Triple-Cooked Chips: How to Make Crispy Chips with a Fluffy Centre
Triple-cooked chips are all about the method. By cooking the potatoes three times, first in water, then at a lower temperature, and finally at a high heat - you get an incredibly crisp, blistered exterior with a light and fluffy middle.
Triple-Cooked Chips: How to Make Crispy Chips with a Fluffy Centre
Triple-Cooked Chips
Serves 4
Ingredients
1kg Maris Piper potatoes
1-1.5 litres beef dripping or vegetable oil, for frying
Sea salt, to serve
Method
1. Prepare the potatoes
Peel the potatoes and cut them into chips about 1–1.5cm thick, trying to keep them as even as possible. This means they will all cook at roughly the same rate.
Rinse the chips thoroughly under cold running water until the water runs mostly clear. This removes excess surface starch, which can otherwise make the chips stick together and prevents you from getting that clean, crisp exterior.
Place the chips in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 7-10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender but still holding their shape.
The first cook is all about the inside. We aren't trying to colour the potatoes here - we're gently cooking them until the centres become soft and fluffy.
Carefully drain and leave the chips to steam-dry for 10–15 minutes. The drier they are, the better they will fry.
Transfer them to a tray in a single layer and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or preferably until completely cold.
2. The second cook
Heat your beef dripping or oil to 140°C.
Fry the chips in batches for around 5-7 minutes, keeping the temperature as close to 140°C as possible. They should be cooked through and beginning to develop a very light skin, but they shouldn't become deeply golden.
Remove them carefully and drain on a wire rack.
This second fry is where we start building the texture. The surface dries out and develops a firmer outer layer, ready for the final, much hotter fry.
Leave the chips to cool completely again. You can refrigerate them for another 30 minutes, or leave them for several hours if you're preparing ahead.
3. The final cook
Increase the oil temperature to 190°C.
Fry the chips in batches for 2-4 minutes, or until deeply golden, crisp and beautifully blistered on the outside.
The high temperature gives you that final transformation: a crisp, crunchy exterior while the inside stays light and fluffy.
Drain on a wire rack and season generously with fine sea salt while they're still hot.
Serve immediately.
The key: don't rush the cooling and drying between each stage. That's what gives triple-cooked chips their characteristic contrast between crisp outside and fluffy inside.
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