The Best Easy Homemade Spicy Chips

Name: The Best Easy Homemade Spicy Chips
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 large Potatoes; 1/2 tablespoon Cayenne Powder; 1/2 tablespoon Garlic Powder; 1/2 tablespoon Onion Powder; 1/2 tablespoon Paprika; 1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt; 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground Black Pepper

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Homemade spicy chips are crispy, crunchy, delicious, spicy, and savory! They’re great for snacking and are super easy to make at home.

Serves: 6 Time: 45 minutes Cookbook: Taste of Home Online

I love spicy things! Hot chips, spicy snacks, cowboy candy, habaneros, ghost peppers, reapers, the “one chip challenge.” I’ve eaten them all! There’s just something about the spicy flavor that keeps me coming back for more. Whether it’s potato chips, tortilla chips, or all-time favorite salsas with a hint of lime, my taste buds are fans of the spice world.

While you can certainly purchase a wide range of spicy chips in the store like flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Takis Fuego, Doritos Flamin’ Hot Nacho and so on, I think that the best spicy chips are homemade.

The good thing about homemade chips is that you can tweak the spice levels to match your desired level of intensity and tweak flavors by adding savory spices like garlic and chili powder, or even make them sweet by adding a pinch of sugar or smoked paprika.

Brought to us by yours truly with inspiration from Taste of Home, let’s get making spicy chips!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Spicy Kick: These chips may not be one of the spiciest snacks in the world, but they will add some spice to snack or lunch time!

Yummy: This is a delicious snack for heat lovers everywhere! The spice pairs perfectly with the savory blend of onion and garlic powder, a bit of paprika, and freshly ground pepper.

Healthy: These potato chips are the real deal. They’re crispy, crunchy, delicious, spicy, and savory. And you can pronounce every ingredient.

Ingredients Needed to Make Spicy Chips

Potatoes, garlic, onion, paprika, cayenne, salt

Potatoes: You can use your favorite type of potato, here. We used russets but you can also use yellow, white, purple, red, and sweet potatoes.
Cayenne Powder: Cayenne powder is what’s going to give your chips the spicy kick. You can use habanero powder if you want it really hot! If you’d like it a little less spicy, use hot jalapeño powder instead.
Garlic Powder: This will give your chips some excellent flavor.
Onion Powder: Onion powder is a classic flavor used with potato chips, and you don’t want to skip it for these, either.
Paprika: This spice will add a mild sweetness to the spice mix.
Salt: Kosher salt is perfect to add bursts of flavor to the mix.
Pepper: Use freshly cracked pepper if you can, but already-ground pepper will be fine in a pinch.

Equipment Needed In the Kitchen

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Upright Mandolin: We have the mandolin featured here and love it when we need super thin slices for recipes like this. The mandolin makes the entire process super fast and creates thin, even slices. Bonus points: your hands are nowhere near the potato!
Rimmed Sheet Pan: You’ll want two rimmed sheet pans to hold all the potato slices you’re going to bake into spicy golden chips.
Mixing Bowl: You’ll need a small bowl to make the spice blend and a large bowl to soak the potato slices.
Tongs: You’ll flip the potato slices over once to season, and once during cooking. A good pair of tongs is perfect for this.

How to Make Spicy Chips

Spicy potato chips are within reach! Just grap some potatoes and you’ll have a batch of hot, crunchy, homemade potato chips before you know it!

Prep those potatoes

First up, pull out your potatoes and give them a good scrub. You don’t need to peel the potatoes unless you want to.

Then, slice, slice, and slice some more. Use a mandolin to make this go faster and slice your potatoes in thin, even slices.

After your potatoes are nice and sliced, place them in a bowl of very cold tap or ice water and let them soak for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, drain the slices into a colander and rinse. Then, refill the bowl and soak again for another 15 minutes. This process will pull the starch out of the potatoes.

Side quest: When the potatoes are at the end of their second soak, preheat your oven to 360 degrees F.

Also, prepare two rimmed sheet pans with parchment paper or oiled aluminum foil.

Make the seasoning

When your potatoes have nearly finished their second soak, make the spicy chip seasoning. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 tablespoon of cayenne, garlic, onion, and paprika, and 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper. Mix well.

Bake up some potato chips!

Drain the potatoes and pat them dry.

Lay them out on the prepared sheet pans in an even layer and sprinkle liberally with seasoning. Flip them over and season the other side, as well.

Bake in the oven for 15-17 minutes, or until golden and crispy. Flip over halfway through cooking.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool to room temperature, and enjoy!

Variations on Spicy Chips

These potato chips are great as-is, but the sky is the limit when it comes to flavor profile! Here are a few more ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Spicy BBQ Potato Chips: Swap out garlic, onion, and paprika for an equal amount of your favorite BBQ rub for a bbq-forward spicy potato chip!

Spicy Italian Potato Chips: Swap out paprika and use an equal amount of Italian seasoning for a fun Italian-flavored chip.

Sweet and Spicy Potato Chips: In addition to 1/2 tablespoon of cayenne, add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 tablespoon smoked paprika, and 1 teaspoon of brown sugar.

Spicy Chips: Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

What’s the best way to store spicy potato chips?

After they’re completely cooled, store in an airtight container in your pantry for 2-3 days.

What kind of potatoes can I use to make spicy potato chips?

In addition to russets, you can also use sweet potatoes, white, yellow, red and purple/blue potatoes.

Can I make spicy chips in the air fryer?

You can! Follow the instructions in this recipe but use an air fryer instead of an oven. Place them in a single layer in the air fryer basket in batches and fry at 360 degrees. Each batch can take up to 15 minutes, so it will take longer overall than if you were to prep two sheet pans for the oven.

What would you recommend serving these with?

These chips are a perfect compliment to foods like sausages, corn dogs, and sandwiches.