Best-ever baked fries (aka the only homemade chip recipe you’ll ever need!) (2024)

April 17, 2015 8 Comments

My boyfriend (who goes by the name of “B” around here)has a lot of strong points – he’s caring, supportive, encouraging, loving and always positive. He makes a mean potof tea, he’salways puts the bins out so I don’t have to and he washes my car for me “just because”.

But, as with all people, he has his weaker points too. Some are debatable – for example, I would argue that his hair cut is questionable whereas he would argue that the Noel Gallagher/Grug-like bowl cut is the most stylish hair cut going round at the moment.

But one thing we both agree on his that his cooking is not one of his strong points. It’s not that his creationsturn out particularly badbut more that he find’s cooking a chore that he doesn’t enjoy. And I feel the same way. If you’d spent more than five minutes watching him slooooooowly peel a carrotand then chop it, bit by bit. By bit. By bit.

Then you would know exactly what I mean!

But his one redeeming kitchen conquest, the one dish he does a damn fine job of, is hot chips. I passed off the first lot he made me as pure luck. The second lot was a coincidence. But by the third time, I wasimpressed. They were GOOD. Really good.

Hot chips are a weakness of mine. Every time I walk past a kid in the street eating a bucket of hot chips I desperatelywant to go past and quickly steal one off the top. Just one, that’s all I need to get my fix. I wonder if the kid would think it’s kinda funny, or just weird and a little scary. I’m leaning towards the latter, which is why I’ve not done it yet. But if I walked past a kid in the street eating THESE hot chips… Then I’d definitely have to reconsider.

Baked chips – or fries, whatever you want to call them, are something that seem so straight forward – you chop up some potatoes, season them and throwthem in a hot oven with a little oil. But after experiencing a few recently not quite up to B’s standard, and even making my own batch which I’m sad to say didn’tquitecut the ketchup (see what I did there? ;)I had to get B to walk me through his process.

So, without further ado – let me introduce you tothe best homemade chip’s you’ll ever try!

B has kindly written out the recipe to share below, but he’s also kindly offered a few tips as to how to get the best possible, golden crispy chips (imagine a lot of hand waving and gesturing here please :)

• Make sure you use a potato that will hold it’s shape while roasting and go nice and golden – I usually go with bintje or ducth creams
• Leave the chips cooking and don’t turn them until at least half way through the cooking time – this means the bottom will crisp up nicely and makes them easier to turn (I always check and try to turn them way too early – hello soggy, stuck-to-the-pan chips!)
• Use enough oil – this helps with the no-sticking, and also the golden crispy outer
• Don’t peel the potatoes! This one’s critical according to B as it adds extra texture, flavour and nutrients (and saves timeand effort if you’re feeling a little lazy)
• Chips are best enjoyed with some homemade tomato sauce and a nice cold beer!

For the best results, we now only cook our chips in our heavy Bessemer oven pan – the chipsturn out even crispier and more golden with soft, perfectly cooked centres.