Kettle Tortilla Chips

I got to try 3 of the 4 flavours

One of my favourite things in the world is a chilli Kettle chip. Not sweet chilli, chilli. Which is slightly unfortunate because they aren't sold in the UK and apparently were discontinued in Australia until there was an outcry. But in my memory they stand as the perfect snack - crisp, salty, spicy and just robust enough to dunk in a fairly runny dip.

Chasing that memory of perfection leads me to try lots of other chips and crisps, so I welcomed Kettle's offer of some samples of their new tortilla chip range. They made an unwise decision when they chose to put the samples in an envelope and pop them in the post, but enough big pieces survived to give a fair tasting.

In addition to three flavours of the tortilla chips (sea salt, sour cream & nacho cheese) they also sent me a recipe card with some dip ideas. The only problem was that I didn't particularly fancy the recipes (one contained a squirt of tomato paste, just added to a raw mixture, one contained tinned sweetcorn *shudder*, two relied on ingredients that are tricky to get without a bit of forward planning, i.e a ripe mango or a ripe avocado).

So I made a couple of other dips to try them with. A roasted red pepper "bagna cauda" (not very much like a bagna cauda at all, actually, and a beetroot and walnut dip.

As you would expect with a Kettle chip, the tortilla chips were crisp and crunchy. A little bit thinner than other brands of tortilla chips, which made them nicer as a snack but presented a problem with dunking. The bagna cauda was fine, but the chips kept breaking off in the beetroot dip, even though it wasn't that stiff a mixture.

Red pepper "bagna cauda" and beetroot and walnut dips

Of the three flavours, I preferred the sea salt. While I have a certain fondness for the powdery coatings of the other flavours, I think the nutty, corn-y-ness of a tortilla chip is best without it. But if you particularly go for flavoured tortilla chips, I don't think you'd be disappointed with these.

As a final test, I made nachos. We had loads of lamb left from a weekend roast, so I cut it up into small chunks and made a chilli with lots of chipotle in it. I placed a big mound of the chilli in a dish, surrounded it with the nacho cheese Kettle chips and piled on some grated cheese. I baked it at 180C until it was all brown and bubbly, then I served it with salsa and a dollop of sour cream.

Now, the chips kept their shape and crunch really well in the baking, and did a much better job of scooping the toppings than others I have tried.  But the flavourings on the surface of the chips obviously has quite a low burn point, because they blackened, and the blackened bits developed quite a bitter flavour, before the cheese had melted thoroughly.

So. An excellent tortilla chip for snacking or dunking in light dips, but probably best to stick to the sea salt ones for making nachos. 

Lamb chipotle nachos