Although I’ve read about Lay’s semi-new sriracha-flavored chips, I’ve never actually seen them anywhere. I could order them online, but won’t, because they’re laden with an array of cheese and milk powders, which turned my initial excitement about them into a sadface. But earlier this week, that sadface became a thinking face before finally turning back into excitement after I created my own all-purpose sriracha seasoning.
Since I am a fan of toning down hot sauces with a creamy element like vegan mayo in some applications, and love veganizing recipes and products, I decided to convert sriracha straight from the bottle into a powder, then combined it with nutritional yeast (nooch) to create a similar-seasoned end product.
For the uninitiated, nooch is the vegan equivalent of parmesan: it has a faux-cheesy flavor with umami undertones and is packed with B-12. Combining this element with the intensely spicy dried and concentrated sriracha created a pleasantly balanced powdery seasoning that’s perfect for having on hand to sprinkle on not only potato chips, but also things like hashbrowns, hummus, popcorn, tofu scrambles, sauces and everything else that needs and loves sriracha.
SRIRACHA-NOOCH SEASONING
- Total Time: 1 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 1/3 cup
Ingredients
for the seasoning
- 1/2 cup sriracha
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (this amount will yield a tangy, subtly spicy seasoning—just use less if you want a more intense and spicy seasoning)
- 1 tsp cornstarch
to make the chips
- 1 large potato, scrubbed (I left the skin on)
- plenty of canola or grapeseed oil, for frying
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 225.
- Line a baking sheet with a silpat. Pour the sriracha onto the silpat, spreading it as thinly and evenly as possible with a spatula. Place into the oven to bake for one hour.
- Remove from the oven and allow to slightly cool for 10 minutes. The thinnest-applied areas should be done—they will snap and flake easily when separated from the silpat, and have a matte-like appearance.
- Flake off what you can and reserve while the rest of the sriracha bakes/dries. (The thicker, shinier leftover areas will bend and be slightly sticky.)
- Place the rest of the shinier/bendier portions back into the oven for 15-30 minutes until it flakes easily once allowed to cool for about 10 minutes.
- Place the dried sriracha flakes into a coffee grinder and process until powdery. Add in the nooch and cornstarch and blend to combine. Keep in a covered container in a dark, dry place.
If you want to make the chips
- Slice the potato on a mandoline slicer, then soak the slices in cold water for 10 minutes to remove some of the starch. Drain, rinse well, then pat dry. Hot oil and water will cause sputtering, so blot them as well as possible.
- Heat plenty of oil in a large pot to 350 degrees.
- Slowly drop in one chip at a time, and fry in small batches, taking care not to overcrowd the oil. An overcrowded pot will not only result in the chips sticking together, but will also reduce the temperature of the oil, making the chips soggy and oily instead of golden and crisp.
- Allow to fry for about 2 minutes, or until just barely golden around the edges.
- Remove from the oil with tongs and sprinkle immediately with the powder. It’s important to do this within seconds after removing them from the oil to ensure the powder can adhere to the chips. The chips will crisp up as they cool down.
- Serve the chips immediately and store any leftovers in a sealed container. These taste best the same day, but will last an additional day.
- Cook Time: 90 minutes
I am way too lazy to make my own chips but those look amazing.
Agreed! Very, very impressive, though.
Whoa. Genius idea to bake the sriracha! I hadn't heard about the chips but a coworker recently brought in (vegan) sriracha flavored popcorn that was really good. I'm also too lazy to make chips but I bet this would be fantastic on top of baked potatoes also.
I so love your thinking face. I am going to make this and eat it on popcorn. Brilliant! I was just thinking the other day when shopping for football game watching noshy stuff that too many delicious sounding flavors rely on dairy products. I was not thinking of making my own. I will now!
Thank you! I don't understand either why so much dairy has to go into these products in the first place. But it does eliminate my need to buy them, which is good I guess. I think this will be awesome on popcorn — I hope you enjoy it! : )
I wonder if you could dehydrate the sriracha…
I actually tried that the first time. After dehydrating the sriracha at 160 degrees (the highest temp my dehydrator goes) for 12 hours, it was still considerably shiny/bendy/sticky, so a higher/shorter dry is more effective than a longer/slower one.
Beautiful job! What a fantastic idea…the chips just look amazing.
Now why wouldn't you just use cayenne pepper?
Because of the complexity of sriracha! It has a fine balance of spice, sweetness and vinegar that can't really be replicated with the one-dimensional straight-up hot quality of powdered cayenne.
oh this is soooo genius, and i agree with your response above, sriracha has such a complex flavor and making it into a dry form is just so flipping awesome.
thanks Lan!
this sounds seriously tasty – and the chips, or crisps, as we call them, look wonderful – well done:)
thank you christine! : )
I love what you've done here! What you did with the sriracha is ingenious!
wowza.. sriracha nooch! oh my god. i can sprinkle so much of this on so many things!! seasoned chips might disappear so fast that no one would ever know they even existed!
Thanks Richa. That's exactly what happened to the first batch of the chips! ; )
brilliant and delicious!
fabulous idea! Those chips (or crisps as we call them in the UK) look amazing.
India
http://www.aveganobsession.com
holy moly!! what a genius idea to make Sriracha powder. Just think of the possibilities. 🙂
Very impressive! Your chips look perfect.