Featured in Yummly’s version of Favorite Snacks & EatBoutique Roundup
Forget the Lays Classic Potato Chips. Have you ever considered making potato chips at home? If you really want to, summer time is the right time. With the plentiful sunshine and warmth and just about 20 minutes of your time, you will have a bagful of golden crisp home made potato chips. Then spice and flavor them the way you want and fall in love with them.
Sun dried potato chips is probably the first few things that I made while I was still pretty young. I remember having them the first time in a school picnic. A friend got them and we munched on these goodies on our way to the picnic in the school bus. The next day she smiled and told me that she knew how to make them. I tried them out a few weeks later and made them innumerable times thereafter.
And if you still have not guessed, they make seriously addictive treats to snack on!
Hand cut, naturally sun dried, fried golden and sprinkled with your favorite spice- what more could you ask for?
Now that the merciless sun won’t leave us alone, I better do something with all the sunshine and the heat. This summer is different here in Texas. We have had no rain for the past two months and the temperature has been keeping steady above 105 F for the past couple months too. The kids have been imprisoned indoors, not being able to go out. The entire summer vacation went by with no sound of the children playing outside. The ice cream truck makes its round; we hear the music, but it does not stop, the children do not flock out of their homes to get the summer treat. The parks are as deserted as the streets and the yards.
Well the sun we have in plenty, and I decided to use it for my kitchen needs. Nothing works better than than a scorching sun when it comes to the natural drying process.
The way we are used to having these chips are with a very generous sprinkle of red chili powder. But these are versatile and any spice mix (or no spice) may be used. It is all about you, and how you like them to be and what you feel like doing with them!
So here is the easiest recipe ever for the home made potato chips…
Sun Dried Potato Chips
Ingredients:
- potatoes -as many as you want
- salt
- water to boil them in
- red chili powder or paprika or any other powdered spice you want to sprinkle on them (like black pepper, garlic or onion powder etc)
- oil to deep fry
- lot of sunshine and high temperature
Preparation:Scrub and wash the potatoes. If the dirt is too hard to get off, you can peel the potatoes.
Slice the potatoes with a mandoline or a potato slicer. I am old fashioned and I used my knife. Do not slice them too thin; not so thin that they fold and are kind of transparent. They should still be able to hold the shape.
Wash the potato slices in several changes of water, till the water runs clear of starch.
Heat a large pot with enough water; all the potatoes need to be completely immersed in water. When the water comes to a rolling boil, add some salt and then drop in the sliced potatoes. The water temperature will be lowered and will stop boiling. Keep the heat on high and when the water comes to a boil again, switch off the heat. Cover the pot with a lid and leave it for about 5 minutes. The potatoes should not be cooked, but they will look glazed and kind of translucent.
Drain out the water carefully; remove the sliced potatoes in a colander and let them drain for about 5 minutes. Line a large board or tray with foil, parchment or plastic wrap. Lay out each slice of the potato separately without overlapping each other. Dry them in full sunshine (the outside temperature should be at least 85 F or more), for at least 8-10 hours. At the end of the day, when they are dried and not sticky/moist anymore, bring them in and keep them in a moisture free place. Dry them again in sun the next day.. and for another day if you need to.
(I dried them out when it was 110 F outside and they were all done at the end of 10 hours. I put them out again the next day).
After they are dried, they should be thin, almost brittle and most of them curled around the edges. They should also peel out easily from the base (foil/parchment or plastic). Store them in a moisture free air tight container and they will store for many months.
To fry them, heat enough oil to deep fry. Once the oil is shimmering hot, place a handful of sun dried chips in the oil and fry till they are deep golden. It will take only few seconds to fry one batch. Since they are devoid of water, they will cook/change color and be done really quick. Make sure they do not turn brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle salt, and chili powder (or whatever spice you want to use on it).
Serve as snacks.
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This is new to me, Soma ! Well, Indonesian people makes sun dried crackers or chips, but sun dried potato chips…interesting !!
Btw , lovely stacks 🙂
Oh my, love it! Especially the pictures. What beauty!!
I love this idea for making good use of our hot weather! The chips look delicious, and they must be so crunchy. If it every cools off or actually rains, I think everyone will be dancing in the streets!
What an exquisite way of making chips! Those look fantastic and one can indulge in them without thinking about the calories…
Homemade chips are so great, but “Burt’s” chips are just so irresisitible too… ;-P
Cheers,
Rosa
Hehehe Rosa! I have never tasted Burt’s chips! But I like Kettle chips here.. a lot like homemade and not as greasy..! and spiced!
My mother always made these chips in the summer when we were in Hyderabad. They dont taste like the readymade Potato Chips but they are delicious in their own way.
Oh gosh Soma!!! With this post you have refreshed a lot of memories. My grandparents used to make these often. I would have loads of these whenever I would visit them during vacation. Thanks so much for posting these. Lovely shots as usual 🙂
This is the easiest version and its added in mixture also. I too had them from my friend while in school.
The heat is too much for us and I am back from my India trip and guess this is even worse than Chennai. The showers this morning is not going to help either.
