"potatochips" news and stories

Ever have a potato chip craving at home but didn't have the chips on hand or didn't feel like dealing with the regret afterwards? If you have a microwave and a knife, we have a way to satisfy your craving and your waistline at the same time!

I've been a fan of pre-bake potato microwaving for years. But in all that time, I never considered slicing the taters and trying for microwaved potato chips. I wish I had, because it's a ridiculously quick and easy way to make a healthy snack -- no oil or questionable additives, just potato goodness in the blink of an eye.

Jugalbandi suggests: "Microwave for three sets of three minutes each at 50% power, 40% power, and 30% power. Turn after every three minutes. Reducing the power of the microwave is not essential, but if operating at full power reduce the time accordingly." Then, after the 3 nukes, let the chips rest for 5 minutes to crisp more and eat.

Well, I just tried it the lazy way -- sliced the potato, spread it on a plate, and nuked it at full power for 3 minutes. I flipped it and nuked for 2 more. The chips were browned done, and already super crunchy. So really, if you have a decent microwave, you can reduce the time to just 5 min. It's SO EASY. They're just plain potato flavor, and are already dry out of the microwave, so if you want flavors, I'd suggest a quick spice or herb rub before nuking.

Yum!

[via The Kitchn]

I am something of a fan of Kettle Chips (a fact that you may have figured out from this post about my family's road trip days and potato chips). I love that small batch, thick cut, darkly cooked taste that they have. It's so different from the rest of the national, mainstream brands that it's hard to even think of them as they same type of snack.

Recently, I got my hands on a bag of the Death Valley Chipotle potato chips, winner of the Kettle Peoples' Choice contest earlier this year. The winning flavor of that contest each year then joins the product line (at least for a while, depending on its popularity) so this is a flavor that is now on store shelves.

My feeling about the Death Valley Chipotle chip is that it's good, but not great. I prefer the Thai Spice over this heat profile (which might be because I'm not a huge fan of smokiness and these are definitely smoky). However, they were still tasty enough that I had a hard time not finishing the bag the first night I opened it. If you like a smoky, spice chip, then you should definitely add this flavor to your cart the next time you see it.

Oh, and one last, cool thing about this chip. The folks at Kettle have partnered with the Death Valley Natural History Association (DVNHA). They are donating $1 to the DVNHA for every Facebook user who downloads a special Death Valley temperature gauge that monitors the desert heat. If you want to grab that application, click here.

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At AOL Food, we are currently conducting a flavored potato chip taste test. In order to ensure that we received a national breadth o' crispy taters, we hooked up with Anchor's Chip of the Month Club, and man alive did those chiphounds deliver! Among their mysterious inclusions, I found California Chips' "Earthquake" Potato Chips.

Earthquake? Um, huh? My mind went in a couple directions:

1. These chips are actually plain (erroneously placed in the "flavored box"), but they have such a hardcore crunch that when you bite down, your teeth and skull shatter, much like your Grandma's Ming during an earthquake.
2. These chips are so obscenely spicy that the burning tongue'n'throat pain can only be accurately captured with comparisons to undue destruction. (Although in that case, a more apropos disaster descriptor might have been "1871 Great Chicago Fire.")
3. These chips are flavored with sedimentary salt and damp peppercorns, evoking an air of rubble and must.
4. These chips are, simply, naturally disastrous.

It wasn't until a co-worker suggested, "Maybe it just means that a bunch of spices are all shaken together, like an everything bagel." Oh. Well isn't she rational! Rational and, as it turns out, correct.

According to California Chips, Earthquake is "a mixture of several of our most popular flavors all together." Indeed, upon braving the Earthquake, I discover the smoky sweetness of Honey Barbecue, the slight bite of Creamy Chipotle, the cool herb of Sour Cream & Onion, and the tongue-tingle of Salt & Vinegar - all sublimated into one deliciously nonsensical flavorsphere. For someone like me, who doesn't discriminate against any chip flavor, these Earthquake chips will make grocery shopping a breeze. But I still maintain they need a more appropriate name. Like "Stonehenge."

For more on potato chips, make sure to head over to AOL Food's Potato Chip Taste Test.

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Do you have a food that came to symbolize a period of time in your life? For me, that would be Zapp's potato chips. The chips came to be a symbol of my college years, and all the time I spent hanging out with friends in local bars.

Before I started going to the bars downtown, I had never heard of Zapp's. Those chips just happened to be ubiquitous to the bars in Athens, GA, where I went to college. However, as they were the some of the only food available at the bars, I did munch down my fair share of them. The chips, with names like Spicy Cajun Crawtators and Cajun Dill Gator-tators, are pretty good, though not the best. The flavors are on the unique side and they are always nice and crunchy.

I haven't had Zapp's in a very long time. I've had them since graduating from college, but I don't eat much in the way of potato chips as part of my long term health goals. Even though I don't eat them, just seeing a bag takes me back to the good times I had, hanging out with friends at the local pub. Do you have a food memory like this?