Enjoy these homemade baked potato chips with a twist - they are potato skin chips! Enjoy reducing waste and saving money with these super-crispy, flavorful, roasted potato peels. Plus, this recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan!
Clean the potatoes. Wash and scrub them well to remove any dirt. You can also remove any blemishes or 'sprouted' areas now, too, with a small paring knife.
Peel the potatoes. I do this with a potato peeler rather than a knife for peels that don't contain too much potato flesh.
Soak the peels for 30 minutes in room temp/cold water. This will help to remove excess starch for maximum crispness when baked.
Rinse the soaked peels and then dry them with a kitchen towel. It's important to get them as dry as possible so that the potato skin chips really crisp up.You can do this with a salad spinner and then pat dry or do it by hand with a kitchen towel. Optionally, you could even evaporate some of the excess water by baking the peels for 5 minutes at 200ºC/400ºF or using a dehydrator for a short while.
Spread the potato skins in a single layer on your baking sheet/s and spray/drizzle with oil. You want enough to coat the potato peels well without weighing them down.Then, optionally, add your seasonings of choice and toss the skins well to coat them. You can do this step before cooking or after.
Bake the potato skin chips in the oven for 15-18 minutes at 200ºC/400ºF (fan-assisted). For even crispier results, broil them for a further few minutes at the end - be careful to watch them as they can burn easily.Since I use dark baking sheets, I find the results are even crispier. If you use lighter trays or place them on parchment paper, you may want to flip the peels over half-way through for best results.Enjoy!
To Make Ahead & Store:
Make ahead: If you don't have a large enough stash of potato peels at one go, keep them in an airtight container in the fridge in water for 2-3 days (change the water daily) while you build up more. I haven't tried using frozen and thawed potato peels yet (I usually save them for veggie stock) - but that may work.Note* Potato peels will turn pink if left to oxidize too long. While this won't affect the flavor of the baked potato chips, it can look a bit off-putting.Store: Store the potato skin chips in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days
Notes
Top Tips For Prepping your Potato Peels
Use organics potatoes: pesticides are usually most often held most in vegetable skins, so any time you want to eat the peels (like for these baked potato chips), it's best to use organic.
Even when using organic, wash and scrub your potatoes well before using them and cut away any small bits you don't want to eat (blemishes, little sprouts, etc.)
Avoid any green potato peel. Green potato peel may actually contain a toxin called solanine. While it's usually in low quantities - some people will have higher sensitivities to it.
You can season the potato skin chips before roasting them or toss them with the seasoning post-bake, depending on what flavors you're using. This is because some spices can burn in the oven (especially when broiling at the end) and make your entire batch of potato skin chips taste off.
This recipe works best when you use a potato peeler to peel the potatoes, or at-least cut away the peels avoiding as much flesh as possible, The more flesh that is with the peels, the less crispy they'll be.
Don't avoid using oil. These baked healthy potato chips are super crispy because of the oil content. If you omit oil then they'll end up limp rather than wonderfully crispy.
Check the post for tons of suggestions on how to season your potato skin chips!