Sweet Potato Chips

In a quest to find a sturdy homemade sweet potato chip, I baked up pounds and pounds of sweet potatoes. I tested a range of thicknesses, lined and unlined pans, oven rack positions, and temperatures ranging from 250°F all the way up to 425°F. I ate many soggy chips (still good!) and tossed many burned ones. (Awful! So bad! Don’t pretend they’re “caramelized” — they’re just burned!) All my hard work payed off, because I cracked the code on how to make the very best ones.

While you can use a sharp knife to slice sweet potatoes as thinly as possible for chips, a mandoline is your friend here. Not only does a mandoline help you slice sweet potatoes into super-thin 1/8-inch slices, but it also helps ensure an even thickness from end to end. One of the trickiest parts of making sweet potato chips is uneven thickness, leaving you with one burnt half while the other is still floppy. A mandoline solves this problem.

This recipe uses orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. The most important thing to look for when choosing sweet potatoes is to pay attention to how wide they are around. Sweet potatoes can range wildly in size. It’s important to pick one that will fit in your mandoline. If it’s too wide, it won’t sit flush against the blade, making it impossible to get even slices. 

Even slices, a thorough coating in oil, and a two-step baking process give you chips that are crisp rather than soggy or burnt. Tossing the slices in olive oil adds flavor and an additional spritz of nonstick spray on the baking sheets ensures all sides are coated. 

During testing, lower oven temperatures took too long to crisp up, while the higher temperatures burned quickly. The sugar content of sweet potatoes means you can go from lightly browned to black very quickly. A two-step cooking process gives the best and most consistent results.

• Initial cook at 300ºF: This first 20-minute trip to the oven cooks the slices through without giving them too much color.
• Final blast at 400ºF: Returning the sweet potato slices to the oven for another 15 minutes at this higher temperature turns potato slices into potato chips. 

Small variations in chip thickness and width as well as oven temperature all affect how quickly and evenly your chips cook. You’ll need to pay close attention during the last few minutes of cooking and remove chips a few at a time as they finish cooking. 

• If one side of the chip is clearly browned, remove it because it’s done. The thickness of this chip was likely uneven and one side cooked faster than the other.
• Chips may be lightly browned at the edges with golden leopard-like “spotting” on one or both sides. 
• A crispy chip won’t fold over when picked up at its edge with tongs. This is a better indicator than color.
• If a chip doesn’t crisp up after a minute on the cooling rack, return it to the oven for a minute more. Just be sure to err on the side of caution because all you can do with a burned chip is throw it away.

In a word, dip! Seasoned with just salt, these chips are well-suited to a variety of flavors, but the natural sweetness pairs particularly well with spicy dips. Homemade chips are an easy way to level up any dip you picked up at Trader Joe’s or Costco, but pairing them with something homemade really puts it all over the top. Dip for dinner, anyone?

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