Chip Shop Chips Just Like The Chippy
Chip Shop Chips are a British institution & deep frying homemade chips just like your favourite chippy is very easy, just add salt and vinegar.
Creating perfect chippy chips is really very quick; all of the time is in preparation, but cooking them takes just 10 minutes!
Perfect Homemade Chippy Chips
Spending 13 years living in the Hungarian countryside gave me plenty of time to yearn for and find a way to replicate my favourite takeaway recipes at home.
Fakeaway dishes on my run deep and wide with everything from chicken chow mein to chicken balti and egg foo yung to buttermilk southern fried chicken burgers getting a look in.
But let's face it... as a Brit, the granddaddy of all takeaways is the local chippy!
So, of course, I have a recipe that aims at emulating those glorious "blonde" chip shop style chips.
They are remarkably easy to cook at home, so long as you have a fryer. They cook in under 10 minutes, and all of the work to make them chippy chips is in the preparation.
All you need to do is add loads of salt and vinegar and prepare yourself to feel really smug.
Especially if you treat yourself to a bit of food-safe newspaper print to get the memories (no matter if they are false memories) flowing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the type of potato really matter?
Yes, it is the most important part of this recipe; if you do not get floury potatoes, your chips will not turn out right.
I use King Edwards or Maris Pipers. If you are in the US, look for something like a Russet!
Why do you soak the potatoes?
Chip shop chips are always fairly pale in colour, and the way to achieve this is to wash off the surface starch.
Failure to do this will lead to much darker chips.
What fat should I use?
Many moons ago, chip shops would have used hard fat, lard or more likely beef dripping.
Honestly, dripping makes a huge difference, but it is not particularly practical. I usually use sunflower oil or vegetable oil.
Do I have to use a deep-fat fryer?
Oil temperature is critical in this recipe, and as a result, the best way to achieve a consistent temperature is by using a deep-fat fryer.
You could use a chip pan or a large saucepan with a basket. But it is far more difficult to get a pan large enough to safely fry in and to manage the oil temperature.
Can I cook them in advance?
These chips can be frozen after the first cooking phase. Transfer them from the pan and soak up any excess oil on some kitchen paper.
Then place them in a single layer on a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely.
Place them in the freezer and freeze on the cooling rack before transferring to a bag.
You can cook them straight from frozen for 4-5 minutes at 190°C or 375°F. But you must be careful because they will spit and splutter because of the additional moisture.
Serving Suggestions
The only thing that chip shop chips "have" to be served with is salt and vinegar; failure to do so is an imprisonable offence!
After that, you can make your choice. My usual order would be Saveloy and chips with chippy curry sauce and mushy peas.
My wife would always go for battered sausage or jumbo sausage and mock my choice. This suits me fine because I could steal a bit of hers and she'd go nowhere near mine.
I will note that I have not mentioned fish... let's face it the Brits are known for fish and chips.
Growing up, fish and chips would have been an incredible indulgence and were generally well out of the budget for a rare chippy tea.
I do indulge now that I'm a grown-up, though, and of course, I have a recipe for chip shop battered fish.
You can also use them to make salt and pepper chips.
Since returning to the UK, I have discovered that folk up here in the "North" like their chips with gravy, which is just plain odd!
If you omit the vinegar, they double up as "Chinese takeaway chips", and they would be superb with everything from sweet and sour pork balls to curry fish balls.
Equipment Used
I only mention brands of equipment if I think that they make a material difference to a recipe. But if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section below the recipe.
- Deep fat fryer.
- Chopping board.
- Kitchen knife.
- Vegetable peeler.
- Large bowl to soak the potatoes.
- Tea towel and or kitchen paper to dry the potatoes.
Perfect Chippy Style Chip Shop Chips Recipe
Ingredients
- 4-5 Medium Floury Potatoes 600g
- Malt Vinegar to taste
- Salt to taste
- Oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Peel the potatoes and then cut them into 1cm (½") thick chips. Don't worry about the roundness, keep aiming for a 1cm profile (just under ½"), the smaller chips go crispy, which are my favourite.
- Soak the potatoes in cold water for 15 minutes, changing the water once during this time. Then remove the chips and dry them thoroughly.
