Kerry reckons frozen chips beat homemade every time, and she's willing to prove it. Watch as she puts Maris Piper against budget Lidl frozen in a side-by-side air fryer showdown, shaking and timing them to the exact minute to settle the debate once and for all.
Source video by Kerry Morton on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules and is marked for human review.
Kerry cooks 280g of homemade Maris Piper chips (pre-soaked) against 280g of Lidl frozen chips in a Ninja dual-basket air fryer. Both baskets get olive oil and salt, both are air-fried at the same time with frequent shaking. The frozen chips finish first at around 12 minutes, while the homemade chips need closer to 17 minutes. The verdict: homemade just edges it on looks and flavour, but frozen wins on convenience.
Ingredients
Homemade chips
280 gMaris Piper potatoes, cut into chips, soaked in water for a couple of hours, drained and patted dry
Frozen chips
280 gfrozen chips
To season
olive oil, for drizzling
salt
To serve
malt vinegar (add late)
Method
Cut the Maris Piper potatoes into chips and soak them in cold water for a couple of hours. Drain and pat thoroughly dry.
~5 min
Put the homemade chips into one air fryer basket and the frozen chips into the other.
~1 min
Drizzle both baskets with olive oil and season with salt directly in the basket. Toss to coat.
~1 min
Set both baskets to air fry for 10 minutes. Shake the baskets frequently (Kerry shakes at around 3 minutes and again partway through).
~10 min
After 10 minutes, check both. The frozen chips should be nearly done; the homemade chips will need longer. Lift the frozen chips out to rest, and put the homemade chips back in for another 5 minutes.
~5 min
Return the frozen chips to their basket and air fry both together for a final 2 minutes to bring everything up to temperature.
~2 min
Tip onto plates, add a splash more salt and a shake of vinegar to taste, and serve straight away.
~1 min
Frequently asked
Do I need to soak homemade chips before air frying?
Soaking in cold water for 1 to 2 hours pulls out surface starch, which helps the chips crisp up rather than steam. Drain well and pat them very dry before they go in the basket, or the oil will not stick and you will get a soft finish.
Why do homemade chips take longer than frozen in the air fryer?
Frozen chips are par-cooked at the factory, so they only need to heat through and crisp. Raw potato has to cook all the way through first. In this video the frozen chips were done in about 12 minutes and the homemade chips needed around 17.
Do I need to preheat the air fryer for chips?
Not essential, especially with a Ninja that ramps up quickly. If your model has a preheat function it will give you a slightly faster crisp on the outside, but going in from cold and adding a minute or two works fine.
How often should I shake the basket?
Every 3 to 4 minutes is plenty. Frequent shaking stops the chips sticking to each other and gives you an even colour on all sides.
Can I cook homemade and frozen chips in the same basket?
It is better not to. They cook at different rates, so the frozen ones will be ready while the homemade ones are still raw inside. Use a dual-basket air fryer, or cook them in two separate batches.
Extraction notes (transparency): Air fryer temperature was not stated in the transcript; 200°C assumed as the standard Ninja 'air fry' default for chips. Olive oil and salt quantities were not specified ('as little or as much as you want'). Cook times taken directly from transcript: frozen ~12 min, homemade ~15-17 min, with a shared final 2 min reheat. | Second-pass critique flagged 4 fabricated and 2 quantified issues. See critique.issues for detail.
