How do I cook chips (french fries) in the oven? A while back, I came across a method of cooking chips in the oven (rather than deep frying them).  Basically, what I do it cut the raw potatoes into chips, coat then in oil and bake them in the oven for about 30 mins on top heat.  This works... kind of.  However, if I cook the chips thinly, they just break up in the dish when moving them around, and if I cut them thickly (which I would prefer) they just never cook (I've left them in for a lot longer than 30 mins in the past).

Are there any tricks to this?  Is there a certain type of potato that I should be using, or a certain type of oil?

(I'm in the UK, so I imagine that available ingredients differ from the US - as does the meaning of chip - by which I believe I'm referring to french fries)
There are a couple tricks I've learned from Cook's Illustrated about making oven fries:


Soak your cut potatoes in warm water to rinse off excess surface starch. Drain them and dry them very well (I use a salad spinner and paper towels).
Use a heavy duty sheet pan on the bottom rack of a hot oven to focus the heat on crisping the bottoms of the potatoes.
Oil your sheet pan well, and sprinkle salt on it. This will act kind of like ball bearings under the potatoes to prevent them from sticking too hard.
For the first 5-10 minutes, tightly wrap the sheet pan (with the potatoes) with aluminum foil. This will essentially steam the potatoes and help get a really nice creamy interior. After that, remove the foil and flip the potatoes halfway through. Make sure you use a thin metal spatula when you flip them.


These techniques work well for potatoes in general, and really do turn out some fantastic spuds.