So, while the rest of the world has been thinking about Lent, I’ve been thinking about potato chips. Or maybe fries? And with maybe some aioli sauce on the side? Yeah. That’s what I’ve been thinking about, which is fine, because I’m not Catholic, so I’m off the Lent hook, and also, the Buzzfeed quiz I took this week told me to give up “nothing” for Lent. True story. Let’s run with it.
In that spirit, we’re playing with carbs and salt and oil this week, guys. Sorry, all you fatless, saltless, carbless eaters out there (Pssst, you should make these anyway. They’re not even fried. They’re roasted. See? Right up your alley? No? Okay, look at the picture. Now you’re convinced.).
So, here’s the other lesson for this week. You should read the recipe all the way through before you start cooking or baking. Yeah, it’s probably a good idea. Because when you don’t read it through all the way, or if you skim it like a boring book, you can make a pretty safe bet that the recipe won’t turn out the way it’s supposed to. That doesn’t mean it won’t be good — although there was that time I used a tablespoon of cinnamon instead of a teaspoon in an apple pie. My family called that the atomic pie. We had friends over for dinner that night, and they tried it first. Awkward.
And if you’re going to use a mandolin to make these (the kitchen implement, not the stringed instrument), you might want to know how to use it before you have a bunch of sharp blades in your face. Yeah. That happened too.
This started out as a recipe from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa for Parties, but then I decided I wanted to use red potatoes instead of russets, and then I wanted the chips to be 1/8 inch thick instead of 1/16 thick, and I didn’t put the oil on a cookie sheet to heat in the oven first, and then they just weren’t cooking at that temperature. So I just kind of sat by the oven and mothered these into existence, taking them out to turn them and salt them and probably making a way bigger deal of the whole thing than I should have or needed to.
But golly, they’re tasty. I ate a few every time I took them out of the oven. And then after they were done. You should make them. Really, you just need to slice some potatoes thin and put them on a cookie sheet covered in olive oil and salt and pepper them, and you’ll have these. Or something like them.
Roasted Potato Chips
5 red potatoes, sliced to 1/8 inch thick
2 tablespoons olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Spread oil evenly on a cookie sheet and place potato slices on the sheet — be careful not to let them overlap. Julia Child said not to crowd the mushrooms when sauteeing, and the same law applies for these guys. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake in oven, turning every ten minutes. Depending on how crispy you want your chips, they will take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes to bake (this will also depend on the thickness of your potatoes). Salt again if you think they need a little more flavor. Take out of oven when golden.