Homemade Lay’s Potato Chips Recipe

Homemade Lay's Potato Chips are so great, you'll never buy store bought again. Crispy and salty.

These homemade potato chips--thin, crisp and salty--are just like store-bought potato chips. And they are made in the microwave.

I know. I was pretty shocked, too. I ate about half of them before I even finished writing down the how-tos, because they are that good.

But then, I’m a snack addict. Remember these homemade Doritos? My love of salty snacks is not just limited to those that will give you orange fingers.

Potato chips are such a staple for parties and sports watching (or so I hear) and TV binging. So naturally, they are also guilt-inducing.

I’m not saying this version is health food precisely, but microwaving versus deep frying makes a big difference. And with only one fresh potato, some canola oil and salt, you know exactly what goes into each bite.

There are two secrets to perfect microwaved potato chips. First, you need to watch them closely and remove them from the microwave at exactly the moment they begin to brown.

If you brown too much, they will burn. If you don’t brown enough, they won’t be crisp.

This means you may have to remove a few from the plate and microwave the rest if they don’t brown evenly.

Second, the salt. I salted these pretty generously to really mimic the Lay’s potato chip taste. If you are watching your salt, you don’t need to add so much.

And they will still taste wonderful.

Correction, there are not two, but three, secrets to microwaved potato chips. The mandolin.

To have paper thin potato slices, it really is best to use a mandolin. Good mandolins are not overly expensive, and they are such a useful tool.

But please, please, please use the hand guard. I know from experience, thanks to that fateful Christmas morning where I told myself it would be fine to just skip the guard, just once, when making my scalloped potatoes.

My pinky scar is evidence that it is not fine to skip the guard. If you opt to slice these by hand, the potato slices may be thicker and may need additional time in the microwave. Just keep watching for the browning.

That’s the sign.

Oh, you must serve these with an ice cold beer. And just in case you need something sweet to go with that snacking, might I suggest some pretzel cookies? 

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