How to cook chips in a halogen oven easily and quickly without parboiling them and that are light fluffy and golden brown.  

Halogen ovens are perfect for cooking chips.  They make it very easy whether the chips ready-made or home-cooked ones.  They are certainly a lot easier and safer than the old method of a deep pan and basket.

By finding a way not to have to parboil cooking chips becomes faster and easier.  It also uses fewer pans so less to wash up.

Below are three methods of how to cook chips in your Halogen oven and one for cooking frozen chips.  The first shows parboiling just in case you want to try it that way, the other 2 are how to cook without parboiling the chips. There is also a suggestion to make using the oven easier when cooking chips by getting a chip fryer attachment.

How to Cook Chips in a Halogen Oven Easily and Quickly

Can You Cook Chips in a Halogen Cooker Without Par Boiling Them?

One of the first questions I asked myself was can you cook chips in a halogen cooker without parboiling them or them coming out hard?

When you cook chips with Slimming World it is recommended that you par boil them then drain them, pat them dry and then spray with oil and then put them into the oven. And like many people I did that because I wanted to lose weight.  But my goodness it was a faff, especially with my oven which takes forever to heat up.  I didn’t have my halogen oven at that time so the normal oven or no chips were the only options.

This need to par boil the chips have been in the back of my mind and this is partly why I continued to use frozen chips. As I was using frozen chips I never looked deeper into buying the accessories you can get for chip making.

Method 1 – Parboiling the potatoes first and then Cooking Your Chips in the Halogen Oven

As you can see from the video this is pretty much the same method as I was using and the only one that I found on Youtube or the net. This lady is lucky, her hob is instant heat.  But what if you don’t have to do all of that?

Her chips look amazing as she uses a really neat crinkle cutter.  I so want one of those.

 Check out crinkle chip cutters here on Amazon


Method 2 – Cooking Directly in the Halogen Oven. No parboiling. Low to High Temperatures.

Now as anyone with a halogen will know they cook fast – really fast in fact.  So if you put chips in them to cook you stand a really good chance of them being cooked on the outside and not on the inside. With this in mind, this is what I did.

1. I cut my potatoes into chips evenly using my chip cutter.
2. I then coated them in rapeseed oil.
3. They were placed onto the rack in the halogen oven.
4. The temperature was set to 150C and I cooked them until they were nearly soft.
5. I then turned up the temperature to about 200C and left it until they were golden brown and soft.

To my mind, it flies against everything that should happen or what you should do.  And not even my sister had tried it! The main issues here are the lower temperatures with oil.  As it gives the oil a chance to seep into your chips making them fat laden and soggy. But that is not what happened, they came out perfect fluffy chips with lightly brown outsides. I can’t however, say that they have anything other than a high-fat content.

Method 3 – Cooking Directly in the Halogen Oven with High Temperatures.  No Parboiling

This method is about cooking your chips with a higher temperature so as not to let the oil seep into the chips so much.

1. Cut the potatoes into even chips using my chip cutter
2. Coat with s small amount of oil. A couple of teaspoons. You can use less
3. Pop chips into your halogen oven flat with spaces between them
4. Set the oven temperature to 200C
5. Cook for about 12-14 minutes check if they are soft
6. If not lower the temperature and give a few move minutes keeping an eye on them

This method worked ok but after about 14 minutes the chips were still hard which is why I lowered the temperature.  This may be because I didn’t dry them off with a paper towel before adding the oil. They took longer to cook through and were much browner on the outside by the time they did.  But they were perfectly fine chips.

Method 4 – Using an Air Fryer Attachment to Cook Your Chips

So having gotten somewhat fed up of my chips falling through the holes I was wondering whether it was worth getting te air fryer attachment to make things easier.

 

The Halogen Oven Air Fryer Attachment For Easier Crispier Chips

You can see several popular Halogen Oven Air Fryer Attachments here on Amazon


These are great as you can get more on them and your chips do not fall through the holes. Also removing your chips or other fried items when they are cooked is easier. They also increase your ovens overall capacity.

What I particularly like is that they have movable holes so that you can allow air flow that makes your chips more crispy.

How to Cook Frozen Chips in a Halogen Oven 

Learning how to cook chips in a halogen oven is really easy.

1. You can preheat your oven for a few minutes if you want to but you don’t have to.  
2. Just pop your chips onto the top tray
3. Cook for the time on the packet 
4. Cook at the fan oven temperature
5. Check your chips to make sure they haven’t overcooked.

Tips for Cooking Better Chips in your Halogen Oven:

1. Cut your chips evenly because it is easier to judge the cooking time and make sure they are all cooked evenly and well.  If you are not good at cutting by knife your can easily buy yourself a    potato chipper
2. Dabbing them with a paper towel reduces the moisture and helps get a lovely golden colour
3. If you don’t have an attachment or tray with holes place your small grill rack down onto your high grill rack to create a criss-cross grid this reduces the chances of your chips falling through the holes
4. Cook about 20C lower than for a normal oven or at fan oven temperatures
5. Always keep a close eye on what you are cooking as halogens are quick to cook