Making Classic Lays' Chips
Scrub and peel your potato. Use a strong brush or sponge to remove any dirt under running water, then peel off the skin. Note that you can leave some skin as well for a little change of taste, as most Lay's chips still have a little bit of skin left on them. It's your choice.
Slice your chips as thin as possible with a mandolin or sharp knife. Mandolins set to the thinnest setting are always the best option, as you'll get perfectly even, thin chips. However, you can use a knife if you work slowly and carefully. The thinner the better.
Place your sliced potatoes in a bowl of salted, cold water for 30 minutes. The salty water draws out moisture, which allows the potatoes to crisp up perfectly when cooked.
Blot the chips dry with paper towels after 30 minutes. Remove the sliced potatoes from the water and lay them on paper towels to dry. Pat the tops with more paper towels to fully dry them.
Heat 2 inches of sunflower oil in a pan on medium heat. You're aiming to get the temperature to roughly 350F/175C, which you can do with a deep fryer or a candy thermometer. If you don't have one of those, you can still find the right temperature easily: Drop a 1" (2.5cm) cube of bread into the hot oil. If it browns in about 75 seconds, your oil is the perfect temperature. Drop a kernel of popcorn in the oil as it heats. You're ready to fry once it pops.
Cook the potatoes for 2-3 minutes in the oil, stirring regularly to prevent sticking. You may have to do 2-3 batches to prevent them from sticking or crowding up the pan. You want to cook them until they just start to brown -- they will cook a little bit longer once you remove them, so take them out just before they are perfect. Use a mesh scooper or a slotted spoon to remove the chips but keep the oil in the pan.
Dry chips on a paper towel-lined baking sheet and season immediately with salt. Blot gently with paper towels to remove excess oil, then toss with salt immediately, while still hot, for the best flavor. Let them cool while you finish other batches, and enjoy!
Making Baked Lays Chips
Scrub the potatoes with a brush and cold water, then peel. You can peel as much or as little away as you want. Lay's claims they only do a "gentle peel," which leaves a bit of skin on some of the edges.
Slice the potatoes into roughly 1/8" (3mm) thickness. If you have a mandolin, this will be much easier to do. Set the mandolin to a medium thickness and get slicing. If you are using a knife, slice as thinly as you can without endangering yourself. Aim for regularity over your top thinness -- if they are roughly the same thickness, they will all cook at the same rate. Baked chips must be a bit thicker than their fried counterparts, so you don't need to go as thin as you possibly can.
Boil the chips for 3-5 minutes, until soft. This step is necessary to pre-cook the starches, which allows you to bake the chips later and get them nice and crisp. If possible, use a metal strainer or sifter to boil the potatoes in, which you can carefully lift out with tongs once they chips have finished boiling, letting all the water drain away.
Pre-heat the oven to 450F/230C. You want a nice high cooking temperature to really crisp the edges. This is why your pre-boil -- the potatoes are already cooked when they go in the oven, allowing the high heat to simply crisp them up.
Combine boiled chips with sunflower oil and salt, using just enough to coat. Add the oil slowly, mixing the whole time, so that you only use enough for a thin coating on all the potatoes. Add the salt generously.
Lay the slices out on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Do not layer the chips -- they should not be touching each other as they cook. The parchment paper will prevent sticking, which can cause your chips to rip as you remove them later.
Cook for 10-15 minutes, until golden. You can flip them once, at about the 7-minute mark, to ensure that they cook equally. This isn't strictly necessary, though it can help for older ovens that may heat up somewhat unevenly.
Cool on a wire rack or fresh parchment paper and season immediately. Add a touch more salt and enjoy once cooled. The chips only need a few minutes to become cool enough to eat.
Making Microwaved Lay's Chips
Scrub your potato of excess dirt. Use a sturdy brush to scrub down the skin of the potato and remove any dirt or grim.
Peel the potato carefully. If you look closely at Lay's you'll see that they still have some bits of thin skin attached. That said, you want to remove as much skin as possible.
Slice your potatoes as thinly as possible using your mandolin or a sharp knife. If using a mandolin, set it to the thinnest possible setting and carefully shave the potatoes into paper thin slices. If you're using a knife, know that this thin isn't quite possible -- you'll need to cook them a little bit longer.
Mix the potatoes, 1/4 cup oil, and generous heaping of salt in a large plastic bag. Use a gallon-sized resealable bag and shake until all of the potatoes are well coated. You do not need to dry the chips like the other methods, as microwaves use this moisture to actually cook the potato.
Layer the potatoes on a piece of parchment paper so that none are touching. Take this parchment paper and place it on a plate in the microwave. If desired, sprinkle with extra salt or a little bit of black pepper.
Cook for 3-5 minutes, watching the entire time. These chips cook quickly, so be ready to remove them once finished. The final time depends on the microwave's strength, the number of chips, and the placement in the microwave, so keep a watchful eye.
Remove once they chips just start to brown. If they aren't brown at all, they won't get crispy. If they get too brown, they will quickly burn. Keep your eye on them and remove as the start to crisp up -- they will cook just a bit more as they cool, so go a little on the early side.
Cool and enjoy, cooking more batches as needed. Since the chips can't be overlapping, you can't cook too many of them at once. Remove the first batch, set aside to cool, and get another batch going.
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