Many years ago, I stumbled across Kettle Brand[sup]TM[/sup] Baked Chips (recently changed,for some weird marketing reason to Kettle Brand Bakes). They came in Salted and Barbecue. The barbecue chips were a bit hit or miss (without much oil, the amount of seasoning on each chip wasn’t always uniform. When they had enough seasoning, they were great, when light on seasoning, not so great) but the regular salted chips were a revelation. Very potatoey, obviously thick slices from an actual potato, thick enough to be used with dips and salsa, and salty but not greasy. In fact, after a few years of these, regular chips seemed to be a bit too heavy and greasy to snack on.
Recently, these chips became harder and harder to find. Finally, they just weren’t available in a 10mile radius (in any of the half dozen stores that usually carried them). After some serious googling, I found a Facebook post on the Kettle Brand page that quietly and with no fanfare admitted that they had discontinued their line of baked chips.
So now I’m stuck. I’ve been spoiled against regular greasy chips (even the “40% less” chips) and their are really no decent baked chips around (don’t tell me about Lay’s- I’m not sure any actual potatoes are involved, despite what it says on the label).
Any brands of baked chips out there that might come within shouting distance of the old Kettle Brand Baked Chips? I’m not going to drive 100’s of miles, but in my searching I discovered that there are a lot of stores now that will ship, so I’m ever hopeful.
Oh man. Several years ago they (Kettle) had a salt and fresh ground pepper version of their baked chips, and they were soooooooo good. Then they disappeared, and I didn’t care for the BBQ or regular flavor, so I quit buying them. Now I feel like I have some small part in their demise.
I despair. I checked out the Aldi site and discovered they offer baked potato crisps. :eek: For those not up on the lingo, in the US, “crisps” are what the label says when the chips are potato powder, filler, and binder. I’ve encountered tasty versions (pop-chips) but no one would confuse them with potato chips.
I did some sophisticated google searches (“best baked potato chips”) and the prospects of another company that actually bakes sliced potatoes into chips is dwindling (also note the ranking of Kettle Brand in these):
Cheaper? Only if I value my time at $1-2 per hour. (consider a 4 oz bag was 2.99-3.99 and contained perhaps 100 chips. I could probably fit a tray with 30 or so chips in my oven at a time. Figure 1 hour per batch with prep, baking)
Have you tried Sun Chips? They’re not potato, but I like them pretty well.
