Gordon Ramsay Chip Butty Recipe

Gordon Ramsay’s chip butty is oven-roasted Desirée chips with smoked paprika, sandwiched between two slices of crusty white bread rubbed in the paprika oil left on the baking tray, with ketchup if you want it. Chips, bread, salt. Done in under 30 minutes.

From Ultimate Home Cooking, where Ramsay writes “I used to love chip butties, all those different-sized chips smothered with tomato ketchup and sandwiched between two slices of squishy white bread. The only concession I’ve made to modernity is to roast the chips instead of deep-frying them.” In the video he adds: “one of my first ever jobs was working in a chip shop, sacks and sacks of potatoes into the rumbler.”

The trick nobody mentions is what happens to the bread. Ramsay says “spread the slices with butter, or rub them in the remnants of paprika oil in the baking tray.” That leftover oil has smoked paprika, salt and rendered potato starch from the roasting. It soaks into the bread and gives it more flavour than butter could.

Gordon Ramsay’s Chip Butty

Recipe by Sophie LaneCourse: Lunch, DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Calories

380

kcal

Total time

30

minutes

Chip butty from Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Home Cooking. Oven-roasted Desirée chips with smoked paprika in crusty white bread rubbed with paprika oil from the baking tray. He pairs this with his homemade fish fingers from the same book: pollack in dill and panko breadcrumbs. 380 kcal per serving.

Ingredients

• 750g (1 lb 10 oz) Desirée potatoes, peeled

• Groundnut oil for roasting

• 1 tsp smoked paprika

• 8 slices of crusty white bread

• Butter (optional)

• Tomato ketchup (optional)

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

• Preheat: Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan) / Gas 7. Oil a baking tray.
• Cut and blanch: Chop the potatoes into batons about 1cm thick. Blanch in boiling salted water for 3 to 4 minutes, then drain and spread on the tray in a single layer.
• Season and bake: Drizzle with oil, toss to coat. Season with smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, turning now and again, until golden and crisp.
• Build: Spread the bread with butter, or rub the slices in the paprika oil left on the baking tray. Pile the chips inside, add ketchup if you wish, slice in half and serve immediately.

FAQs

Why rub the bread in the baking tray?

The oil left after roasting has smoked paprika, salt and the sticky bits from where the chips crisped against the metal. Rubbing your bread in that gives it a smoky, salty base that butter alone cannot match.

The bread picks up colour from the paprika too, so it looks toasted even though it hasn’t been near a grill. Once you try the tray method, the “or” in Ramsay’s recipe stops being a real choice.

What sauces and extras work with a chip butty?

Ramsay reaches for ketchup in the video: “there’s one thing missing… my god, that makes me feel like a nine-year-old.” If ketchup feels too plain, his burger sauce adds gherkin and mustard, or his mayonnaise works for dipping the chips that fall out. His BBQ sauce leans into the paprika already on the chips.

The proper pairing though is his homemade fish fingers from the same book. He writes “give me these and a chip butty and I’m like a nine-year-old kid again.” Pollack in panko breadcrumbs mixed with fresh dill, salted 20 to 30 minutes before cooking to firm the fish, then shallow-fried 3 minutes each side with butter at the end to crisp the crumbs. Tuck a couple inside the butty alongside the chips.

Can you deep-fry the chips instead?

You can, but Ramsay doesn’t. He says “the only concession I’ve made to modernity is to roast the chips instead of deep-frying them.” The paprika works better in dry heat because it toasts into the surface rather than washing off in oil.

If you want deep-fried, his triple-cooked french fries from Bread Street Kitchen are the method: boil, fry at 140°C, fry again at 180°C. Those are incredible but they need three stages and a fryer. The chip butty is meant to be quick.

Does a chip butty keep?

No. The second those chips cool, the steam turns the bread soggy. Ramsay says “serve immediately” and he means it. Make it, eat it.

For the oven chips on their own without bread, those reheat fine the next day. Serve the butty with his coleslaw for crunch that cuts through the starch, or go full chippy with mushy peas and malt vinegar. His fish and chips follows the same eat-now rule: batter goes soggy within minutes.