Sweet Potato Chips

If you follow my facebook page (you can "like" it on the right of your screen right now!) you would know that I have a LOT of sweet potatoes from my garden.  Like a lot. 

The store brand: Terra Spiced Sweet Potato Chips

My Recipe:
3 large sweet potatoes
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cayenne powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt

- Preheat your oven to 375º.
- Start out by peeling the sweet potatoes and slice them thin (I used my mandolin, but if you're good with a knife, go for it).
- Mix all the spices together - vary amounts based on preference (I'll probably try a sweet batch later).

- Toss the sweet potato slices in a bowl with olive oil until lightly coated and then sprinkle with spices and give another toss.

- Lay sweet potatoes out in a single layer on a baking sheet.

- Bake for about 15 minutes, flip, and bake another 10 minutes.  Keep a close eye on them so they don't burn!

And the chips?  They were good.  Since they were baked, they weren't perfectly crispy, but they were still really good.  The spice was perfect.  The Terra chips were obviously fried and perfectly crisp - every last one.  I liked that my homemade batch was not as salty as the Terra chips.

The cost?  I grew these sweet potatoes myself, but I used the store price ($1/lb) for the comparison:

	Size	Cost	Cost/Oz
Terra Sweet Potato Chips	6 oz	$     3.99	$          0.67
Homemade	12 oz	$     3.61	$          0.30

Using my homemade sweet potatoes makes these chips almost free (actually 61¢).  Even purchasing the sweet potatoes, it is much more affordable to make these.  The homemade version is healthier, since they are baked.

Overall, they were just different.  SO different.  Making these with my own potatoes is something I would definitely do again.  Would I go to the store and buy sweet potatoes to make my own chips?  Negative.  We don't eat many chips anyways, so when I do crave something crunchy and salty, I'd likely just buy a bag.

So on a normal day where I'm not digging potatoes out of my garden...
Bake or Buy? Buy.

P.S. I'm still going to try the sweet batch - keep an eye on my facebook page for the recipe!