What would you consider to be the best way to make nice chips at home?

[SecondSpare]

I have a fussy DH who doesn't like chips that have been cooked in an air fryer. He thinks the only way for chips to be nice (or at least edible) is to cook them in the oven. I'd like to ask, what do other chip-enjoyers on MN prefer? If you buy potatoes and peel and cook them yourself, do they taste better than frozen chips?

Deep-fat fried chips (made from potatoes you've peeled and chipped yourself) win hands down against all rivals on the taste front. Not necessarily the healthiest option, mind!

Boil for 8 minutes, then fry them in oil.

and yes, I do this only when time allows / at weekends.

Oven chips, bleurgh!

Deep fried is the only way for me (though saying that we very rarely have them, perhaps 3 times a year). Peel spuds, 'chip', soak in cold water to remove the starch (giving the chips a good stirring now and again), drain, rinse with fresh water, drain again, dry the chips and then deep fry. Line a large bowl with kitchen roll, put said chips in the bowl and add Chinese salt, pepper and chill mix to the chips and toss around in a bowl. Remove said kitchen roll and voila! Yum 😊

We only like Tesco own brand skin on fries cooking in a very particular way - pre heat oven to 200, with a baking tray with quite a lot of oil, then cook for around 25 mins, turning a few times. They come out really well. Their sweet potato fries also come out nicely like this too.

Sainsbury’s extra crispy chips are the best.

Or my mums chips circa 1980s, deep fried from chip pan where the oil was re- used every time.

I’m tell him to make them himself!

Of oven chips, Sainsbury's triple cooked chunky ones are way better than most others.

Agree with others, deep fried is the only way toget really tasty chips, air fried, oven baked, average at best, frozen chips,pretty tasteless

Deep fat fryer. I've got an old fashioned saucepan and basket setup.

Honestly the best chips I've ever made were in the airfryer. Baking potatoes, skin on quite chunky, olive oil and seasoning then toss every few minutes. Hate pre made ones.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/tuscan-fries

I only do chips like this now - started in cold oil. We love them (only have them rarely though)

In the oven but treat them like roasties in a chip shape. Par boil, drain and steam dry, add to hot oil or fat then roast.

I loved my mum’s chips, cooked in lard in a chip pan!

I deep fry following the same steps as previous OPs with an addition. Putting the chips in the oil cools it down a bit so once they are sealed and taken on a bit of colour I remove them from the oil and wait for it to get really hot again. I put the chips back until they are the right colour then drain them on kitchen paper. That is the only way I can get them fluffy on the inside and crispy outside.

I just cut the chips from potatoes and they go straight in the hot deep fat fryer until they float. I love my chips but I’ll have to look into this rinsing and pre boiling that PPs are doing to see if it makes them even better!

I don’t like frozen chips myself as I like them crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle and I’ve never found a frozen chip that tastes half decent to me.
I peel and chip maris piper or king edwards and leave to soak in cold water (as someone said upthread to get the starch out). Drain, rinse and bring to boil in fresh water - boil 7 mins and drain.
A tray with some crisp and dry in the oven on high til smoking.
Chuck chips in oil and toss to cover in oil.
They then take about 20-30 mins, depending on oven temp. I aim for 220ish.
You can do the last bit in the air fryer, of course.
It sounds more of a faff than it is - although obviously it’s more of a faff than opening a bag. I think they’re worth it though.

I preheat the fat (preferably beef fat or vegetable oil if not got any beef fat) on a baking tray, peel, chop then sprinkle with cornflour for crispiness, then add Aldis roast potato seasoning. Everyone comments how good they are. I stock up on the seasoning as they only do it during the winter months at Aldi.

I don't preboil, just peel, chip, straight into hot fat, turn down for about 20mins then turn right up to crisp. homemade chips in chips pan are the best 👌

There is no substitute for home made chips cooked in a deep fryer.
When my deep fryer broke I decided to do without and for two years we had miserable air fryer or oven chips.
I only eat chips about once a month but found I didn't fancy them at all. So I caved in and bought a new deep fryer.
Peel potatoes, cut a mix of thick and thin, fry until brown.

I wonder if different generations may be a factor in preference on this. Those of us of a certain age grew up with proper deep-fried chips as the norm; but oven chips slowly muscled in - all the old (true) chip-pan fire horror stories probably didn't hurt the manufacturers there, mind - and became the new norm.

I'd say that most younger people don't even call oven chips 'oven chips' but just 'chips', as to them, they are just what chips are - the same way that nobody ever talks about buying a colour TV anymore!

Air fryer with a rotisserie. Peel and cut potatoes, toss them in melted tallow and then into the rotisserie basket in the air fryer, around 25 minutes at 185 then up to 190 for 5 more minutes. That's for skinny chips, haven't tried making chunky ones. Sometimes I soak them a few minutes before adding to tallow but mostly I don't.

I suspect chip pan chips done in tallow would be even better but I don't own a chip pan.

Frozen chips are usually coated in seed oils and other crap and I avoid them like the plague.

Nothing beats a proper deep fried chip - all soaked first etc.

But I'll happily eat an oven chip - prefer the chunkier ones. But I think they are better done in an air fryer.

If I can be arsed I'll do chip sized roastie potatoes instead in olive oil with garlic and rosemary - but that's a weekend thing.

This, agreed.

I grew up with deep frier chips and then DM moved on to oven chips. Never heard of fires with former but they must’ve happened.

Oven chips generally taste like cardboard to me. We have a proper big old pan full of lard on the stove with a chip pan in it. Raw potatoes peeled, sliced and done in oil.

We don't have it very often, but it's the only way to do chips. Otherwise there are endless ways to do nice potatoes without resorting to frozen oven chips.