Cook the most delicious chips that are crispy outside, light and fluffy inside in an air fryer. Start by cutting the potatoes to the thickness you’d like. Next, preheat the air fryer at 200°C for 2-3 minutes. Then, quickly rinse the potatoes, pat them dry and put them in the air fryer and cook for 20-25 minutes.
If you own an air fryer but have never cooked chips in it, then I can tell you that you’re seriously missing out.
Every time I want to cook chips for my family, I simply fire up my air fryer and whip up a batch in a jiffy without the need to use the oven or a lot of oil for deep frying. And, the best thing is that I can make different flavoured chips every time.
The main reason I love to use the Air Fryer to cook chips is that I use almost zero oil. This means I have healthy and tasty chips. They are a far cry from the heart attack chips you will get at the local Chippie.
In this article, I will give you some of my secret tips and strategies that you can use to cook the perfect chips that are crisp on the outside but fluffy and light on the inside.
How To Cook Chips In An Air Fryer: Step-By-Step Instructions
If you’re wondering how to cook chips in an air fryer, here are the steps on how to go about it:
- Gather the equipment and ingredients
- Prepare the potatoes
- Preheat the air fryer
- Wash and dry the potatoes
- Spray the potatoes with oil and season
- Cook in the air fryer
Air Fryer Chips Recipe
Equipment
- Air fryer You can use any brand of air fryer to cook your chips—Power Air Fryer, Instant Pot, Philips Air Fryer or Ninja Foodi. All these air fryers can make great chips, but since the models are different, you will need to adjust the cook times of each a bit.
- Saucepan optional
- Bowl or colander
- Kitchen roll or tea towel
Ingredients
- 2 Large Potatoes
- Oil
- Seasoning
Method
Step 1: Gather The Things You Need
Step 2: Prepare The Potatoes
- Prepare the potatoes depending on how you like the chips. You can peel the potatoes or simply wash them thoroughly and leave the skin on. My family loves thin chips, so I usually cut them up so they are more like French Fries.
- If you prefer your chips the good old British "proper chip" style, nice and thick then you can cut the potatoes as thick as you choose. Note, these will take longer to cook.
Step 3: Preheat The Air Fryer
- Preheating the air fryer can help to reduce cooking time and ensure your chips are nice and crispy. So, preheat the air fryer to 200°C (400°F).
Step 4: Wash The Potatoes
- Most chip recipes recommend soaking the sliced potatoes in cold water for around 30 minutes to remove the excess starch. But I find that rinsing the potatoes in water is just as good and way quicker. So, I simply rinse the sliced potatoes before air frying them.
- Once you have washed the potatoes, using a clean tea towel or kitchen paper towels, pat them dry. The drier the better they will crisp.
Step 5: Spray With Oil And Season
- It is perfectly possible to cook the chips in the air fryer without any oil at all, but I use a few sprays of oil as I think this adds more flavour to the chips.
- I always use a spray bottle to both spray the basket so they don't stick (just in case) and lightly spray the chips. You can use a oil spray or use some oil diluted with a bit of water. Spray the oil over the potatoes and toss them to ensure that they’re covered evenly. Choose a healthy oil, like olive oil.
- You can use any seasoning you like on your chips. I like to keep the chips plain and simple and just use some sea salt and freshly ground pepper. However, you can add chip seasoning, smoked paprika or curry powder. Experiment, there are lots of options.
Step 6: Cook In Air Fryer
- Once you have sprayed the potatoes with oil and seasoned it with the seasoning of your choice, transfer them into the basket of the air fryer. Set the air fryer to cook the chips for around 20-25 minutes.
- Check the chips once every 10 minutes and give them a good shake. If you want the chips to be crispier, then spray them with a little more oil. If the chips are not as crisp as you want them even after 25 minutes, then air fry them for a couple of more minutes.
- And, voila! Your perfect air fryer chips are ready. Serve them with tomato ketchup (or not) or your favourite dip.
- For the perfect, crispy air fried potato chips, use starchy potato varieties such as King Edward and Maris Piper.
- If you want the fries to be very crisp, then it is better to cut the potatoes into thinner chips rather than thicker ones.
- Cutting the potatoes into similar sizes will ensure that they will cook uniformly. Cutting them in different sizes will mean that some chips may be perfectly done, while others may be underdone and some may even get burned.
- Smaller or thinner chips will ensure that they cook more quickly.
- Leaving the potatoes skin on is not only healthier, as the skin has all the fibre, but it enables you to get better and crispier chips. Also, the skin will prevent the chips from sticking to the bottom of the air fryer.
- For the best crispy chips, serve them as soon as you finish air frying them because the chips can turn soggy if you let them sit for a bit or if they are reheated.
- Wash the potatoes before cooking the chips in the air fryer. This will help to remove the excess starch, which retains the moisture in the potatoes and will prevent you from getting chips that are light and fluffy in the middle.
- Air frying the chips in batches will ensure that they cook faster. Filling the air fryer basket to the brim will mean longer cooking times.
- Different types of potatoes and air fryers vary and this can affect the cooking time of the chips.
Wrapping Up
If you want chips to go with your burgers, fish or chicken dishes, then you can cook the perfectly crispy and healthy chips in your air fryer anytime at all. Not only are air fried chips healthier because they use very less oil, and they are delicious too.
All you need to do is follow the tips that I have recommended and you’ll be able to turn out perfect chips, crispy on the outside, yet soft and fluffy inside each and every time.
