Chips but better! These salt and pepper chips make a fantastic spicy side dish - crispy chips tossed together with Chinese five spice, garlic and chillies.
You can use shop-bought chips or fries, or use homemade crispy chips. Once the chips are cooked, the rest of the dish only takes 5 minutes to pull together.
Brilliant on their own, or as an extra special side dish with a juicy burger or as part of a Chinese banquet.
After making copious amounts of salt and pepper chicken recently (one of our favourite Friday night dinners - especially served on wraps with chilli mayo 😍), I decided to extend the salt and pepper joy with these spicy chips.
A favourite on Chinese chip shop menus in the UK, they're a real treat when we order a takeaway.
My homemade version is a little bit lighter (as I oven-cook my chips), but super tasty.
I haven't actually served them with the salt and pepper chicken yet, but it's a definite possibility - I don't think I can ever get enough of these moreish flavours!!
📋 What do we need?
*Chips - You can use shop-bought chips or fries for this recipe, or, if you wanted to you can make them with my homemade oven chips.
Chinese 5 spice (sometimes just known as 5-spice) - is a potent spice mix made up of ground cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds, star anise, and Szechuan pepper. It gives a unique, fragrant, savoury flavour in Chinese cookery. You can usually find 5 spice (<--affiliate link) in the spice section of supermarkets. Sylvia from Feasting at home has a great recipe for homemade Chinese 5 spice.
🔪 Watch how to make it
***Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post.***
- First of all we need to cook the chips in the oven. When they're about 5 minutes from being ready, we fry up chopped onion in a little oil along with chopped red and green chillies, salt, pepper and Chinese 5 spice.
- Then stir in minced garlic and roughly chopped spring onions (scallions) and cook for a minute.
- Finally we add in the cooked chips and toss everything together before serving.
👩🍳PRO TIP If you want even more Chinese 5 spice flavour, you can toss the chips in ½ tsp of 5 spice powder about halfway through cooking.
🍽️ What to serve them with
You can serve these quick and easy salt and pepper chips as part of a Chinese Banquet along with some of our favourite Chinese takeaway inspired dishes:
What would you serve yours with?
🍲 More recipe ideas for Chips (fries)
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Salt and Pepper Chips Recipe
Ingredients
- 700 g (1 ½ lbs) oven chips (fries) - (or use my homemade crispy oven chips recipe)
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 onion - (peeled and chopped into large chunks about 1.5-2cm across)
- 2 red chilli - chopped into small pieces - I use relatively mild fresno or serrano chillies
- 2 green chilli - chopped into small pieces - I use relatively mild fresno or serrano chillies
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 ½ tsp Chinese five spice
- 2 garlic cloves - (peeled and minced)
- 3 spring onions - scallions roughly chopped
INSTRUCTIONS
- Cook the oven chips as per the instructions and when they are 5 minutes from the end make the topping.
- Heat the 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat.
- Add the chopped onion, the chopped red and green chillies, the ½ tsp of salt, ½ tsp of black pepper and the 1½ tsp Chinese five spice to the pan.
- Fry for about 2-3 minutes, stirring often, until the onion starts to soften slightly.
- Then turn down the heat to medium and add in the 2 cloves of minced garlic and 3 chopped spring onions.
- Fry for a further minute, stirring often.
- By now the chips should be ready. Add the chips to the frying pan with onion and chillies in and toss everything together for 1 minute.
- Transfer to a serving dish and serve.
Video
✎ Notes
- If you don't like chillies but still want to make this recipe, swap out the chillies for half of a finely chopped bell pepper.
- Try this recipe with sweet potato fries or carrot fries.
- Add in shredded cooked chicken for a meaty addition.
Nutrition
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links – which means if you buy the product I get a small commission (at no extra cost to you). If you do buy, then thank you! That’s what helps us to keep Kitchen Sanctuary running. The nutritional information provided is approximate and can vary depending on several factors. For more information please see our Terms & Conditions.
Scott says
Love your recipes. But I cannot, for the life of me, get my fries to crisp up or get brown! Help.
Simon Lear says
I've made these a number of times now - family favourite, thanks Nicky
Sally Robert’s says
Gorgeous. I served alongside some baked cod loin. Really really enjoyed the spicy chips
Eleanor says
We made these over the weekend😋
So good and so quick to make, thanks for another fab recipe😊