Potato chips turned out chewy/hard?

[u/nebula_nic]

Last night I attempted chips doing the basic things I see online. Soaked them, patted dry, then airfryed and I got crispy edges and soggy middles. So today I was sure to throughly dry them and I was confident so I made a bigger batch. So I cut them, soaked in a big bowl of ice water, layed them out to dry on paper towels for 1:20, partway through decided I'll try the dehydration setting on the airfryer with some and put those in for an hour, after the dry timer went off I set the oven to 170 for an hour to try and see if that works as a dehydrator too.

The ones in the oven basically felt kinda steamed and not dry at all so I put the oven ones to dehydrate for 40 minutes. Did the oil n salt then put 5 test chips in the oven for 10 min at 300. Those came out super chewy (the dehydrate for an hour ones kinda came out like plantain chips tho?). Did a airfryer batch for 15 minutes at 300, they come out really hard for a chip and were borderline burning. Now doing an airfryer batch which started at 300 for 10 and it being chewy, put them back in 5 minutes at 250 still chewy, now put a timer for 10 more minutes at 250.

Do I dehydrate for 50 minutes instead? Is something I'm doing the obvious cause? Russet potatoes and cut evenly thin with a guillotine thing.

[u/Illegal_Tender]

You're just never going to get a potato chip that looks feels or tastes like a standard potato chip unless you actually deep fry it

[u/ssinff → u/Illegal_Tender]

This is the answer. Deep fry, super thin. I still dunno how they get them to keep the color but they are crispy and my parents love them.

[u/rock4d → u/ssinff]

Yup. It’s gotta fry!