Chef Thomas
Baked Onions with Cream and Thyme
Whole onions surrendered to a low oven with cream and thyme until they collapse into something golden, sweet and yielding, the kind of side dish that quietly upstages everything else on the table.
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Proper Chips
Created by Chef Thomas
Thick-cut, twice-fried chips with a shattering golden crust and a floury, collapsing centre, cooked in beef dripping the way they ought to be, and served with nothing but salt and sharp vinegar.
Side Dishes
British
Weeknight
Comfort Food
30 min
Active Time
25 min cook•55 min total
Yield4 servings
The smell of hot fat is an unfashionable thing to love. But there it is. The moment the first chip hits the pan and the kitchen fills with that deep, warm, savoury haze, something in me settles. This is not sophisticated cooking. This is potatoes and hot dripping and a bit of patience, and it produces something that no restaurant chip, no oven chip, no frozen thing from a bag will ever match.
A proper chip is two things at once: a crisp, golden shell that resists the teeth for just a moment, and a floury, almost powdery interior that falls apart on the tongue. Getting both requires frying twice. Once at a lower temperature to cook the potato through, and again at a higher temperature to form the crust. It sounds like a bother, and I suppose it is, in the same way that making stock is a bother, or growing your own tomatoes. The kind of bother that repays you so generously you stop noticing the effort.
I make these on a Friday, usually. Not always, but often enough that the habit has settled into the week's rhythm. There's a bottle of malt vinegar on the table and salt in a dish, and the kitchen window fogs up from the heat. I wrote it down in the notebook once: "Chips. Friday. Dripping. Vinegar on the newsprint." Some meals don't need a recipe. They need a ritual.
The potato matters. Maris Piper, if your greengrocer has them, or King Edwards if you're buying in season. Something floury, something that will break apart inside that crisp shell. A waxy potato will give you something firm and dense, which has its merits elsewhere, but not here. Here you want collapse. You want the inside to almost dissolve when you bite through the outside. That contrast is the whole point.
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Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
floury potatoes
Quantity
1kg
Maris Piper or King Edward, peeled and cut into thick chips
beef dripping or groundnut oil
Quantity
enough to fill your pan to a depth of about 8cm
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
malt vinegar (optional)
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| floury potatoesMaris Piper or King Edward, peeled and cut into thick chips | 1kg |
| beef dripping or groundnut oil | enough to fill your pan to a depth of about 8cm |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| malt vinegar (optional) | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan or cast iron casserole
- •Cooking thermometer (useful but not essential)
- •Slotted spoon or spider strainer
- •Wire cooling rack
Instructions
- 1
Cut the chips
Peel the potatoes and cut them into chips about the width of your index finger. Not matchsticks. Not wedges. Chips. Somewhere between one and two centimetres thick, though I've never measured one in my life and neither should you. Some will be fatter than others. That's fine. They'll cook at slightly different rates and you'll end up with a mix of textures, which is better than uniform anyway.
Maris Piper is the potato for chips. Floury, reliable, widely available. King Edwards are good too, especially later in the season when they've had time to develop. Waxy potatoes won't give you what you need here. The flouriness is the point. - 2
Rinse and dry
Put the cut chips into a bowl of cold water and swirl them around. The water will go cloudy with starch. Drain, refill, and repeat until the water runs more or less clear. Two or three rinses usually does it. Then spread them out on a clean tea towel and pat them thoroughly dry. This matters. Wet chips in hot fat spit, and they won't crisp properly. Take the time.
Rinsing removes the surface starch that would otherwise make your chips stick together and go soft. Drying them is the step most people skip, and it's the step that makes the difference. - 3
First fry: the blanch
Heat your fat in a deep, heavy pan to around 130C. If you don't have a thermometer, drop in a single chip: it should sink gently and produce a lazy stream of small bubbles. No violence. No drama. Lower the chips in carefully, in batches if your pan is small, and let them cook for seven to eight minutes. They should be soft all the way through but still pale, no colour at all. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and spread them on a wire rack. Leave them to cool and dry. You can wait ten minutes or you can wait two hours. Either is fine.
Beef dripping gives chips a flavour that oil can't match. Rich, savoury, deeply satisfying. If you'd rather use oil, groundnut is the best option for the high heat. Sunflower will do. Olive oil won't. - 4
Second fry: the crisp
Bring the fat back up, this time to around 190C. Hotter. A chip dropped in should immediately fizz with conviction, the surface bubbling aggressively. This is where the shell forms. Fry the chips in batches, giving them four to five minutes, until they are golden and crisp on the outside. The colour you want is a deep, honest gold, not pale and not dark. Your eyes will tell you. Lift them out and let them drain briefly on kitchen paper.
Don't crowd the pan. Too many chips at once will drop the temperature of the fat and you'll end up with something greasy and limp instead of crisp and light. Two or three batches is better than one sad one. - 5
Season and serve
Tip the chips into a warm bowl and scatter over a generous amount of sea salt while they're still glistening. Toss them gently. The salt needs to hit the fat while it's still on the surface or it won't stick. Serve immediately with malt vinegar on the table for those who want it. Don't wait. Don't let them sit. Chips are a five-minute pleasure, and the clock starts the moment they leave the pan.
Chef Tips
- •Beef dripping is not optional if you want chips that taste the way chips are supposed to taste. It gives them a savoury depth that oil simply cannot. You can buy it in blocks from a good butcher, or render your own from the fat trimmings next time you roast beef. Keep it in a jar in the fridge. It lasts for months.
- •The resting time between the two fries is more flexible than you'd think. You can do the first fry in the afternoon, leave the chips on a rack, and finish them just before you eat. Some people swear this gives a better result, and I'm inclined to agree. The surface dries out and crisps more fiercely in the second fry.
- •Resist the urge to shake the pan constantly during the second fry. Let the chips sit in the fat undisturbed for the first minute or two. They need time to form a crust. Move them too early and the surface tears. Once they're golden on one side, a gentle turn is all they need.
- •Season the moment they come out of the fat. Not a minute later. The residual oil on the surface is what makes the salt stick. Once they cool even slightly, the salt bounces off and ends up at the bottom of the bowl instead of where it belongs.
Advance Preparation
- •The first fry can be done up to four hours ahead. Spread the blanched chips on a wire rack in a single layer and leave them at room temperature. The drier they get, the crisper the second fry will be.
- •Cut and rinsed chips can sit in a bowl of cold water in the fridge for several hours before frying. Drain and dry thoroughly before they go anywhere near hot fat.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 165g)
Calories
330 calories
Total Fat
19 g
Saturated Fat
9 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
8 g
Cholesterol
20 mg
Sodium
430 mg
Total Carbohydrates
36 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
4 g
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