I almost never deep fry food at home. Mainly because oil disposal is a problem for me.
But, I was considering making my own potato chips. Not a lot but enough for a party.
How deep does the oil need to be? The potato slices are thin so I was thinking a sauté pan might suffice but every video I see is usually a Dutch oven or something similarly deep with a lot of oil in them.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
For potato chips you actually need a LOT more oil than you think you do and a saute pan is nowhere near deep enough. A deep saucepan will work but you need it to be pretty wide so you have room to fry more than one slice at a time lol. Oil will need to be at least a few inches deep–you can reclaim most of it by not letting it get too hot while you’re frying up your stuff, then let it cool and drain it off through a fine sieve to collect any bits of potato, you can keep it in a jar in the fridge.
The only item that can be deep fried in shallow oil is a tortilla done flat to make tostadas, everything else needs enough oil to let the food float and cook without any crowding or it’ll come out funky and stuck together and not crisp at all.
Fried chicken needs about 1 1/2 inches of oil in the fry pan.
I use a Fry Daddy for french fries, tater tots etc.
It holds about 4 inches oil (deep). It’s not big enough for chicken parts except nuggets.
The Fry Daddy has a lid and oil can be stored in it. The oil lasts several months. I dispose of old oil with a jar packed with paper towels.
Yeah, that’s about how deep I pour it, too. We save used fry oil from pork chops and chicken and reuse it a few iterations. By the time it’s got too much particle debris, it’s also been on heat long enough to break down and hence time to dispose of it, but you can get more than one use out of your oil. I use grapeseed or safflower preferentially — high heat oils are better for deep frying.
What about peanut oil? I thought that was the common ones used for chips.
Do different oils result in a different final result (assuming they can handle the cooking temp)?
The recipe I am looking at says 300F (150C) to cook the chips. I think most oils can handle that.
Peanut oil is fine. A bit pricey, but, yes, one of the usual choices.
Temp is very important in frying. You get greasy results if the oil isn’t hot.
Drain and lightly pat with paper towels before serving.
The volume of oil is also important in keeping the temperature high enough. If you have too little oil, even if it’s deep enough, when you put the food in, it may cool the oil to a temperature where the food doesn’t fry well.
I found this to be crucial. Put in way less food in than you think you can get away with. I have a dedicated deep fryer with a basket, and found that if I totally covered the bottom with, say, tater tots, I’d get a soggy, oily mess. They just cooled down the oil too much and allowed it to seep in. Cut the amount in half and they came out perfectly. Much better to do several batches than try to do as few as possible.
Big old deep dish cast iron frying pans are a heat sink; once you get them up to frying temp, they tend to cruise there very nicely.
That’s a good point. My dedicated unit just has a flimsy aluminum reservoir. Easy to clean and relatively cool on the outside (due to the double wall), but definitely no heat sink ability.
Home deep frying takes quite a lot of practice. I have a deep fryer.
First off, 300F is way too cool. Aim for 400. That also means getting an oil that can handle that temp without getting rancid (do your homework, as it depends on what you can procure). As other have said, you’ll need a lot more oil than you think. Look at the dryers at a McD and look at the amount of fries that put in the basket. This should give you an idea.
Depending on what you use, you’ll need to learn how to balance the amount you fry in relation to the capacity of your fryer. McD and the likes have automated this, so it’s always the same amount, a timer ASF. You don’t have those things, so you are going to have to experiment. My fryer holds about a gallon of oil and I typically don’t put much more than 1 lb of stuff in for best result.
After practice , you’re going to be able to gauge the process just from the sound and how the foam on the surface changes. Good luck.
Or, your can do what we did, and decide we didn’t want to fry every week, and we didn’t want to toss a huge volume of oil every time we fried, and declared that deep frying is best done elsewhere. The stuff we fried was delicious. And totally not worth doing ourselves.
You guys are aware that places such as McD never really toss their oil, right*? They filter it and add more oil as needed. This is why fries sometimes are lighter in color (a lot of fresh oil has recently been added) or darker. There’s really no need to throw it away after one or two uses. Filter it, pour it back in the container it came in and store in a cool place (doesn’t have to be a fridge). You will know when it’s time to dump in the garbage (NOT THE DRAIN) from smelling it. Oil getting too old gets a stale, flat smell that’s hard to describe, but it can’t be mistaken. If the oil, when heated, starts smelling the least bit weird, it’s time to go.
*Local regulations may apply.
Also, be careful. You need the pot deep enough that it doesn’t overflow when you put the food in. If it catches fire, don’t put water on it. Keep a big container of salt nearby to throw on if anything goes wrong and a fire extinguisher (yes, salt will put out a grease fire).
I’m not saying this to discourage you, because home-frying is great on occasion. Just don’t forget safety.
I deep fry a turkey maybe once every three years. I could very easily deep fry chips/fries/whatever, but have never bothered. For the two of us the air fryer is fine.
When my brother worked as a fry chef, they replaced the oil on a schedule. He was disgusted by how long we kept the oil we fried with. So yes, i know you can reuse it.
That being said, yes, if you fry a couple times a week, maybe you aren’t throwing away all that much oil as compared to what you are using it for. We ended up with an awkward disposal problem. And the bottle of used oil was not very pleasant.
It just makes more sense to let places that fry all the time do the frying.
There are alternative ways of “frying” that can avoid that problem altogether if you are open to viewing those options. They are also much healthier.
Most home deep fryers have a “maximum oil level” mark inscribed inside the fryer insert. It’s best not to exceed that, as you can end up having problems, maintaining heat being one of them. I don’t do much deep frying, as it’s a tedious process with a home fryer. The capacity is small, even for larger ones, and the problems with overcrowding have been discussed. Almost all vegetable oils have a smoke point of 400-450F. As most frying is done at 350-375, it’s a good medium. Olive oil is not a good choice, however, because the smoke point is significantly lower and the cost is high.
I think you’ve just explained to me why roasting my chicken starting at 450F makes so much more of a mess than starting it at 425F. I bet the smoke point of chicken fast lies between those temps.
(And probably duck and goose fat, as well. But i don’t roast them as often and an less certain of the temperature effect.)