I need some salt

"I need some salt" is a common statement that comes out of my husband's mouth.  It's usually after dinner or at any other snack time.  There are very few pre-packaged snacks in our house here in Addis Ababa.  This is a good thing 99% of the time.  That is, until we "need some salt".  I've also been in dire need of a good bag of crunchy salted potato chips.  And I don't mean the $9 bags of Lays at the commissary.  I mean good quality chips.  Like the delicious ones you get alongside a big deli sandwich back in the States.

Well, you know where this story is going, right?  I made some homemade baked potato chips and they were crazy good.  It's the first recipe I've tried from The Homemade Pantry that I raved about the other day.  It was a delicious way to initiate this cookbook into my repertoire.

The girls and I cut the potatoes with the thinnest setting on my mandolin (I feel less and less guilty for owning this kitchen gadget with every new recipe I use it for. Total recipes I use it for now-2! HA!).  Adelaide was fascinated with the mandolin.  She was a big help with the slicing process.

The sliced taters sat in a big bowl of salted water.  I used 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the big bowl.

Once they soaked for about 5-10 minutes, they were removed and dried on a towel.

I followed the recipe in The Homemade Pantry and oiled my cookie sheets, preheated my oven to 450 degrees.  Spread the potatoes on the baking sheet and sprinkled with salt.  They baked at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, then 300 degrees for about 20 more minutes. I rotated the pans from the higher to lower shelves every 5-10 minutes so they wouldn't over bake.  I baked my chips in four batches so they weren't over crowded on the baking sheets.  Once I saw the chips start to brown and curl up on the edges or flake off the pan I moved them to a paper towel.  I added chunky sea salt at the end.

Almost the entire batch of chips was devoured right away by everyone but Ashlynn (although she grabbed at mine the whole time).  We ate them straight off the paper towels. No time to move them to a bowl. They were delicious; hot and crispy with lots of salt.  The small handful I shooed by husband away from later that night so I could save for the girls for snack the next day; I placed in a Ziploc bag.  They didn't stay crispy though.  Next time it might be best to eat the entire batch.

You definitely want to make these the day of the party or the day you plan on eating them.  Next I am going to try my hand at salt and vinegar chips.  Those are my all time favorite.  I'm going to add an extra bag of potatoes to my shopping list every week because these chips are a new family favorite.  They definitely fulfill that need for salt!