Homemade Baked Chips

Since our commissary does not carry very many options of "clean" chips I decided to grab a 5 lb bag of russet potatoes to make my own. Why not right? I make baked apple chips some times so I figured it should be the same concept. So, today along side with my 4 year old we had an adventure of figuring out how to make our own homemade chips. We rinsed them off, peeled them, re-rinsed.

Peeling potatoes...GOOD times....

The fun part came when it was time to use the mandoline to slice the potatoes in small peices. Lets just say my fingers were not very happy with bandages being put on one after another. Lesson today kids (especially to my 4 year old who witnessed it) SHARP objects can and will give you boo-boos. OUCH! After encouraging words from my daughter we continued on the adventure. What would I do without her??! We then put water in the bowl with the potatoes until they were all submerged under water. I read somewhere that this helps to get extra starches off and aides in the baking (so they don't burn). Kinda gross watching all the bubbles and starch come off. We let it sit for about 15 minutes.

We drained them and laid them out on paper towels to dry off. We patted them down to assure no more excess water was on the chips. This too will help the baking process. We want crispy chips not soggy chips! haha.

Letting the potatoes sit in water...

This is only half of the potatoes that I cooked!

Them baking in my TINY Korean oven...It literally took me all day to cook all these batches up. The tasks I put myself up to!

We then put parchment paper on a baking sheet and placed the sliced potatoes one by one next to each other. I started out brushed on olive oil (not a lot) and used sea salt. The coarser the salt the better. We put it in the oven that was preheated to 400 degrees for about 25 minutes turning them once. Now here comes a lightbulb...time for experimenting with different oils, and flavors. So out came the first batch and went in a new batch. These were the oils and seasonings I used for the remaining batches:

• Olive Oil & Salt
• Safflower Oil & Salt

• Olive Oil with Salt & Pepper
• Safflower Oil with Salt & Pepper

• Olive Oil & Garlic Powder
• Safflower Oil & Garlic Powder

• Olive Oil & Chipotle Spices (Mrs. Dash Seasoning)
• Safflower Oil &Chipotle Spices (Mrs. Dash Seasoning)

• Olive Oil with Salt & Vinegar
• Safflower Oil with Salt & Vinegar

After I made sure all the batches are cool I placed in bags that are labeled all of them. I then let my brave taste test guinea pig (my Hubs of course) snack away. I was standing by biting my nails waiting for the verdict. DRUM ROLL PLEASE...Well he said that they were all AMAZING but his favorite was the Chipotle Spice one (because he loves spicy) and he also commented he liked the ones with Safflower oil more than the olive oil ones. There was a "funny" taste to them that didn't really seem "chippish"  So there you have it. Homemade chips!! You need to eat these right away or else they will get soggy. So chow down!

The final results!