- Preheat the oil in a deep fat fryer to 140°C or 285°F. Add your chips to the oil, and cook your chips until they are soft to the tip of the knife, which will take around 4-5 minutes.
- Remove the basket from the oil and turn the heat up to 190°C or 375°F and as soon as the oil has come to temperature drip the chips back into the fryer and cook for 2 minutes.
- Serve hot with loads of salt and vinegar!
Hi Brian hope you're well and fine.
Just wondering if I freeze the chips, when their soft to the tip cooked at 140c dried of oil, once they are frozen, do I have to defrost them to cook them or can they go straight into the deep fat fryer? I know they would splutter if they have too much water crystals on them, just would like your advice.
Getting back to the vinegar, we always use a non brewed vinegar, which you can buy in fish/chips shops and pie/mash shops. We buy a 5litre brand called "VINNY" and we put chillies in a smaller bottle and add the vinegar to it. "Delish"
I am not a lover of malt vinegar, I even take our vinegar over the pub when I have fish/chips, things we British do!
So do I defrost or straight to the fryer.
Thanking you
Laurence.
Hey Laurence, good to hear from you, sorry it's take a while to respond I gave this a test and it took me a while to squeeze it in.
I tried both straight from frozen and defrosted and found that going straight in the fryer from frozen gave marginally better results, as you say though you do need to be careful and it is a bit "fighty". Although I found that the defrosted chips were also quite moist even with drying with paper which leads to similar spluttering.
I'll see if I can hunt down some Vinny vinegar, I've not heard of it, although I do have a real weakness for malt vinegar.
All the best
Brian
The reason they stopped use newspaper is you put the tomato sauce on the newsprint rub your chips in the sauce when it got low and ended up with ink on your chips
Wrapping fish and chips solely in newspaper was a very short lived phenomenon during the war, by the 50's it had pretty much become just the outer layer of wrapping rather than the entire wrapping. The food safety act of 1990 pretty much put paid to that!
Also for the longest time, newspaper producers have refunded sellers of newspapers and reused the paper themselves rather than handing yesterdays news to the local chippie.
I'm nearly 50 and have no real memory of fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, although there was one really highly thought of chippie in Birmingham that had food safe "newspaper" wrapping produced to give it the vibe, bit it wasn't newspaper.
What sort of beer would you use? I presume something reasonably fizzy but would it have to be a lager or might one of the fizzier ales be okay?
Hi Malcolm... I change the beer that I use for this recipe all of the time, yes it needs to be fizzy but that does not necessarily mean a lager. I am currently hooked on cooking this with a Weissbeer 🙂
I think I know the chippy in Birmingham you mentioned, it was called Bedders on the Cov road.
There used to be massive queues when ever it opened and they had the Newspaper style wrapping. It's was very tasty and I think I know why.... They used beef tallow for all the frying.
That be the place Chris, just down the road from Asda, I'm almost certain they would have used beef dripping to fry in, hard fats make such a difference to both flavour and texture when frying, lard is still exceptionally popular here in Hungary.
Looks wonderful! I don't have a fat fryer and would be putting oil into a saucepan and heating on the hob, any tips on how to get close to the temperatures you're asking for? I am a Brit living in Germany and both me and my German husband are craving some proper fish and chips! Cheers!
It is the way my Mom would have done it! You will get to the temperatures but the difficulty is getting the temperatures right, a meat thermometer, or as daft as it sounds a sugar thermometer should work well.
The major risk though is overfilling the pan and having fat drip over the side on to the hob and starting a pan fire! If you heat too high, or over fill the pan or a combination of both then this is a real risk!
So yer it is possible but it is also risky, of you do take a punt then do not fill the pan over a third full of fat and try and do it with a thermometer. If the temperatures are off then they really will not cook right, they will either be raw in the middle or soggy and fatty.
Good luck 🙂
Thank you! This is the real deal, as good as I can get at the best chip shop - in Birmingham! Now I just need a recipe for proper curry sauce 😉
We called them batter bits!!!! And I wasn't far from Birmingham. Fortunately for me my mam worked in a chippy. ?. Always loved getting a bag of chips and tearing the top off and eating those wonderful steamed beauties walking home. Miss that and I'm going to try your recipe. All the chips in Toronto are cooked in canola oil and are awful! Now I just need a pukka pie and a battered sausage.
