A white plate piled high with golden homemade chunky chips

Perfect chips

Name: Perfect chips
Total time: 40 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 1kg Maris Piper potatoes peeled; for deep frying vegetable oil; 1 tbsp potato flour; to serve sea salt flakes

Adam Bush

Save recipe

Serves 4

Easy

Total time: 40 mins

plus cooling

0 reviews

loading...

Get 5 months for £5 when you subscribe today

Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside – nothing is more comforting than homemade chips. Here’s how to make the perfect, golden little beauties at home

Gluten free

Vegan

Skip to ingredients

Alternatives

Complete the dish

Learn how to make the perfect chips, then check out our triple cooked chips, classic potato wedges, poutine, sweet potato fries and confit potatoes. Serve with a side of our homemade mayonnaise.

How to make the perfect chips

Which potatoes to use for chips?

Floury Maris Pipers are the perfect spud for chip making as they are relatively low in starch and turn fluffy when cooked. Avoid waxy potatoes as they contain more moisture and won't crisp up well. Maris Pipers also retain their shape and texture when cooked, leaving a firm chip.

Which size of potato to use?

Cutting the spuds into 1.5cm-thick chips will give you the perfect balance between a thin, crispy shell and soft, light interior.

Blanch the potatoes first

Softening the outer edges of the chips by blanching in salted, boiling water first changes the structure of the carbohydrates and ensures the sugars caramelise differently – shortcutting to the perfect crunch.

Frying temperature for chips

Frying the chips at a low temperature first will 'set' the outer layers – creating a strong, thick crust around the soft insides without colouring. Then you can fry at a high temperature at the end to achieve that perfect golden finish.

Cooling the chips

Letting the chips cool between each stage (speed this up with a cooling rack) means you have complete control over the cooking process. It also keeps them as dry as possible – essential for optimum texture.

Potato flour

The flour absorbs all of the moisture from the surface of the chip – getting into all of the nooks and crannies – so that when fried at the end at a high temperature it gets even crispier.

Ingredients

Nutrition

1kg Maris Piper potatoes

peeled
for deep frying vegetable oil
1 tbsp potato flour
to serve sea salt flakes

Nutrition: per serving

kcal347
fat10.7g
saturates1.3g
carbs54.2g
sugars2.5g
fibre5.7g
protein5.5g

Method

step 1

Cut the potatoes into 1 ½cm-thick chips and put into a large bowl of cold water. Gently move around with clean hands to remove some of the starch, then drain.
step 2

Cook the chips in a large pan of boiling salted water for 8-9 minutes or until the edges are just starting to soften, then drain really well. Carefully toss the chips in the colander to rough up the edges slightly. Put a cooling rack over a baking tray then lay all of the chips on top (with a little room around each) and leave to cool completely.
step 3

Fill a pan no more than ⅓ full with vegetable oil and heat to 130C or until a cube of bread browns in 1 minute. Cook the chips, in batches, for 7-8 minutes or until they are a light straw colour and have a crisp shell around them. Drain on kitchen paper and cool. The chips can be taken up to this stage in advance and kept lightly covered at room temperature.
step 4

Carefully put the chips into a large bowl and sprinkle over the potato flour. Gently toss with your hands until fully coated (be careful as the chips may be fragile).
step 5

Heat the oil to 180C or until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. Add the chips, in batches, and fry for 3-4 minutes or until deep golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with sea salt flakes before serving.

Make it a really special day with our chip-shop bap!

Best Haddock Recipes

Authors

Adam Bush Chef Portrait

Adam BushDeputy food editor

Comments, questions and tips

Rate this recipe

What is your star rating out of 5?1 star out of 52 stars out of 53 stars out of 54 stars out of 55 stars out of 5

Choose the type of message you'd like to post

CommentQuestionTip

Overall rating