The satisfying light and crispy crunch of a salted potato chip is hard to beat. Piled on a sandwich, scooped into a creamy onion dip, always sure to make it onto your plate at a party, and enduringly delicious all by themselves– potato chips are an unmatched delight of the food world.
If you’ve been wanting to try making potato chips at home, you’ve come to the right place! Potato chips were the first thing I ever fried, and I think you might be surprised by how simple they are to make, because I know I was. That first time of mine came out nearly perfect (beginner’s luck), but I had my ups and downs with potato chips after that. The recipe below came to be from hours of trial and error, and I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Recipe Notes
Soaking and rinsing the potatoes is very important:
A good soak helps remove excess starch, and so does rinsing. If the excess starch is not throughly been removed, the chips will have a brown color, a slightly burnt and bitter flavor, and will be missing that crispy crunch we all love so much.
Drying the potatoes throughly is not that important.
Using a salad spinner comes in handy for getting extra water off the potatoes, and it does a good enough job that they don’t need to be further dried with a towel. The potatoes will be a little wet when they go into the oil and that’s okay! I know that sounds very not okay– because usually water and oil are a recipe for flying oil, but in this case, by some potato starch magic, there is only non-flying bubbling. I’m sure there’s a scientific reason why, but I don’t know it.
If you don’t have a salad spinner, I do recommend spreading the potatoes on a lint-free towel and patting dry. But you don’t need to go crazy, a little water is okay.
The right tools:
A mandolin will work best for making potato chips. You’ll get uniform, thin slices, and your slicing time will be greatly reduced. Don’t slice them too thin or your chips are likely to burn!
And don’t forget to protect your fingers. I like to wear a cut-resistant glove when I use a mandolin.
What’s with the vinegar?
To be honest, I don’t super-duper know why vinegar is scientifically helpful for soaking potato chips. But I can tell you that the potato chips I’ve made using a vinegar soak have been lighter and crispier all the way through than those made without vinegar. My best guess is that it aids in further removing the starch from the potato slices.
WTF is Superfine salt?
Superfine salt is an ultra-fine grained salt, with the texture of a powder, that clings excellently to foods like popcorn, potato chips, french fries, and tortilla chips. It can be purchased as “popcorn salt”, likely to be found near the popcorn at your local grocer. But it’s also very easy to make.
To make superfine salt yourself, simply process kosher salt in a food processor until it’s become a fine powder (this takes maybe 60 seconds.) Be sure to cover the food processor with a damp kitchen towel to trap any dust that rises out of the machine while processing. It’s also a good idea to let the dust settle for a minute or two before opening the food processor up.
If you don’t want to go through this step, simply season potato chips with salt while they’re hot! It won’t stick quite as well, but it should bet the salting job done.

Frying Need-To-Knows:
Never fried before, or have some questions? Check out this frying guide.
- Never fill your frying pot more than halfway with oil
- For best results, use a thermometer to monitor the temperature of the oil. (The temperature will fluctuate a lot. being within 10 degrees of the recipe temperature is usually good enough.)
- Use a heat-proof slotted utensil or spider for scooping. This will let oil pass through.


Classic Potato Chips Recipe
Classic Potato Chips
Equipment
- Large salad spinner (optional– use a large bowl and a colander instead)
- Mandoline slicer
- Heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven
- Heat-proof slotted utensil or spider for frying
- Thermometer (Instant read, frying, or infrared)
Ingredients
- 8 quarts cold water divided
- 8 tsp sea salt divided
- ice cubes If you don’t have ice, don’t sweat it– just use water that is as cold as possible.
- 2 lbs russet potatoes skins scrubbed clean
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- Neutral high smoke point oil such as vegetable oil or canola oil
- Sea salt or superfine salt recommended– see recipe notes above for finishing
Instructions
- In the bowl of the salad spinner combine 4 quarts (16 cups) of the cold water, 4 tsp of the sea salt, and a handful of ice cubes. Stir to dissolve. Add the colander insert to the spinner and set aside.
- Using a mandoline, slice the potatoes thinly and transfer to the salad spinner. Use your hands to agitate the potatoes in the water, separating the slices with your hands, and releasing as much of the starch as possible. Leave the potatoes to soak for 20 minutes, agitating and stirring once or twice more.
- Lift the potatoes out of the water by the colander and set aside. Drain the water and rinse out the spinner bowl to prepare for the second soak. This time, fill the bowl with the white vinegar, the remaining 4 quarts (16 cups) of cold water, the remaining 4 tsp sea salt, and another handful of ice cubes. Stir to dissolve the salt. Place the potatoes in the mixture and use your hands to agitate once again (doesn’t need to be agitated as much this time around.) Allow to soak 20 minutes. When the 20 minutes is up, lift the potatoes out by the colander, drain the liquid, then spin the salad spinner well to wick moisture away from the potatoes. The potatoes will still be wet/damp, and that’s okay! We just don’t want them in a puddle.
- Prepare 2 rimmed baking sheets lined with paper towels. In a heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven, heat 1” of the neutral high smoke-point oil to 365F over medium heat. When the oil is hot, load up a spider or heat-proof slotted utensil with potato slices. Carefully lower the potatoes into the hot oil and stir (the potatoes should be bubbling furiously with tiny frothy bubbles.) Fry, stirring gently throughout, until potatoes are golden brown, about 3 minutes. Scoop up the chips, move to the prepared baking sheets, and salt immediately while hot. Continue frying the chips in batches until all of the potatoes have been fried.
- Enjoy right away or store in an airtight container once fully cooled for up to 5 days.
