Oil Fried Chips or Air Fried?

jilliandilauro1
Mar 27, 2021
2 min read

I love potato chips. Spicy potato chips to be exact, but there aren't quite as many good bags of spicy chips on the market. Or in my case, the good ones get discontinued. So I decided to try my hand at making homemade potato chips. I came up with a recipe and made them using the air fryer; they were delicious. I have made them twice now, but I wanted to see how much better or worse actual fried potato chips would taste. This is my comparison.

For both sides, I washed and peeled 1 lb to 1.5 of potatoes, and thinly sliced them with a mandoline. The spice blend that went on both of the chips was: 1Tbsp Harissa Seasoning, 1/2 Tsp Salt, 1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder, 1/2 Tsp Onion Powder, 1/8 Tsp Hot Hungarian Paprika. Both were cooked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Air Frying:

I coated the slices in about 1 tbsp of olive oil, and the seasoning blend. I mixed them until they were coated nicely and cooked them in the air fryer for approximately 15 minutes. Some chips needed less time and some needed more depending on the thickness of the slices.

Pros:

*More control over how brown the chips get.

*You can leave it to cook unsupervised most of the time it's cooking.

*Easy Cleanup.

*More even coating of seasoning.

*You don't need a thermometer.

*Has a nice crunch factor.

Cons:

*Very time consuming. You can only put so many on a pan and they take about 15 minutes to cook, so it takes quite a few batches.

Next I tried frying it chips in oil:

Frying:

I place the slices in batches into the oil, and cooked them for about 2-3 minutes until they were lightly browned and flipped them about halfway through. Then with a slotted spoon I removed them and put them in a pan and sprinkled them with seasoning.

Pro:

*Faster. I was able to do more chips in less time.

*Have a nice crunch factor.

*Yummy flavor.

Con:

*Requires constant attention.

*Messy and oily cleanup.

*Easy to cook too much and burn.

*Learning curve.

*Oil can get too hot and its difficult to manage the temperature.

*Seasoning didn't stick quite as well.

My overall verdict...

Air Frying

While they both had a nice crunch, I felt out of control with the fry oil, and ended up cooking them too much which gave them a bitter flavor. The air fried chips still had a great chip crunch, and was worth the time it took to make them. Not to mention when I was done air frying the chips all I had to do was throw away the parchment paper it was on. With the oil frying I had to dispose of the oil once it cooled, and clean all the grease splatter it made, and the thermometer. Other than timing, the oil fried chips didn't have too much over the air fried. Air frying is a healthier option, that doesn't sacrifice any of the crunch or flavor of chips.