
I was eight when my dad leaned me over the kitchen sink for my first caviar tasting. Who does a caviar tasting over a sink, you ask? Parents who know their kids are going to spit it out, that’s who. 🙂

But our weekends were usually far from fancy. In fact, many evenings you’d find us in a field of fresh mown hay, shooting aluminum cans over the pond in the lower half of our forty acres.
Except for the fact that it got zero t.v. reception, I loved that little cottage in the Texas plains . . . the Kool-aid mix that masked the weird taste of the well water, dinners of hot dogs and chips on the patio while we stared impatiently at the sky, Black Cats and bottle rockets in hand.
And then, whiz!
The night sky is blazing and I am running through our field, searching for stray embers like treasure. “I’ve got one!” I yell, stamping and huffing with all my might as my brother and sisters echo the refrain off in the distance.
We shoot and shoot until our eyes are bleary, then off to bed we go, collapsing breathless into blankets that smell like sawdust . . . gently lulled to sleep by the thrumming of katydids.
Potato Chips on the 4th of July are as American as Apple Pie
As this 4th of July approaches I can’t stop thinking about the “Little House,” as we called it, and those simple dinners leading up to the big show. In fact, the desire to recreate an element from that meal became something of an obsession these past couple weeks.
Only, potato chips are illegal on GAPS. Awesome.
Attempts 1-7 at chips using squash were utter failures. Double awesome.
Batch #8? Awesome. No Really . . .
Turns out the trick to crispy sour cream and onion chips is, ironically, water. So here it is, my ode to bright July nights.
Oh, and if you love these, check out my crispy rosemary and garlic beet chips.
Crispy Sour Cream & Onion Chips Made from Butternut Squash
Equipment
- mandoline
- medium bowl
- Candy thermometer (recommended but not essential)
- Deep pot with small circumference
Ingredients
Chips
- 2 small butternut squash
- 5 cups tallow or coconut oil (where to buy coconut oil)
Seasoning
- 1½ tsp dried parsley flakes
- 2 tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp dried dill
- 2 tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp ground pepper
Instructions
- Place seasoning ingredients into a food processor or coffee grinder and pulse until finely ground
- Cut off the bulb part of the squash and set aside for another use. Peel the skin off of the remaining squash and divide it into 3 inch chunks. Using a mandoline set at 1/16th inch, slice the squash.
- Put all slices in a big bowl of water and soak for 1 hour.
- Drain as much water as you can from the squash slices, then lay them flat on some towels and pat surface dry. Any leftover moisture can cause the tallow to splatter, so don’t skip this step!
- Heat oil in a small pot while monitoring with a candy thermometer. Tallow should be heated to 375F but coconut oil should not be heated past its smoke point of 350F. (Chips fried in coconut oil will be slightly less crispy, but you’ll love them, promise.)
- Place a batch of squash slices into the fryer . . . make sure that they don’t stick to each other and that they are completely submerged.
- Turning as necessary, fry until crispy and then scoop them out with tongs or a slotted spoon (1-2 minutes depending on heat). Place chips on a plate lined with paper towels and sprinkle seasoning while they’re hot.
These were really tasty. You’re in the kitchen cooking up another batch right now, and Katie’s excited. 🙂
Oh Heather, I WISH I had the supplies to make these. Even though chips now taste horrible to me, I do fondly remember the days when I could down entire bags on my own. (uh, yeah, I do have quite an appetite.)
Enjoy your day!
Must.Try.This!!!! They look delicious!!
I must give this a try…they look delish! Stopping by from the blog link up and I sure am glad I did 🙂
Arianah
OneLittleMom.blogspot.com
This sounds lovely!! After reading your other sweet potato chip recipe, I’ve decided I MUST get a mandolin!
Yummy! There is a typo in Step 4 btw. It should be ‘squash’ not ‘potato’.
Thanks, Janani! So glad you caught that!
Thanks for catching that, Janani!
Can you save the oil/tallow and for how long? refrigerated?
Annette at Wilderness Family Naturals says coconut oil lasts in her deep fryer for a year or so. If you’re using tallow it will spoil quickly at room temp, so keep it in the freezer until you’re ready to make chips. Not sure how long it lasts – we go through ours pretty quickly!
Does she keep the deep fryer pan with coconut oil in her fridge?
I’m looking into tallow- but we don’t have any. We do have c. oil though. Oddly, I don’t love the taste of coconut oil most of the time (and mainly use it in skin products) so another question is this: have you used it for your chips, and does it leave a cocnut-ty taste? We use Nutiva brand.
No, I think she leaves it at room temp. I use the cooking grade stuff from Wilderness Family Naturals because I don’t like the coconuty flavor all that much either – it’s good and mild 🙂
Where do you buy tallow? When I search I end up with soap- and candle-making websites.
Mine are not crispy at all. Fried them in tallow too. I have them in the dehydrator hoping they’ll crispen up. They are delicious but I was hoping to pack them for school lunches.
I’m so sorry, Holly! Did you heat the oil to 375? They don’t get super crispy even at 350 when I fry them with coconut oil 🙁
Heather, I’m sorry to bother you a second time, but could you help me out with buying / understanding tallow, from my comment above?
HI Maggie! I’m so sorry I didn’t respond to your earlier comment! Sometimes I just miss them. The easiest way to buy it is to find it locally. I’d look for tallow made from pastured animals. There are two websites that I’ve found helpful in locating local ranchers that might be able to help you out: http://www.eatwild.com and http://www.localharvest.org
If you can’t find any locally you can buy it online at U.S. Wellness Meats:http://www.grasslandbeef.com/StoreFront.bok
Hope that helps and apologies again for not responding earlier!
I really want to make these! I live in a part of the world where healthy oils are hard to come by, except for olive oil. Do you think it would work? Also, no opportunity to get a mandolin. Any ideas for substitutes?
Hi Rachel! Unfortunately I would not recommend olive oil. It is very unstable at high heat and will convert to unhealthy trans-fatty acids 🙁
can you save oil and use again?
Yep!
Thanks for the recipe – can’t wait to try it – I’ve only done baked chips.
This is a great idea for an appetizer. Thanks for the share
I posted the one for the dehydrator giveaway as well. These are my favorite flavor of chips. delicious.
Awesome recipe! Just one question though, can I use lard to fry the chips in? I have no tallow.
Yes, although I believe it has a lower smoke point than tallow.
This looks great! But is there any way to make it with less coconut oil?