Zaynab's Chevro Chips

Recipe by

Zaynab Issa

Serves

2-4

Difficulty

Beginner

Photo by:

Graydon Herriot

A popular South Asian snack, chevro (or chewra) is made up of lots of crunchy fried bits and bobs tossed in a turmeric-stained, whole spice–infused oil. Essentially, it’s a savory fried trail mix. Making traditional chevro is too involved a process to be casual, so if you’re taking the time to make it, you’re making it to share it. When I think of chevro, I immediately picture my mom, my grandmother, and her sister gathered around a large stainless-steel pot (it’s giving Sanderson sisters), frying and seasoning each individual component in bulk during my sisters’ weddings. It’s perfect and necessary to have on hand in the house as a snack for peckish guests. Among all the different lentils and grains that are fried and added to traditional chevro, my grandmother would include a bag of kettle-cooked potato chips. In every gallon-sized zip-top bag filled with chevro, there were only a handful of potato chips. As the best ingredient in the mix, I would shuffle through the bag, find them, eat them all, and put the bag right back in the pantry, uninterested in anything other than those ultra- crunchy, flavorful chips. Now I keep gallon-sized bags of just the seasoned chips in my pantry, and you should, too.

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce/224g) bag salted Cape Cod Kettle Cooked Potato Chips or any salted kettle-cooked variety
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or any neutral, flavorless oil
1 green bird's-eye chilly, thinly sliced or jalapeño or seranno chilli
14 fresh curry leaves, from 2 sprigs
1 teaspoon Hariyali Fennel
2 teaspoons Nandini Coriander
5 whole Kandyan Cloves
1 teaspoon Bindu Black Mustard
¾ teaspoon Pragati Turmeric
½ teaspoon Kashmiri Chilli
Surya Salt or Diamond Crystal kosher salt
¼ teaspoon citric acid or lemon juice, plus more as needed
1 teaspoon sugar, plus more as needed

Methods

Empty the potato chips into a large bowl. Heat the vegetable oil in a small pot over medium heat. Add the chili, curry leaves, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cloves, and mustard seeds.
Swirl to coat, cover, and cook until the mustard seeds have stopped popping, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the turmeric, chili powder, salt, and citric acid, if using. Stir to combine and pour over the chips. Sprinkle with the sugar and toss vigorously to coat the chips in the spiced oil and chilis. Taste and add more salt, sugar, and/or citric acid to your preference.
Let stand until completely cooled and the chips have absorbed the oil, about 15 minutes. Store in an airtight bag or container for up to 1 month.

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