Jalapeño Potato Chips

Intro: Jalapeño Potato Chips

With Summer coming to a end and Fall around the corner, my little garden is exploding with Jalapeños. I grow them every year as I like to eat a lot of spicy food and they can get expensive during the winter months. Part of the crop I will freeze while the rest I will dehydrate to create a Jalapeño based spices for cooking rubs and seasonings. With the Jalapeño spice one of my favorite to make snacks is Jalapeño Potato Chips especially with potatoes that I've grown or gotten from the local Farmer's Market. Freshly made potato chips taste far better than the bag kind in my opinion. Probably also a healthier option as it doesn't have preservatives.

Ingredients:

• Jalapeños
• Potatoes
• Cooking Oil
• Salt

Additional requirements:

• Food Dehydrator
• Blender
• Mandoline (prefered) or a Knife.
• Paper towels.
• Skillet
• Slotted spoon
• 1 small container (for the spice)
• 1 large container (for the chips)
• Large bowl

STEP 1: Jalapeño Spice Prep

1. Wash, dry and slice Jalapeños into halves. Remove seeds.
2. Place into food dehydrator and power on. Dehydration times will vary from machine to machine and the number of Jalapeños you will dehydrate.
3. Once peppers are dried, place into a blender to grind up.
4. Place ground up Jalapeño into a small container. Store in a cool dry place until needed.

STEP 2: Cooking Potato Chips

1. Cut potatoes into very thin slices. A mandolin is recommended.
   
2. Place in a large bowl; add cold water. Soak for up to 30 minutes. Depending on how many potatoes used, you may need to change the water a few times as the starch being pulled out will make the water murky.
   
3. Drain potatoes; place on paper towels and pat dry.
   
4. Wash and dry bowl. Pour part of Jalapeño spice into the bowl. Add a few dashes of salt and mix with the Jalapeño.
   
5. In a skillet, heat 1-1/2 in. of oil to 375°. Fry potatoes in batches for 3-6 minutes or until golden brown, stirring frequently. Note: done chips will stop (or near close to stop) bubbling in the oil.
   
6. Remove with a slotted spoon and drop into bowl with Jalapeño spice. Shake bowl to cover chips with spice. Store in an airtight container once cooled.

Comments

[ThirdEarthDesign]

I wants.. I wants.. I wants.. look great, bet they taste better.

[offseid]

Looks delicious! I wish I had a dehydrator. :)

[Jozebeerze]

I also have jalapeño,habanero, and Serranos a plenty this time of year. My wife and I cold smoke them first then dehydrate them. It gives them a wonderful chocolatey smell and smokey flavor.

[gralan]

Heyas!

Being a chile-head, I can say that it is the oils that cause peppers to be "hot". So de-seeding and de-veining the pepper to just leave the fruit's flesh and peel is popular with many. You can choose to get significantly more heat if you choose peppers that look like they have dirty scratches or scabs of a sort which are caused by the oils leaking a little. A smooth pepper surface is not going to be as hot.

I agree with Droppocket1 that the extra heat is preferrable. I actually may use other peppers (serrano and habanero being popular favorites of mine to find locally).

Thanks Twiesner for this Instructable. I've got a dehydrator and will travel to new eating heights by making my own chips. Thanks for great directions.

[twiesner]

I've used the process on habaneros and kept the seeds when dehydrating and made chips before with the spice. Those were excellent.

I de seed the jalapenos(but leave the veins) I buy locally as the oils seep into the skins when dehydrating. Once salt is mixed into the ground up spice, the spice regains its "heat" and gets fairly hotter the longer it sits.

[starguywisc]

What kind of oil do you use for frying the taters?

[twiesner]

I've always used canola or vegetable.

[Droppocket1]

The heat is in the seeds so why leave them out

[crazybill49.]

At what temp do you dehydrate the peppers?

[twiesner]

It will depend on the dehydrator itself as some machines have adjustable temps while others do not and different wattages. My machine that I used to dehydrate has no way to adjust the temp so it is at the absolute minimum tempwise ( 140-185 degrees Fahrenheit.) The lower the temp the better but it will take longer to dehydrate though you keep the flavor.

[crazybill49.]

Thank you for the reply. My dehydrator is adjustable but I have only used it to make jerky and have no experience with peppers. It recommends 135 for vegetables so I will try that first.

-Bill-