Way back in the year 1958 I tasted barbecue potato chips for the first time. They were very different as back then, prior to the introduction of barbecue flavor, potato chips came in only one flavor ... plain with salt. Now, the plain ones were delicious, especially if you got the ones fried in lard and dusted with powdered salt. There were only two excellent brands in my opinion ... Snyder's of Berlin® and Lance®. All other brands paled by comparison, either in being over-fried (too dark) or lacking enough salt or in the use of an inferior tasting frying oil. Well, the new barbecue flavored chips I tasted were superb! The first brand I tasted were made by Wise® and they were both sweet and spicy. My memory fails at this point regarding the gradual introduction of other brands, but that doesn't matter a lot because I now have a recipe for you to be able to make delicious barbecue chips at home ... in either of two ways ... simply flavoring regular potato chips, or, both making the chips and flavoring them.

When I first thought about making barbecue chips at home I doubted that any Internet recipe would have a good spice combination to match the commercial brands. I was wrong. In fact, my displeasure with a common commercial brand being too weak in flavor was what caused me to seek out an alternative ... following the Food Nirvana philosophy, which is to match or better commercial products at home, easily and inexpensively, on behalf of you having a better quality of life and more power over your existence. Knowledge is power ... also pleasure.

Okay, all I had to do was look at two Internet recipes to see one that looked quite promising. All I did to modify it was to add some liquid hickory smoke flavoring and to increase the amount of brown sugar. The result is close to perfect in only two attempts. I expect to play more with this recipe, as given below, but know that this one in it's present form is really good. Note also that I decided to simply dust commercial potato chips with the barbecue powder created via this recipe. My, that was fast and easy, though not as inexpensive as making chips at home.

I have now perfected an at home recipe for making potato chips. It is in Food Nirvana under Snacks and named, simply, Potato Chips. Try it. You will be quite pleased.

Ingredients for making the dusting powder:

1 1/2 tsp. of paprika or smoked paprika

1 tsp. of onion powder

2 tsp. of brown sugar

1/2 tsp. of garlic powder

1/2 tsp. of sea salt (or more if you plan to fry your own chips from raw potato slices)

1/4 tsp. of chili powder

3 or 4 drops of Wright's® Hickory Seasoning Liquid Smoke

Directions for making and using the dusting powder:

Put all of the dusting ingredients, including the Liquid Smoke, into a small Magic Bullet® high speed mixer container.

Blend the ingredients at high speed for two to three minutes. Remove and shake the container to get all the ingredients down into the blade area.

Blend the ingredients at high speed for an additional three minutes. At this point the dusting powder is ready to be used.

Put about four to six ounces of regular commercial product potato chips or your home made chips into a one gallon Ziploc® freezer bag. Do not use pre-flavored chips, and if you are making the chips do not salt them prior to using the dusting powder in this recipe.

Add all of the dusting powder to the bag and seal the bag with plenty of air inside.

Shake the bag gently to distribute the dusting powder evenly, about two minutes of shaking, turning the bag upside down a few times to assure even mixing of the dusting powder over the potato chips.

Serve the chips with the beverage of your choice and be very pleased.

Enjoy!