Food - Drink
Should You Top Casseroles With Potato Chips Before Or After Baking?
By STEPHANIE MAIDA
Not only are casseroles easy to make and comforting, but they're infinitely adaptable and allow you to add lots of extras for flavor and texture. Adding a crunchy topping by using fried onions, breadcrumbs, cereal, or even potato chips is a popular practice, but you may wonder when you should add chips to make sure they stay crunchy.
Potato chips add a delicious crunch to otherwise soft casseroles, and to make sure this textural quality stays intact, consider when you’ll be eating your casserole. Chips can absorb moisture and lose their signature crunch after a while, so you should only add them before baking the dish if you're going to eat it right out of the oven.
On the other hand, if you're making a casserole in advance, you should wait to add the crunchy topping until you’re ready to eat it. Also, if you're not going to eat the whole casserole and want leftovers, skip the chips when baking and add them later, after reheating the leftovers, to make sure they don't become soggy in the fridge.