Portion of chippy chips in polystyrene box, sitting on countertop

MAY 27, 2023

How to Reheat Chip Shop Chips in air fryer

With chippy chips reheated by Brit's in the microwave or oven long before air fryers were a thing, this food item couldn't be quicker and easier to heat in an air fryer.

How to reheat chippy chips in an air fryer would require a full 3 minutes for small to medium size portions of chips. At 3 minutes, this should reheat chips back to their original state with no additional crispiness. While your have an option to air fry for an extra minute or two to achieve your desired texture.

I can't think of anything easier to reheat in an air fryer than that of leftover chippy chips, with only a minimum of 3 minutes to reinvigorate boring old chips.

Simply throw a small to medium size portion of chips into your air fryer basket, then proceed to cook for a full 3 minutes - while shaking the basket several times to guarantee even air frying - and while you are at it, there's no harm in adding extra salt to the chips in this early air fry stage.

If your air fryer isn't too packed with chips from a big portion then they should air fry quickly, whereas an additional minute will be needed for a large chips.

Regardless, an extra minute or two can be added to take soggy chips and turn them into a lightly crisp texture... with minutes more making them extra, extra crispy.

We're reheating chippy chips here and thus we only need a short cooking time.

Raw or partially cooked oven chips will need a full 10-15 minutes, which would often mean a third off the suggested oven cooking time. Air fried chippy chips is guesswork of course, with the suggested 3 minutes with a high temperature of 200-205c [or 400f] providing an accurate cooking time for us all.

If you need to air fry fish and chips I would suggest air frying the chips as described at 3 to 5 minutes; yet you'll need to pop your battered cod or haddock into the air fryer 5 minutes early - while continuously flipping the fish to prevent sticking - then add your chips into the air fryer to finish off both fish and chips for the final 3 to 5 minutes.

Step 1: Dispense, separate chips

Portion of cold chips dispensed into air fryer basket

Dispensing old, cold chippy chips into an air fryer basket will require separation of the chips by hand, as you'll have to deal with a big chunk of chips.

Once you've dispensed of your portion of chips into your air fryer basket, you'll often find old, leftover but now cold chips to stick together.

Before you think about air frying them, its time to get your hands greasy by separating all the chips, to prevent air frying a large wad of chips that are likely to cook at a different temperature, and thus causing uneven air frying of chippy chips.

Separating all the chips in the air fryer basket will help to air fry this small portion of chips evenly, which could force you to cook the chips longer than needed if you fail split them.

Step 2: Air fry for 5 minutes at 400f

Separated, cold chip shop chips sitting in air fryer basket

Chips in air fryer basket await your cooking instructions; set the timer to 5 minutes knowing 3 minutes is enough, at a 400f, or 200c.

Now we can set the timer and temperature of the air fryer by setting the time to a full 5 minutes - even if you are unlikely to use the full 5 - and we must blast the temperature to its highest temp at 400f [200c UK], to air fry the chips as fast as we can.

No slow air frying chips here as we must cook chips - including any French fries - as fast as we can to get them to your desired texture.

After just one minute of air frying the chips you'd now want to flip and shake the chips by occasional removing the basket in order to distribute the heat to the individual chips.

Understand a full 5 minutes could be needed to air fry a large portion of chips; whereas I am demonstrating on a half-eating portion of chips - so just a small chips.

Step 3: Air fry chips 3 min. to reheat properly

Shaking salt onto portion of chips sitting in air fryer basket

After air frying chips for 2 minutes you'd want to flip/shake the chips once or twice by now, but after 3 minutes they will be fully reheated.

I can say with certainty reheating chip shop chips can be heated up to their original state by air frying them for just 3 minutes.

Original state means air frying your chippy chips to the standard they were when you first bought them home, or had them delivered, from your local chippy.

I assure you 3 minutes will ensure chips that were more soggy will sustain that texture, while a crispy portion of chips should in theory stay crispy.

Step 4: Additional 2 minutes for crispy chips

Air fryer basket slid out to reveal golden chippy chips

You only need to cook leftover chip shop chips for 3 minutes in an air fryer, while an additional 1 or 2 minutes will make them crispy.

You certainly don't have to reheat chippy chips to the standard they were when they arrived at your doorstep.

In fact, your air fryer will provide you the opportunity to improve the quality of chips, by doing what an air fryer does best; which is to take once soggy chips, and turn them into what could by lightly crispy chips.

After 3 minutes has elapsed, you can air fry the chips for an additional 1 minute to bring the full air frying time to 4 minutes.

I would say chips will be lightly crisp at 4 minutes but you can proceed to cook for an additional 1 minute again - for a total of 5 minutes of cooking time - to bring the texture of the chips to an heavy crisp. Colour of chips may get darker at this point but bear in mind, chips will begin to get dryer the longer you air fry.

Step 5: Re-use chippy packaging to eat

Me holding an homemade chip butty with tomato ketchup

Taste your chips to your preferred texture than pour them back into the original chip shop packaging, with an option to make a tasty chip butty.

Now you've successfully reheated chip shop chips in your air fryer to a desired texture often not possible in the oven, and certainly not the microwave.

You can save yourself a little bit of washing up by keeping the original chippy packaging the chips were wrapped or stored in, to re-use again by dispensing the chips out of the air fryer basket, and into the packaging or box.

Add salt to the chips only a minute into air fryer, as the heat will help the salt absorb into the chips - which is a technique I like to do with must food in my air fryer.

You can add a little more salt to taste once chips are finished reheating, with an option to add vinegar. You can also do what most people do, in what could be making a chip butty of course, with red sauce and, or butter an option.