I've tried frying chips a few times, but, even though it's fun and tastes relatively good, they did not turn out like commercial potato chips (such as Lay's). My homemade chips soaked up too much oil, making them slightly too 'wet', for the lack of a better word. Commercial chips in general are much drier than my homemade chips, and I presume less oil per chip correlates to less calories per chip.
So how can I make potato chips that are more like the commercial kind?
Best Answer
I am going to get "unsciency" as I used to make fries for hours on end at a local mom and pop shop.
How thin / thick doesn't really matter, you'll just have to adjust your frying time accordingly.
1) Use a starchy potato
2) slice your potato evenly, with a peeler if you don't have a slicer or mandolin
3) soak them in water for 30 mins with a pinch of salt
4) let them dry a bit
5) blanch them with vegetable oil until they are limpy but has no visible color change (Oil should be hot enough that when you put them in, 5 seconds later there are bubbles)
6) cool them completely, I throw them into a container into the fridge
7) refried them by putting in enough pieces in such that it will still bubble immediately (oil should be hot enough when you drop a spot of water or chop sticks in that it bubble immediately, but you wouldn't hear like a crackling or have oil splashing at you)
8) Take them out one piece at a time as they change color.
The key is vegetable that's pretty much the only oil that makes things cripsy at lower frying temperature, other than bacon fat, this makes a much more golden chip, and generally a easier time to control, so you can make more at the same time. Shortening, olive oil, peanut oil, butter, lard has been tested and isn't really good. Sesame oil is good too if you like the taste of it. Also, don't attempt to drain the oil after blanching, the oil will come out when you re-fry them.
Salt or season while warm.