#1-Cheesy Bacon Oven Chips with Chipotle Ranch Sauce

(Original recipe source: Vittles and Bits)

I think you can see by the picture above why I chose this as my first adventure recipe. Looks completely nomalicious. My fear? My son wouldn't go for it. He doesn't do cheese. But he DOES do bacon. Maybe the bacon would be enough to entice him. So I went for it.

I immediately had to make one change, however. The original recipe serves 2. I have 4 mouths to feed, and though tonight when I made this one, I only had 3, I still had to double to recipe to feed us all. So the ingredients below are for 4 servings, not 2.

WHAT YOU NEED FOR THE POTATOES:

1. 4 medium baking potatoes - sliced to about 1/8 in thick. (I used a food processor for this and it cut them perfectly)
2. cooking spray (Sadly, I was out of this, so I used Crisco for greasing the baking sheet and olive oil on the potatoes)
3. 1 1/2 cup colby jack shredded cheese
4. salt and pepper to taste
5. about 4 slices of crumbled bacon (4 TBSP)
6. chopped parsley or chives for garnish (optional) (I used parsley)

WHAT YOU NEED FOR THE DIP:

1. 4 TBSP Ranch dressing
2. 6 TBSP sour cream
3. 1/4 tsp chipolte chili powder (this stuff was pretty expensive but I'm sure I'll use the heck out of it)
4. 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (less if you don't like spicy food)
5. 1/4 tsp salt
6. 1/4 tsp garlic powder

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  
• Bring sliced potatoes to a boil in enough cold, salted water to just cover the potatoes. Boil for 5 minutes.

• Drain potatoes, then dry by placing in paper towels.
• Pat dry to make sure all water is gone
• Grease a baking sheet with cooking spray --or Crisco if, like me, you didn't realize you were out of cooking spray.

• On the baking sheet, arrange the potatoes so they are overlapping slightly, then spray with cooking spray or drizzle with olive oil. (I think the spray is probably a better method to making the salt stick, but since I was out, I had to make do.)

• Sprinkle potatoes with cheese & bacon.  
• Bake  until cheese is melted, about 13 minutes.  Serve with chipotle ranch sauce (recipe below).
• 
  

RANCH SAUCE

Place all ingredients in a small bowl, and stir to combine.

WHAT IT TURNED OUT TO BE:

Final thoughts:

Taste: All 3 of us liked it. Son didn't even mind the cheese. They looked far creamier, tastier in the original recipe, but these were definitely good. 

Something I'll incorporate into favorite recipes? Probably not.

Difficulty level: Not difficult. Maybe a 5 on a scale of 10. But the prep work (Drying the potatoes and layering them on the pan) were a bit tedious for a hurried dinner.

Recommended changes: Not sure what I would change. Something to make the potatoes a little less dry, but not sure what that would be.

That's it! Have a great meal and express your saucy side!

Heather