The Easy Trick To Cutting Thin Potato Chips Without A Mandoline
Homemade potato chips are a snack that's delicious, crispy, and requires far fewer ingredients than store-bought ones. Whether you're frying, baking, or even microwaving potatoes for your chips, one step remains the same: slicing the potatoes as thin as possible. If you have a mandoline, this shouldn't be an issue, but without one, the task can get a little tricky. Luckily, another tool you can use is likely to be sitting in your kitchen drawer — a vegetable peeler.
This method will be a little more time-consuming than using a mandoline, but it's the best alternative to get even and thin potato slices. Once you've peeled the skin off the potato, peel off layers vertically from the top to the bottom for consistent and thin slices. Whichever cooking method you're using, it's a good idea to soak your slices in ice water just as you would before making crispy fries. This will stop the chips from oxidizing and remove their starch, giving you ultra-crunchy potato chips. Just remember to pat them dry before cooking!
Other methods to cut your potato chips
If you can't get your hands on a vegetable peeler, a few other kitchen tools can be used creatively to get thin potato slices. Have a cheese planer? This will work similarly to a peeler. You just need to make sure the potato is on a stable surface before running the planer up and down to create thin slices. Putting aside the peeler and cheese planer, one tool is truly a kitchen essential: a thin and sharp knife. You can cut slices thin enough for potato chips if your knife is sharp enough.
Cut one edge off the potato to create a flat base, and then carefully slice along the shorter side of the potato. Take your time and focus on cutting each slice evenly. Alternatively, you can even use your food processor if it has a slicing option. But a word of caution: only use this method if you really have to since you won't be able to control the consistency or thinness of the slices. Serve your chips in a crisp sandwich or devour them on their own, and let the crunch speak for itself.