Made me nostalgic,brought bck childhood memories
How I miss not having a balcony, Soma! The pictures, especially the first one is enchanting! This is a heavenly post.:)
Hey dear, the sun dried chips are looking Awesome. Potato chips are my FAV snack to munch and you have shared a wonderful recipe, which i’m gng to try for sure. now eagerly waiting for some sunshine…..keep rocking and blogging, regds, Sonia !
wow… a cozy evening.. with an old movie running and a plateful of these chips…. that’s life 🙂
I have never made potato chips at home, but by looking at the pics, I should be making this soon
This is way toooooooooooooooooooo tempting soma… absolutely droolworthy.
I am so very going to try this one out 🙂
Just so you know I didn’t cheat at all. I immediately thought of potato chips. Ma used to make those!
Love love the clicks the light and the dark mood ones too.
Gorgeous and yummy as always! Am I the last one without a mandoline? How is that possible?
I wish we’ll get 85F weather, but no forecast like that in the offing. Thank you for sharing, Soma. Something to try when in San Diego.
if this makes you feel better, i do not have a mandoline. So it makes us the 2 last ones? 🙂 I mentioned in the recipe that i used the knife – the old fashioned way. I am not much of a gadget person. And we are having more than 85 here, a lot more than 85.. care to move?
This looks insanely addictive that I want to make them immediately. Weather has changed in NJ even before hurricane irene would arrive.. It is all gloomy and rainy 🙁
Ki shundor dekhte! Ami bori chara ar kichui sun dried korini. Am tempted now … very tempted. Khub easy mone hocche. Lays er chips bhalo lage na … boddo salty. Ekhankar winter er sun e ki hobe?
A good idea to sundry potato slices. I should give this a go on a windless day this summer !
O I never knew you could make chips with sunshine only. So much healthier!! Now the issue is that we have had virtually no sunshine here this year so impossible to do. We should mix our climates. I’m sure that would make for perfect weather as we have too much rain!
Can not expect anything less from you! Yum Yum YUM! You just inspired me to sun dry every vegetable that comes my way and make it look and taste divine (and also pleasing enough for the little picky eater in the family!)
Love the idea Soma!
Wow, I never knew you could do this! Looks so yummy with the paprika/ chilli powder sprinkled over! 🙂
What a great great idea. I can almost taste the crisp flavor here. I’m so totally doing it after I’m back from India.
Superb idea Soma. We have the perfect weather to do something like this here in Dubai- Now why didn’t I think of this idea?! I love your first photo as well BTW. Great stacking!
These look flavor fantastic. What a great twist on an old favorite.
amazing idea! and perfect clicks!.. now if only we hit 85 this year in seattle… we just had 3 days at 80+ .. now back in 70s.. that was summer:)
Very nice Soma! And love the last photo with the dark background!
You know, I’ve never thought to make potato chips at home but you have me convinced. Great snaps!
What a unique preparation for chips — love it, Soma!
[…] If you’re going to grill burgers, you almost have to serve potato chips on the side, right? I love my chips straight out of the bag, but the amazing photos in this blog post have me convinced I ought to try “the easiest recipe ever for the home made potato chips” dried in the sun. A lot of us have suffered through an unusually hot summer, so I like the idea of putting that sun to good use for drying my potatoes! (eCurry) […]
Beautiful pictures!!!!
Beautiful. Shame we never get 85F in England, and after my recent debacle with oven-dried tomatoes I’ll probably just look at your pretty pictures and go buy a bag of Kettle chips.
I love these chips and the way they are served on a piece of newspaper reminds me of those spicy ones we used to buy from the street vendors. They look so inviting!
I would love to try this, we have way too much heat and sunshine! But I’m assuming they were covered while outside in the sun? What should I use to cover them?
No they are not supposed to be covered while drying.. done the all natural process:) If you are worried, just use a mesh thru’ which light and heat can pass thru directly. See the photograph where they are on the foil? that is how they went out in the direct sun.
Love these! I remember when I saw these on twitter and said “How healthy!” lol. I thought they were baked apple crisps.
I’ve never heard of sun-dried potato chips, but these look fantastic!!!!! I am so going to have to try this when the weather is warmer here. Yum!!!!
OK I’ll bite why go through all the sun drying when you have to deep fry them anyway? Makes no sense.
To get crisp chips, (not like french fry crisp) of the store bought standards, the potato needs to be dried, either in the oven, or a dehydrating machine or by the natural process that is the sun here. This is just an old fashioned process which we are gradually losing touch with.
[…] Sun Dried Potato Chips (from eCurry) […]
so in love with these. cannot wait to give them a try.
[…] Boiled potatoes at the clambake are a staple, but these Sun Dried Potato Chips would pair nicely with a lobster roll or pack up just as easily for a summer picnic. {from eCurry} […]
i love these chips.was aware of d method but wasnt sure..thanks for d recipe of one of my most favourite…
Great recipe! Will be linking back to this in my post tomorrow.
thank u
It is summer here in South America, so I will rush to make some tomorrow, making use of my sunny balcony. Greetings from Argentina and thanks for lovely recipe.
[…] Sun-Dried Potato Chips eCurry […]
That’s a wonderful idea!