Decent chips recipe

[Marf]

Recently I tried the hairy bikers chip recipe with some vivaldi potatoes:-

Chip some potatoes, fry for 10 minutes at 130C

drain

then fry for 4 more minutes at 190c just before eating.

The chips came out cooked and the outsides were brown but not crispy. They tasted good, but I want crispy chips.

Did I undercook them the second time, wrong potatoes, or perhaps too many chips in the fryer(two small potatoes worth)?



Thats the fryer I have.

[Tanguero]

Give them a bit longer the second time. Until crispy maybe? Oh, and try Maris Piper.

[GarryA]

Are you soaking them in ice water for a few hours then drying before cooking? Potatoes contain a lot of water, you need to get the starch out of them.

[Melman Giraffe]

Marf said:

Recently I tried the hairy bikers chip recipe with some vivaldi potatoes:-

Chip some potatoes, fry for 10 minutes at 130C

drain

then fry for 4 more minutes at 190c just before eating.

The chips came out cooked and the outsides were brown but not crispy. They tasted good, but I want crispy chips.

Did I undercook them the second time, wrong potatoes, or perhaps too many chips in the fryer(two small potatoes worth)?



Thats the fryer I have.

Part boil the chips until just about to fall apart drain, dry and place in the fridge for 30 mins before the first fry this draws out any moisture. Second fry at 180 = perfect fluffy crisp chips

[AJS-]

I made chips in beef tallow a couple of weeks ago. Came out lovely and crispy, and tasted great.

[Marf]

Tanguero said:

Give them a bit longer the second time. Until crispy maybe? Oh, and try Maris Piper.

I did think that, but they were getting so brown I was worried I'd overcooked them. Will give Maris Piper's a go

GarryA said:

Are you soaking them in ice water for a few hours then drying before
cooking? Potatoes contain a lot of water, you need to get the starch out of them.

Yes, they soaked for 3 hours or so.

Melman Giraffe said:

Part boil the chips until just about to fall apart drain, dry and place in the fridge for 30 mins before the first fry this draws out any moisture. Second fry at 180 = perfect fluffy crisp chips

I did wonder about boiling them first, perhaps I'll try that.

[RichB]

It's all down the potatoe and at the time of the year they are crap.

[Shaw Tarse]

Triple cooked chips http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Tanguero]

RichB said:

It's all down the potatoe and at the time of the year they are crap.

I think this is the key!

[Stu R]

Maris Pipers are the best chip potatoes by a long way.

Try par-boiling them first, into the fridge to cool, then into the fryer. Or, if you like turning a short job into a long one, read one of Heston's various long winded ways of achieving slightly better results for significantly more time invested.

[Marf]

I'll give the boil/fridge method a go next.

I ended up cheating yesterday and bought a bag of maris piper chunky frying chips which were lovely along with my gammon and poached eggs

[Hugo a Gogo]

the missus had done some boiled potatoes the other day and had some left over in the fridge, so I chipped them and fried them in a deep-ish frying pan - they were great

[RichB]

Hugo a Gogo said:

the missus had done some boiled potatoes the other day and had some left over in the fridge, so I chipped them and fried them in a deep-ish frying pan - they were great

So they were sautéed potatoes not chips

[Changedmyname]

Cook them in beef dripping ,just like the old days.

[poprock]

There are all sorts of ways to try and improve your chips, but I find every single one to be a lot more effort and prep time for very little improvement.

I make bloody good chips really quickly by just doing the following:

• Use freshly-bought maris piper potatoes
• Cut off the worst of the eyes/marks/etc
• Leave the remaining skin on
• Chop into big, chunky chips
• Drop into fryer, preheated to 70–90ºC
• Keep an eye on them until they look ‘a bit done’ (generally 15 mins-ish)
• Turn the fryer up to full whack (probably 230–240ºC, depends on your fryer)
• Take them out when done to your preferred crispy brown-ness (generally 5 mins-ish)
• Shake off excess oil
• Liberally sprinkle with good salt to flavour and to soak up remaining oil

Job done. Better chips than any of my friends manage to make, however many posh tricks they try (like presoaking, parboiling, drying between frys, etc).