What's The Best Oil To Use To Fry The Crispiest Potato Chips?

Potato chips are the ultimate side dish. While they're not as heavy as fries or onion rings, they're incredibly versatile and can go with just about any meal or stand alone as a snack with a little dip. It's easy enough to buy a bag of these in the snack aisle of the grocery store. But if you want heartier chips you can season yourself, it's so simple to make a homemade version. If you want to fry them yourself, though, the oil matters. Canola oil is a great option, but there are alternative oils you can use as well.

Potato chips are traditionally fried, and homemade chips tend to be a little thicker than the store-bought kind (which makes them even better for scooping hearty dip). While there are a few oil options you can use, make sure you go with an oil that has a high smoke point and will impart as little flavor as possible onto the chips (and is affordable for using in large quantities).

When choosing the right oil, consider its smoke point. This is the point at which the oil will burn — you want to make sure you use oil that has a high enough smoke point that it can fry the food without burning. When frying chips, avoid using oils with lower smoke points.

Canola oil, on the other hand, can heat to around 475 degrees Fahrenheit before it will burn, which gives it plenty of leeway to fry potato chips. Plus, canola oil is a neutral oil with little flavor. 

While other oils, such as avocado oil, will work, canola oil is also inexpensive, making it cost-efficient when you'll be using it in large quantities to fry batches of potato chips. However, if you don't have canola oil or can't find it, refined peanut or corn oil are affordable options that also have high smoke points.

To ensure your homemade potato chips turn out well, it's worth investing in an oil thermometer so you can measure the oil's temperature and keep it consistent with every batch. And when frying the chips, don't over-stuff your pan or deep fryer. This can rapidly change the oil's temperature, which will result in soggy chips. They might also get stuck together if they're all fried on top of each other.

Don't forget to season the chips as soon as they come out of the oil. The remnants of oil before the chips fully dry will help those seasonings stick, so do this immediately. Sea salt is a great option, but if you're going for greater flavor, paprika, garlic powder, and Old Bay are great options. 

Let the chips cool completely before serving. They'll continue to crisp up as they cool, so if you don't want them extra-crispy, remove them from the fryer slightly ahead of when they look like they're done.