In this Instructable, I will show you how to make thin crispy sweet potato chips at home. This easy potato chip recipe is awesome for people who like to make their own homemade chips and for people who love sweet potatoes! They are incredibly simple to make if I can do it, you can do it. Let's get started!

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Follow the easy steps below or watch the video tutorial, or do both!

Step 1: Ingredients

Ingredients:

Sweet Potato
Salt Water
Oil - Canola, vegetable, coconut, peanut, etc.

Tools:

Peeler
Bowls
Knife
Mandolin slicer
Paper towel
Spider strainer or slotted spoon

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Step 2: Prep the Sweet Potato

Start by washing and drying the sweet potato. Then peel it. You can leave the skin on if you like. Or you can peel it and compost the skins, or even fry the skins separately.

Next, cut off the ends, you can save those ends and fry them as well.

Step 3: Slice and Soak

Take a medium bowl and fill it full of cold water along with a teaspoon or two of salt. Then slice the sweet potato very thinly. A mandolin makes it super easy. Or you can certainly use a knife.

Place the thin slices of sweet potato in the bowl of cold saltwater. Allow them to soak for 20 to 30 minutes. Soaking them brings out some of the starch. If you don't do this, they burn too easily before getting done.

Step 4: Drain, Boil, Dry

Take a large deep pot and add about 1 inch deep of cooking oil to it. Set the heat to medium and allow the temp to reach 325F/162 C.

In a separate pot add about an inch or two of water. Set the burner to high and bring the water to a boil. Once it starts to boil add the sweet potato slices to the boiling water. Only add about a third or half of the slices. Depending on the size of your pot of water.

Allow the water to come back to a boil and boil the slices of sweet potato for 3 to 4 minutes. Then remove them with a slotted spoon or spider strainer and place them on a plate with a paper towel to dry.

Step 5: Fry, Salt, Dry, Serve

Now you can dip those boiled slices of sweet potato in the hot oil. Gently drop them in the hot oil. And be careful!! That oil is super hot. If you are a young person, make sure to have adult supervision.

Don't overcrowd them. For one regular-sized sweet potato, I usually do them a third at a time in my dutch oven.

Fry them at 325F/162C for 4 to 6 minutes maybe longer maybe a little less, stirring them occasionally so they fry evenly. They are done when most of the bubbles subside, and they feel crispy/crunchy when you scoop them up.

Place them on a separate plate with a paper towel to dry, and hit them with a bit of salt or other seasonings if you like. Enjoy!

Print the full recipe here if you like.

Step 6: Do I Have to Boil Them?

No, you don't have to boil them. In this picture on the left, I show the sweet potato chips that weren't boiled before frying. Frying them at the same temp and the same amount of time until crispy they get much darker. They are still good but don't look as nice as the ones on the right which were also boiled.

Boiling leaches out even more of the starch.