Crunchiest Carrot Chips Ever!!

These are carrot chips. The kind you’ll enjoy watching tv on the sofa.

Really easy to make, really crunchy. There is no way they will come out soft or limp. They are going to be the crunchiest carrot chips you’ll ever cook. Guaranteed. And they are not fried!

These carrot chips last quite long in a jar on the counter, so I make a lot in advance, especially when I get some fresh organic carrots.

The key point in this recipe is dehydrating the carrots before cooking them! Without water in the way the cooking process is homogeneous and predictable.

Let’s do this!

You can skip this step if you want, I won't mind too much...

The idea started with this recipe on ChefSteps website. It’s a very interesting and tasty vegetable demi-glace, and the concept is it to roast the vegetables in the oven before using them for the broth. Most of the time I actually can’t put myself to prepare it because it's long and uses a lot of vegetables all together. Still, I thought it would be awesome if I could prepare in advance a vegetable at a time, maybe saving what’s forgotten in the fridge before it’s too late! Dehydrating is perfect for this job: it preserve the vegetables and it makes a lot easier to brown them. If you have ever cooked sous-vide you know what I mean: searing a wet steak ends to really poor results. And the reason is that the water content of the food, boiling and evaporating, prevent it to rise to temperatures higher than 212°F (100°C). So I tried this way, and the results where interesting. Something toward an instant soup!

Back to topic!

Once the carrots where roasted, I discovered they were crunchy and tasty, not sweet anymore.

Awesome!! This is how to do it!

Materials:

• 500g Carrots

• 1tblsp Olive oil

• A pinch of salt.

• Spices (optional): Cinnamon / paprika / …….

Tools:

• A peeler

• A mandoline or a slicer or just a knife

• An airfryer OR a dehydrator and a oven OR just an oven.

• Parchment paper.

• Dishes and bowls

When buying the carrots remember that the size matters!

Remember that the carrot’s core is not so sweet and it’s harder and more fibrous than the rest. So bigger carrots will result in larger, nicer chips with larger cores; while smaller carrots will be tastier.

Using now: peeler, mandoline/slicer/knife, carrots.

Wash the vegetables thoroughly and peel them.

As obillo pointed out in the comment, you don't really need to peel them. I just take less to peel them than to wash them enough for my standard.

Then cut them to shape. I’m going to cut them round with the slicer, but you can cut them any shape you want, cut them like stars or hearts! Try julienne if you fancy that. I often cut them down with the grater and then use the chips as a topping. You can cut them with a knife, but remember to cut in thin slices, about a millimeter thick. It’s ok if they don’t come out all the same, because we are going to cook them dry, and they’ll be alright.

If you want to add some spices, now is the moment. The slices are wet and the spices will stick to them.

Personally I prefer them as they are, adding only a pinch of salt before eating them.

Be really careful when using the slicer!!

Using now: Carrot slices, airfryer/dehydrator/oven, parchment paper.

We want the slices to be as dry as paper, so the dehydrator is a good choice if you have one. You are going to cook the carrots as soon as they are dry, so you don’t have to bother with a low temperature setting. An oven is a good choice too. Use some parchment paper and spread the slices on it. The airfryer works essentially the same way as the dehydrator, but with higher temperatures and faster air circulation. So it's pretty fast for the job.

Vegetables cook between 175°F (80°C) and 190°F (90°C) even when you are cooking sous-vide, so remember to set the oven temperature below 175°F (80°C) to keep the carrot slices stiff.

Keep them inside as long as needed to be really dry, once ready they should “sing” if shuffled.

I use the airfryer and it takes about an hour to dry them all together at the lowest setting (175°F / 80°C). I prefer this tool because you don’t even need to spread the food to dry it. Once dry i rise the temperature and I'm ready to cook.

Note:

500g of carrots resulted in 50g of dry chips!!

As it was pointed out in the comments by StoddardJ, dehydrating the carrots in the oven might be really long and difficult. You might want to cut thinner slices (definitely use the slicer) or to add a pinch of salt before drying.

Using now: dried slices, oil, salt, bowl, airfryer/dehydrator/oven, parchment paper

Preheat the airfryer or the oven at 285°F (140°C).

Pour a tablespoon (or two) of oil on the chips and mix thoroughly.

Once the oven is ready, cook the chips for 3 minutes. They should be golden brown.

That’s it! Let them cool down a bit before eating them!

In the pictures I cooked half of them in the oven and half in the airfryer to show the difference (none).

Try other shapes too!!

Note:

Maillard reaction occur at 285°F (140°C) to 338°F (170°C), while sugar caramelize at 320°F (160°C).

We want both of them to happen, so 320°F (160°C) should be the temperature of choice, but I recommend setting with 285° (140°) the first time you try this recipe. The chips are completely dry and get cooked really fast. At 320°F it will get less than a minute to golden. In one minute and half they'll be burned.

Enjoy or store them to share with friends!!

Thank you for reading!

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