Haha, don't get me started on different British names for the same produce 😉 It is very rare to find decent chips in Hungary, you either get 'French fries' or steak wedges, both have their place but the real chip is missing 🙁
You comment may have me thinking about creating a batter sausage recipe 😮
These look perfect! The funny thing is I was never a fan of fish and chips when I was growing up. They're one of those things that I avoided for years and then recently my husband persuaded me to try them and I love them! I have definitely been missing out over the years!
Think your fish and chips look way better than most chippies! I agree the smell of vinegar and the eating out of paper is very much an experience. We used to get a bag of scraps sometimes too. Your lovely pictures are bringing back lots of memories!
I now live in Italy, but am a Brit who loves fish and chips! Have never thought of making it myself. You have inspired me to give it a try. Hope my Sicilian hubby will like it too! Although if not, I can eat his as well!
These look perfect! The funny thing is I was never a fan of fish and chips when I was growing up. They're one of those things that I avoided for years and then recently my husband persuaded me to try them and I love them! I have definitely been missing out over the years!
Oh man they were my favourite and now even more so.
Think your fish and chips look way better than most chippies! I agree the smell of vinegar and the eating out of paper is very much an experience. We used to get a bag of scraps sometimes too. Your lovely pictures are bringing back lots of memories!
Ha ha I mention scraps in the post, they were never put in a separate bag unless they were asked for separately. My mate Mum from school worked at our local chippie so the scraps were always generous 😀
I now live in Italy, but am a Brit who loves fish and chips! Have never thought of making it myself. You have inspired me to give it a try. Hope my Sicilian hubby will like it too! Although if not, I can eat his as well!
Haha, I have spent years working on everything from Fish and Chips to Sausage rolls, Pork Pie to Chicken Balti 😀 Odd really as a cook in Britain I always cooed food from 'elsewhere', British food has become much more prevalent in my cooking in the 10 years since I left. Nowt as strange as folk 😉
While watching a documentary the other day we learned fish and chips were not rationed during WWII which was probably a good thing since all the other proteins were rationed. I've yet to come across fish and chips in Spain and I'm not sure why. I think they'd be very popular as batter fried cod is widely available (look for tajadas de bacalao) as are patatas fritas. I'm sure if I ventured to the Brit enclaves in the south I'd run into them :).
I remember my Grandmother telling me about the queues that formed at Fish and Chip shops for that very reason, but she also said that it was a treat as it became really expensive and the quality of fat reduced due to other rationing and made it not very enjoyable. Oddly enough as a Brit I have not spent a great deal of time in Spain but we get a Hungarian version of Battered Fish using Harcsa which is a fresh water Cat fish that works really well.
You sure know how to eat well! I'm saddened to hear that some of these traditions have faded. I've never been to England, but it's on my bucket list and traditional fish and chips in a newspaper wrap is something I've wanted to try. But, hold the malt vinegar - I can't stand the smell. In fact, I've been in a fish and chip restaurant here in the Toronto, and have asked the server to move me to another table because the couple next to me were loading up on the malt. Just salt for me, please. 🙂
I'm not one for confirming to stereotypes but you will get sent to the Tower of London for such heresy Byron 😉 Although I will say this very quietly, my wife does not like malt vinegar on her fish and chips either, that is why we had to leave the UK, our secret is out hahahahaa.
My boyfriend is English and when we traveled to England last year he couldn't wait to take me to a "proper chippy" for fish and chips. It was a great experience for me, but I think he mourns the loss of newspaper wrapping and for him the experience now isn't exactly what he remembers growing up. Nonetheless, it's still a great tradition and the batch I had greatly exceeded anything I've had in the US - I would love to surprise him and make it at home sometime, so will bookmark this. Your version looks great 🙂
Thank you April, I am sure the Newspaper thing is all built on nostalgia but it is such a powerful feeling that it should not be discounted, I have two nieces that look at me in disgust when I say that fish and chips used to be wrapped in newspaper 😉 I hope this does the trick and reminds your husband of home 🙂
YES! i adore fish and chips! I will think of this blog post now, when I order fish and chips at our local kiosks. It's my 'go to' food choice for shopping hungries. I bet I could make this at home but I have NEVER deep fried anything! Your tempting me to give this a try. Maybe in avocado oil? anyway, Love your story. enjoy that fish!
