Salt and Pepper Chips

Craggy, double-fried chips get a cornflour dusting for a coating that genuinely shatters, then a fast wok toss with onion, peppers, garlic and chilli. The seasoning mix does the heavy lifting: flaky salt, plenty of white pepper, five-spice and a pinch of sugar. It is the classic Chinese takeaway side, made properly at home.

Salt and pepper chips live or die on two things: chips that stay crisp under the seasoning, and a seasoning mix with enough white pepper to make your lips tingle. Get both right and you have the best thing on the takeaway menu. Double-frying and a thin cornflour dusting do the first job; a hot, fast wok toss does the second.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg Maris Piper or Rooster potatoes — peeled and cut into 1.5cm-thick chips
• 2 litres sunflower or vegetable oil — for deep-frying
• 3 tbsp cornflour
• 2 tsp flaky sea salt — crushed slightly between your fingers
• 2 tsp ground white pepper — the signature flavour, do not swap for black
• 1 tsp Chinese five-spice
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes — or more, to taste
• 2 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil — for the wok
• 1 onion — halved and cut into 1cm dice
• 1 green pepper — deseeded, cut into 1cm dice
• 1 red pepper — deseeded, cut into 1cm dice
• 4 cloves garlic — finely chopped
• 2 red chillies — finely sliced, seeds in or out
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine — dry sherry is a good supermarket substitute
• 4 spring onions — sliced, white and green kept separate

Method

1. Rinse the cut chips under cold water until it runs clear, then leave them to soak in cold water for 10 minutes. Drain and dry them thoroughly on a clean tea towel or kitchen paper. Wet chips will spit in the oil and never crisp properly.
2. Mix the flaky salt, white pepper, five-spice, sugar and chilli flakes in a small bowl. This is your salt and pepper mix, and it is the whole point of the dish, so taste it: it should be punchy and slightly sweet with a warm, peppery back note.
3. Heat the deep-frying oil in a large deep pan or fryer to 140C, filling the pan no more than a third full. A chip dropped in should sizzle gently with fine, steady bubbles rather than fizzing violently. See /guides/how-to-deep-fry-safely-at-home/ if you are new to it.
4. Blanch-fry the chips in three batches for 6-7 minutes each, until soft all the way through but still pale and floppy. Lift them out with a spider onto a wire rack set over a tray, never onto kitchen paper, or the steam underneath will soften them. Let them cool for at least 10 minutes.
5. Raise the oil to 190C. A cube of white bread should turn golden in about 35 seconds. Toss the cooled chips with the cornflour in a large bowl, shaking off the excess so they wear a thin, dusty film rather than a thick paste.
6. Fry again in three batches for 3-4 minutes, until deep gold and audibly crisp when you shake the basket. Drain each batch on the wire rack and let the oil come back up to 190C between batches, or the chips will go greasy.
7. While the last batch fries, get a wok very hot over your highest heat. Add the 2 tbsp of oil, then the onion and both peppers, and stir-fry hard for 2 minutes so they char at the edges but stay crunchy. Add the garlic, chillies and spring onion whites and stir-fry for 30 seconds until fragrant.
8. Splash in the Shaoxing wine around the hot rim of the wok and let it hiss away to nothing. Tip in all the hot chips, scatter over the salt and pepper mix and toss vigorously for 30-45 seconds so every chip is coated. Add the spring onion greens, toss once more and serve straight away in a warm bowl.

Serve it with

• Salt and pepper tofu or king prawns for a full fakeaway spread
• Egg fried rice and a bowl of curry sauce for dipping
• Sweet chilli sauce or a garlic mayo
• Chinese-style pickled cucumber to cut the richness
• Cold lager or jasmine tea

Why this works

The takeaway trick is that the chips are fried twice and seasoned last: the first low fry cooks the potato through, the second at 190C drives off the surface moisture to build a glassy shell, and the cornflour dusting in between gives it something extra to shatter against. Because the wok toss lasts under a minute, the seasoning sticks to the hot fat on the surface without ever getting the chance to steam the crust soft.

Common swaps

• No Shaoxing wine? Dry sherry is the closest supermarket stand-in; a splash of dry white wine or simply leaving it out also works.
• Use 900g of good frozen chips straight from the freezer: fry once at 190C for 5-6 minutes, then dust and flash-fry for 2 minutes more.
• Oven or air-fryer version: toss the raw dried chips with 2 tbsp oil and the cornflour and cook at 200C for 30-35 minutes, turning once, then toss through the wok mixture.
• Add 1 tsp of Sichuan peppercorns, toasted and ground, to the seasoning mix for a numbing takeaway-plus version.
• Swap the peppers for shredded white cabbage and beansprouts if that is what is in the fridge.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Skipping the cooling step between fries. The chips need to steam dry and firm up, and going straight back into hot oil gives you a pale, soggy crust.
• Overcrowding the pan. Too many chips at once drops the oil temperature, and anything below about 170C on the second fry means greasy chips rather than crisp ones.
• Draining on kitchen paper or piling the chips in a bowl. Always use a wire rack so steam escapes from underneath.
• Seasoning too early. Salt draws out moisture, so the mix goes on in the wok at the very last second, not before frying.

Storage, freezing & reheating

Storage: Best eaten within minutes of hitting the bowl. Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to 2 days, but accept that the crust will have softened.

Freezing: Freeze after the first low-temperature fry only: cool the blanched chips completely, freeze in a single layer on a tray, then bag for up to 3 months. Fry from frozen at 190C for 5-6 minutes.

Reheating: Do not microwave. Spread on a tray and reheat at 220C for 6-8 minutes, or in an air fryer at 200C for 4-5 minutes, then re-toss with a fresh pinch of the salt and pepper mix to wake the flavour back up.

Allergen notes: contains Gluten, Sulphites. Always check individual product labels.

Estimated nutrition

Per serving, estimated from typical ingredient values — not a substitute for precise dietary calculation.