How To Add A Salty Boost To A Bag Of Bland Potato Chips

Sometimes you just need some extra salt in your life. If you've ever purchased unsalted potato chips without meaning to, we're here to help. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as throwing some loose salt in the bag and shaking it up. The dry chips won't hold any of the flavor, and the salt granules will sink to the bottom.

This means we'll need our chips to be sticky and moist enough to accept the salt crystals, but not so overwhelmed with moisture that they will lose their satisfying crunch. It's essential to end up with a crunchy, salty chip, but how? Luckily, we have chemistry on our side. 

Even if you skipped the class on particle-level models of evaporation, you can still use the magic of sodium chloride (table salt) and the positive and negative poles of a water molecule to breathe life back into your sad, flavorless chips. Salt dissolves easily in water because of the attraction between the molecules of the liquid and the particles of the solid. When the water begins to evaporate, the salt water gets more concentrated. 

Thus, the sodium and chloride ions bond yet again to form salt crystals, which are left behind on the surface once the water dissipates. In this case, the surface is your chips and the salt residue is your much-needed flavoring.

Now that you're an expert chemist and flavor scientist, it's time to talk tools. You'll need a heat-proof cup, any kind of food-grade mister, a sheet pan, and an oven (go ahead and preheat that last one to 350 degrees Fahrenheit). To quickly dissolve the salt, add two-ish tablespoons of salt to a half cup of water and microwave around 30 seconds. 

Give it a quick stir to make sure it's completely mixed and pour into the spray bottle. Now lay those bland chips out on a sheet pan in a single layer and give them a generous mist — but not so generous that it leaves puddles on the pan. If you're feeling extra salty, you can flip the chips over and do the alternate side. Bake for five to 10 minutes, or until the chips are crunchy and salt residue appears on the chips and pan.

Now that you've got one potato chip party trick down, consider experimenting with flavors and textures. Try adding seasoning blends, flavored salts, or dry herbs. Sea salt, garlic salt, or Himalayan pink salt are all uniquely salty experiences that you can use to up your chip game. And of course, there's always salt spray.

Texture can also be fun to experiment with, but remember that a finer salt will stick much better than a coarser one. Whatever you choose, feel proud that you rescued a sad bag of chips from No-FlavorTown. Life is simply too short to eat substandard plain potato chips.