Sweet Potato Chips flavored with Lime and Chipotle Chili Powder

After my success with the crunchy salad topping I thought chips should be the next thing to try. These are my first attempt at both baking and dehydrating chips. Back in my unhealthy days I thought nothing of frying chips. Those days are long behind us now.

I decided to prepare the chips two ways (baked in a low oven and dehydrated) since I don’t think many people have a dehydrator. I bought a cheap Salton dehydrator years ago when I wanted to try to make my own salmon jerky. I have been pleasantly surprised at how well this $25 item works. The only down side is that it is large and therefore takes up a lot of room when it is being stored (which is most of the time). If you are interesting in picking up an inexpensive dehydrator, I bought mine at Target.

These chips don’t use any oil because I wanted to see what happened without the fat. I have baked chips before but always used a little olive oil spray because I thought it was necessary for flavor. With the inclusion of lime juice and chipotle chili powder I can safely say these chips have plenty of flavor and I don’t miss the oil.

These chips have exceeded my expectations. At the moment this is my favorite snack recipe. I will be making many different flavors of these going forward.

Sweet Potato Chips flavored with Lime and Chipotle Chili Powder
Makes 4 smallish servings

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato, sliced as thinly as possible on a mandolin
juice of one lime
½ teaspoon of kosher salt
¼ teaspoon of chipotle chili powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees or get out your dehydrator. If baking line three or four half sheet pans with silpat or parchment and set aside until needed.

Slice the sweet potato on the narrowest setting of your mandolin. Place sweet potato slices in a bowl and cover with the lime juice, kosher salt and chili powder.

If baking: place the chips in a single layer on the baking sheets and bake for 30 minutes. Then turn the over the chips and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Test the chips to see if they are uniformly crunchy. If yes, remove and cool on a rack. If no, bake for an addition 15 minutes and test again. Continue baking until the chips are crunchy.

If dehydrating: place the chips on the dehydrator rack in a single layer and allow to dry for 2 hours before checking. The amount of time required would depend on how thin you sliced the potato. Continue to dry until the chips are crisp, this will happen eventually.

Store in an airtight container until ready to serve. Make plenty of these chips; they will disappear quickly once your family has tasted them.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 28.91
Calories From Fat (1%) - 0.16

Total Fat - 0.02g
Saturated Fat - 0.01g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 252.95mg
Potassium - 114.02mg
Total Carbohydrates - 6.86g
Fiber - 0.99g
Sugar - 1.42g
Protein - 0.53g

Comments:

To say that are pleased with this recipe is an understatement. I am thrilled with the taste and crunch of these very healthy chips. The chip texture is very light, almost like a crunchy flavored sweet potato air. It reminds me very much of air popped corn, but with lime and chipotle flavor. Hmmmm, I think I am feeling a popcorn experiment on the horizon. Okay, back to the baked chips.

It made no different in terms of texture whether the chips were baked or dehydrated. If I were in a hurry I would definitely bake these since it is so much faster. If someone in your family likes snack food give these chips a try. The hardest part was slicing the sweet potato on the mandolin.

We will be eating these with the spicy tofu dip when we have our green tea. Being healthy really can be much tastier than most people realize.