Thanks Diane, I have never used Avocado oil *whisper mode on* in fact I hate avocado 😮
I don't deep fry food very often but on rare occasions there really is no subsitute to my mind fish and chips is definitely one of them 🙂
My grandparents used to take me to this little hole-in-the-wall fish & chips place, and it was SO good. This recipe and your photos reminded me of those memories 🙂 Thanks!
Thanks Chrissie, glad to tug on some memories, it does the same to me too.
Haha! Yes- healthy choices, take a stroll for awhile 'cause I'm going to devour these fish and chips! They look amazing and sooo worth a cheat day!
My thoughts precisely, I don't do 'naughty' food that often but if you are gonna do it you should go all the way 😀
My daughter requests fish and chips every birthday year, yours I will be trying this year. Looks so yummy.
Ha ha, don't forget the candles 😉
Wow! I love beer battered fish! I'm still trying to make the perfect fry [chip], but your recipe looks and sounds perfect!! Yum!
I love anything battered fried although the Scottish notion of doing it with a mars bar or pizza is a little extreme 😉 If you are making chunky chips then frying them twice or even three times and drying in between is a real game changer.
Yummy! Homemade fish and chips!! What a delicious looking recipe!
Thanks Renee, a wee taste of home for me which is always welcome!
Wow! My husband will got crazy over this. Would you mind if I switched up the regular flour for gluten-free and the beer for cider? This way I can enjoy this wonderful looking dish.
Yowsers, of course not... I would never dare to say anyone is cooking something wrong 😀 Please let me know what your experiences are with gluten free flour, I find that flour alone leads to a batter that gets soggy earlier so I add cornflour to stabilise... But you could experiment with just the batter and drop it into some hot oil and see how it goes and then drink the rest of the cider whilst experimenting. On the cider front it sounds like a great idea so long as it is sparkling, it is the bubbles that give it that lift 🙂
I love Fish and Chips and I am loving your version, Brian 🙂 I don't actually add beer but your recipe is definitely worth a try, beer included! 😀
Ha ha, thank you... It works just as well with ice cold sparkling water but naturally the batter has less flavour, you could supplement that with some herbs or spice though 🙂
Such an awesome post, the fish n chips looks so yummm. Even i miss those days when we got fish wrapped in newspaper....! Reminded me of my trip to 'Poppies' in london.....
Thank you, for me it was a chip shop called Bedders in Birmingham, ahhh fond memories 😀
Oh my, that looks unbelievably good! I might have to try a gluten free version of this for my husband's birthday next week 🙂 We have lots of 'fries' here in the US but none that even come close to proper chippy chips, and most of the fish where I live is freshwater like Bass and Catfish which I don't much care for.
I'd love to hear how that goes, I have no idea about gluten free flours so your experiences will be interesting... I quite like fries, they have a place but certainly not in a chip shop, hahahahaha. I live in landlocked Hungary so most of our fish is fresh water too and have made this with catfish and it works ok but you do need some fillets from big old catfish!
Brian,
I cannot wait to make these fish and chips! One of my favorite foods too. And like you said, I enjoy eating them with my fingers too- no fork and knife please:)
Glad to find a kindred finger food fan, food just tastes better that way!
This sounds so good. I love fried fish and have always heard the real English Fish and Chips were good. This recipe has my mouth watering. I will be saving it so we can try it out here!
The brits are somewhat fond of deep fried food and this sits right at the top of the tree, not one to eat every day but certainly a naughty treat that is worth an extra jog around the block if you care about that sort of thing 😉
Loved reading your post and lovely recipe indeed!
You know, here in Pakistsn, we still get food wrapped or in the bags made out of the newspaper or any paper taken out from an old book 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
We used to go for fish and chips when we were living in UK regularly. Street food of UK
Certainly an old school favourite 😀