Sweet and salty these easy potato chip cookies are a fun and tasty cookie. With only six ingredients they are simple to make. Use up the crushed potato chips from the bottom of a bag and make the best crispy, crunchy, salty sugar cookie.
I love to make cookies, especially for the holidays. Whether it is chocolate crinkle cookies or butterscotch cookies there are endless ways to make homemade holiday cookies.
But I have to admit the first time I heard of potato chip cookies I thought it was a little strange. But while they might be a little unexpected they are delicious!
Reader Review
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I didn’t think anyone but my grandmother knew about potato chip cookies! Seriously SO SO GOOD! I sprinkle the top with powdered sugar when they are warm and it kind of melts. YUMMMMMM!
— Katie
Why You Will Love Potato Chip Cookies
- These cookies are the perfect combination of sweet and salty.
- This is an easy recipe with only six ingredients.
- Kids love to help make these cookies. Crushing potato chips and rolling balls of dough are ways even young kids can help with baking.
- These cookies have a great crispy texture.
- This is an old fashioned cookie recipe, just like grandma used to make!
- This is a unique way to use up the crushed chips at the bottom of a bag of potato chips.
Key Ingredients
Most of the ingredients in this recipe are simple pantry staples for baking cookies and you can get the complete ingredient list in the recipe card below. But here are few with special considerations.
- Potato chips – You need about 2 cups of crushed chips for these cookies, which corresponds to about 6 cups of potato chips.
- Butter – For this recipe I prefer to use unsalted butter because the potato chips add quite a bit of saltiness. The cookies will mix best if you get the butter out of the refrigerator to soften for an hour before making the cookies.
What Kind of Potato Chips Should You Use?
For the best tasting potato chips cookies you want the potato chips crushed, but you don’t want to reduce them to powder. They should still be recognizably potato chips.
So I like to use ridged or ruffled potato chips because they are thicker. It is easy to crush them to tiny pieces of potato chips without over crushing them.
In terms of potato chip flavor you could use any kind you like. But I have only made them with basic unflavored potato chips.
So you could use this recipe with say barbecue flavored chips or salt and vinegar chips, but that doesn’t sound appealing to me. But who knows? If you try flavored chips let me know how it tastes!
Step by Step Instructions
1. Crush the Chips
I crush my potato chips by putting them in a bowl and squishing them. This is effective and doesn’t over crush them.
If you don’t want to get your hands greasy put them in a plastic bag and run a rolling pin over them to crush them. You could also use a food processor, but you’d have to be careful not to over crush them.
Crushing potato chips by hand is an excellent task to assign to kids! My kids love an excuse to crush almost anything.
Once you have the potato chips crushed save 1 cup of them for mixing into the dough and put the rest aside for now.
2. Make the Batter
Start by putting the butter in a mixer bowl and beating it for 1 minutes. It is best if the butter is slightly softened, but not melted.
Next add the sugar and vanilla and beat them until they are completely mixed in. Then add the egg and beat the mixture again, scraping the sides of the bowl if needed.
Add the flour and mix it in until it is just combined. Then stir in the 1 cup of crushed potato chips. You can use the mixer or stir them in by hand, but don’t over mix them.
The batter will be easiest to work with and cook better if it is chilled for about an hour. So cover it and refrigerate it until you are ready to bake.
3. Make the Cookies
Once you are ready to bake the cookies preheat the oven. They should be baked on an ungreased cookie sheet or a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat.
Form the dough into 1 inch balls, either by using a cookie scoop or by rolling them between your hands. Put the balls on the prepared cookie sheet, making sure to leave some space between them.
Once you have the cookie sheet full flatten the cookies by squishing them with a drinking glass or your fingers. Then take the reserved potato chips crumbles and press them into the top of the cookie.
Be generous with the crushed potato chips and cover each cookie with a bunch of them. Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, until they are just starting to get brown at the edges.
How to Serve
Cool the potato chip cookies on wire racks and eat them warm or after they are cooled. After they are cooled put them in an airtight container where they will keep for about 5 days.
These cookies are crispy and not as salty as you might think they would be. The mixture of sweet to salty in these cookies is just about perfect. When you first bite into them they are sweet and then you get a salty burst as you chew.
Everyone agrees that, like potato chips, they are addictive and it is tough to eat just one! The potato chips in the batter give them a different texture than most cookies.
Cookies Make the Perfect Gift
I love to share these potato chip cookies with my friends and family! Food is a great way to bring people together during the holiday season, either in person or from a distance.
Why not bake some cookies this year and put together a cookie gift box for your friends? Here are some cookie recipe ideas for gift giving!
Variations
These cookies are basically buttery sugar cookies with potato chips added. Many recipes for potato chips also add chocolate chips or nuts to their recipes.
I like the simplicity of this recipe because it puts the taste focus on the potato chips. But if you really want to add chocolate or walnuts I am sure it would be good, just different.
Can I Make This Ahead?
You can certainly make the cookies a few days before serving them. Half my family says they taste best right after baking and the other half says they are better the next day. So either way works!
I have never tried to freeze these cookies because they don’t last very long at my house. But they aren’t a cookie I would recommend freezing.
I don’t think freezing would be good for the potato chips and think that it would mess up the texture of the cookies. So I think these are best made and then enjoyed, not saved.
Find More Cookie Recipes
- Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Church Window Cookies
- Candy Cane Peppermint Cookies
- Andes Mint Cookies
Potato Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 6 cups potato chips separated, not crushed
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
Instructions
- Crush the 6 cups of potato chips by putting them in a ziploc bag and rolling them with a rolling pin. Or just crush them with your hands. You want to end up with about 2 cups of crushed potato chips. Once you are done crushing measure 1 cup of potato chips for mixing into the batter and set the remaining crushed chips aside.6 cups potato chips
- In a mixer beat the butter on high speed for about 1 minute.3/4 cup butter
- Then add the sugar and vanilla and mix until everything is combined and creamy.1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Add the egg and beat the mixture again.1 egg
- Add the flour and mix it until it is mixed into the batter.1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- Then stir 1 cup of potato chips into the batter. You can stir them in by hand or use a mixer, but don’t overmix the potato chips.
- Cover the dough and chill it for about 1 hour, until it is easy to handle.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Shape the dough into 1 inch balls, with a cookie scoop or by rolling them between your hands.
- Put the balls about 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet. Either use an ungreased cookie sheet or cover it with a silicone baking mat.
- Use a drinking glass or your fingers to flatten the cookies until they are about 1/4 inch thick.
- Take some of the remaining potato chips and sprinkle them on top of the cookies, pressing them down lightly into the dough.
- Bake for about 12 minutes until the cookies are just starting to brown on the edges.
- Cool the cookies on wire racks.
Notes
- Don’t crush the potato chips so much that they are powder, they should be recognizable potato chip crumbs.
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Nutrition Information
Nutrition facts are estimates.
I didn’t think anyone but my grandmother knew about potato chip cookies! Seriously SO SO GOOD! I sprinkle the top with powdered sugar when they are warm and it kind of melts. YUMMMMMM!