using the oven… At first I put it at 170 degrees and after 30 minutes I saw some parts were browning burnt! So I lowered it to 150, and I’m going to try again.

    Have you tried it yet in the oven or know of anyone who has? Thanks! and AWESOME post! I saw it last night, and I went out this morning to get a fresh batch of potatoes JUST for this =D

    Kent.

  10. i know this post is older but i just wanted to say this would be a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, or any veg just about i would think…. thanks for the inspiration!

  13. Thanks for almost every other amazing post. Wherever else may possibly any one wardrobe form of information and facts such an ideal way regarding composing? I’ve a display up coming weeks time, with this particular for the seek out such information.

  14. I’m amazed that you’re trying to suggest a “healthier” version of potato chips with the recipe, yet you use BACON GREASE????!!!! how’s that healthy?

  15. ALSO…considering you have oil in these…how do you store them?…and for how long? Thanks!
    _John

    • I just put them in a zip lock bag at room temperature, and they were fine for the 2-3 days it took to eat them. I wouldn’t recommend making them for eating “later”… As like you said, there are oils that could go rancid, and they also can rehydrate a bit due to moisture in the air and get less crispy (just pop back in the dehydrator or oven on low if this happens).

  16. Hi Joyful (Joy?), I found your link after I bought 3 large potatoes specifically to make dehydrator-potato-chips! I liked how you cooked and blended and treated them more like fruit-leather! I made the FOLLOWING MODIFICATIONS based on what I had and laziness (i.e, I’m in NY on Long Island and we’re in the midst of a heatwave and there is only so much time I can bare in the kitchen with an old A/C unit in the window……………..I ADDED 2 RIPE AVOCADOS, AS WELL AS ONLY OLIVE OIL AS THE FAT ALONG WITH A CAN OF DILL PICKLED ONIONS I MADE A FEW MONTHS AGO…SOME SALT + GARLIC POWDER + SHALLOT POWDER + DRIED PARSLEY + DRIED THYME. It may be a little thin in consistency but a nice flavor and I don’t know if I spread it too thick in height…but at ~140ºF in the Nesco dehydrator it went and we’ll see….but the paste tasted good!! and it’ll make greenish chips. Oh and I did use an immersion blender in a SS bowl….I’ll try to keep y’all updated on my results.

  17. I tried these last night and put dill pickle popcorn seasoning right into the potato mixture!! It worked very well!

    I only had two non-stick sheets, so I tried wax paper, both greased and non. The wax paper didn’t work at all, i couldn’t get the dried potato off the paper.

    • Wax paper won’t work (as you learned) but parchment will. They aren’t the same thing. 🙂 glad you liked them!

  18. very nice about your all food.i am from Pakistan.may God bless u. i want learn wave lays chips.

    • Yours definitely look too thin to me. I mean the mixture itself. See how mine is a paste? You should have to spread it with a spatula, not just pour it on the tray. I hope it works better for you next time!

      • What an awesome idea!! Let me know how it goes. I have some cauliflower in my fridge right now. That would be an AWESOME way to get more actual veggies in. (potatoes don’t count)

  25. So those of us that don’t have a dehydrator, do you think we could do this in the oven at 170 degrees for like..12 hours? cause those sour cream and onion ones I tried tonight were delicious.

    • I would think probably! 🙂 Usually when I’ve heard of people drying things in the oven, they leave the oven cracked open a bit so the steam can escape… buuuut the guy who came and changed the air filter yesterday said that lets carbon monoxide (a very small amount) into the house. eek. But try it and let me know!

      • the oven will only emit carbon monoxide if its a gas oven, those with electric oven’s won’t have that issue.

  26. Awesome idea! I have a bag of potatoes to use up too. I just might have to try this. 🙂

  27. What a clever idea. Thanks for sharing. And an excuse to get a dehydrator. I would try it with some lower carb vegetable.

  28. This is GENIUS, Emily! I don’t have all your kitchen gadgets so I can’t really reproduce it myself, but this concept really earned my admiration. 🙂

    • You could use any blender for sure, and probably dry it in the oven. 🙂 Let me know if you try it! And thanks very much.

  29. oh my goodness I want!!!!

    This is really just making me want to get the chips since I hate waiting but since I won’t go get them I may as well make them haha. I have a dehydrator but don’t have drier sheets…only the mesh ones. Would wax paper work?

      • Can you use a hand mixer to do the potatoes.

        • You really want to use a blender – an immersion blender would be fine, or a regular blender.

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