Print the recipe card! baked bbq potato chips

Apologies for last week’s recipe hiatus…reality hit with all my kids being home for the summer (combined with the slower pregnancy “waddle” I’m up to these days) and my kitchen play time/blogging just didn’t happen.  I’m adjusting my blog schedule for now to a more manageable single post a week and looking forward to some great recipes and posts coming in July/August from a guest poster I’ve invited to visit while I recover with the new baby. I know you’re going to love her! Introductions (and hopefully a “sooner rather than later” baby announcement) coming soon…

Now the recipe…but first a story and an assignment…

It occured to me while munching on some Lays Baked Potato Chips a while ago (while reading the list of ingredients) that the same process used to make the crispy flaked breakfast cereals would probably also work in making potato chips!  After all, the number one  ingredient in the chips was dehydrated potatoes and I have lots of those stored in my food storage!  So I started playing with the idea.

The result turned out to be a really simple recipe to make, a lot like the cereal flakes.  Everyone loved the crisp texture they turned out with, in that area they were exactly what I was aiming for.  As far as flavor, I had two of the four kids loving them and the husband saying “they’re fine” (a luke warm approval) .  Nevertheless, I decided that because of the potential of what could be done with them (combined with the personal preferences for flavor that everyone  has anyway plus the fact that they’re a cinch and a half to make) to go ahead and post it for you.

So here’s your assignment:  I’m turning you loose…find a crazy successful seasoning combination (any kind of chip, it doesn’t have to be BBQ) and come back to share it here in the comments.  I’ll give it a try and if it’s seriously awesome I’ll update it into the post itself giving you all the credit and making you instantly famous …or something like that  :).

Okay, so now for the basic recipe…

Ingredients:

Potato Mixture

2 cups potato flakes

2/3 cup cornstarch

4 1/2 cups water

1 TBS light olive oil

BBQ seasoning combination

(*it went over better when I used all but 1 1/2 TBS of this seasoning — the full amount was a little too much)

2 TBS light brown sugar

2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. chicken boullion

3 3/4 TBS smoked paprika

3 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions:

Mix together the cornstarch and water until smooth.  Add in the oil to the cornstarch mixture.  Add wet ingredients to the potato flakes and whisk until smooth.

Either using a greased pan or a pan lined with parchment paper (both work just fine), spread potato mixture so that it’s evenly thin but not “see through” thin.  Bake at 325 for about 25 minutes or until the edges of the batter begin to curl up.  Check carefully the last 10 minutes of baking to be sure that there aren’t thin areas cooking more quickly that are crisp and ready to be removed from the oven.

Bring the pan out of the oven and allow to cool slightly (so that you can handle the baked potato mixture).  If there are crisp areas, remove them to a serving plate, while for the still “leathery” areas, flip the entire piece over and bake again until all is crisp (about 10-15 min.) watching carefully.

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Mix together the cornstarch, water and oil.

Add to the potato flakes.  The consistancy of the mixture should be like thin paint.

Add your desired spice combination (in this case, BBQ) and spread on either a greased pan or a pan lined with parchment paper.  I used a plastic scraping tool to even the mixture as much as possible on the pan so it would bake evenly.

Bake at 325 for about 25 minutes (or until the edges begin to curl up).  Remove any portion that is crisp to a serving plate and return the rest of the “leathery” portion to the oven to bake another 10 – 15 minutes.  Watch it very carefully, baking times are all dependent on how thin your mixture is on the pan, so it might require less time just depending.  Also, if there is sugar in your spice combination (as there is here) be aware it will burn more easily.

Baked and ready to flip to the other side.  Break away any portions that are already crisp to a serving plate.  The remaining “leathery” portion then goes back into the oven.

Bake on the other side for about 10 – 15 minutes (watching carefully) until crisp.

And here we are, pantry made potato chips, easy as can be to make!  Let your imagination go wild and create your own favorite variety!