Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Microwave potato chips

Yesterday was another banner day for baking at my house. I made potato chips in the microwave and they were “da bomb”! They were so good, the kids loved them, the adults loved them, and I made them more than once - on the same night even!
When I originally made them,I did not take pictures, but when I made them again, I did take some pictures, so lucky you!

I used a recipe from – surprise, surprise – allrecipes.com. It was this potato chip recipe. It was so easy and had only three ingredients!! Even non-cooks can do this (although why you would be reading this blog is beyond me!)

You might think by all the baking I do that I am quite the chef. Nothing could be further from the truth! I just love to bake, and even like to do it with the kids for the first five minutes or so until they lose interest. I am so NOT the chef in the house that DH has banned me from making dinner. I could, but the fact that he WANTS to is fine by me!!

Back to the potato chips.

The first time I made them, I peeled the potatoes, which was probably the most time-consuming part. When I made them again, I did it without peeling the potatoes and they were amazing, so while the recipe says peeling is optional, you can do it if you love to peel potatoes, but it is really not necessary.

After the potatoes were ready (peeled or washed – you pick!) then I cut them super thin with a mandoline. The mandoline is not required, but if you have one, they make quick work of this and you get nice uniformly skinny pieces. If you can slice thinly, then by all means, use a knife. I had a hard time getting my potatoes to stand up in the mandoline holder, even with a flat surface and a good start, and I know that the blade is SHARP, so I put on the trusty OVE-GLOVE and went to town slicing the potatoes. DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT PROTECTING YOUR FINGERS! With the mandoline, this can be dangerous, so please use something for protection.
Then you just shake them in oil and put them on a microwave-safe plate sprayed with cooking spray. When I cooked them in the microwave, I did notice that the ones with peels on took a lot longer in the microwave than those without peels. YMMV on this. (Standard internet terminology, Your Mileage May Vary = YMMV)

After they were done cooking, I tossed them with some salt, although what is called for in the recipe is A LOT OF SALT, so if you want them less salty, cut down on the salt a lot. My oldest, who LOVES salt, even said these were too salty the first time, so I know they were salty. They were a little salty to me, but they are potato chips!

The one downside is that one potato does not make a lot of chips, so if you just want a few, these are great. They are also a good way to have portion control because we all know we can eat a whole bag of chips in one sitting, but the effort of making them means there are less and you will not eat as much! But, if you are going to go to the trouble of making them, a single potato (which is what is in the recipe) is hardly worth it. I made three potatoes at a time, two times last night. I think two would be the minimum. Even with three, it was 3-5 times in the microwave, so it took almost 30 minutes just to cook them. If you can find a way to do more chips at a time, by all means, DO IT!



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