Fried Rice Paper Chips (With or Without OIL!)

🧾 Ingredients

There isn’t much to say here except that essentially you only need 3 ingredients to make crisps! Isn’t it one of the easiest things you make?

• rice paper wrappers – The best type to make rice paper chips are the ones that are made from 100% rice flour since they are thicker. Super thing rice paper sheets will be too delicate and they break apart easily when you try to grab one.
• vegetable oil – sunflower or coconut oil (any which is high heat resistant)
• seasoning – You can start with salt and pepper but we will give your many options below.

How to fry rice paper?

You don’t really need any preparation unless you use a homemade spice mix and you need to mix that. But at the end of the day frying rice paper will take you approximately 5 seconds! So ready, set, go!

STEP 1
Take a frying pan or a large skillet and heat it over medium heat. The larger the pan, the more rice paper chips you can make.

STEP 2
Cut rice paper wrappers into pieces. We used a rice paper sheet that is approx. 6 inches in diameter and cut them into quarters. The larger the pieces are the easier to work with them. You can even leave them uncut.

STEP 3
Add vegetable oil approx. 0.5-inch deep. You don’t need to deep fry rice paper wrappers to get them puffed. Since they are quite thin it is enough to add oil to cover them while they are still flat.

STEP 4
Place the quarters in the oil and wait for them to get crispy all around. It will take approx. 5 seconds! When they are puffy, take them out immediately. No need to wait longer.

STEP 5
Use tongs to gentle grab them and transfer them to a paper towel or a cooling rack to drain any excess oil.

STEP 6
Sprinkle them with the seasoning of your choice. They are delicate so you can’t do any direct rubbing or shaking them in a bag.

💡 Expert tips

Hot oil – While the oil doesn’t necessarily need to be piping hot, it should be medium-high heat. The reason for it is that the longer they stay in the oil, the more they soak up. The oil is at the right temperature if the rice paper sheets are ready in 5 seconds!

Choose rice paper wrappers made of 100% rice flour – If you feel that your fried rice paper chips are too delicate to handle and they easily break after grabbing them with tongs, then you must have used a brand which is made partly of rice flour and partly of tapioca starch.

Add seasoning after frying – Never add seasoning before frying. For one since the rice paper sheets are dry the seasoning will not stuck on them. And secondly, even if by any chance some do stuck, they will likely be burnt and turn bitter due to the high heat.

Never soak rice papers before frying – In most rice paper recipes, you need to soak the sheets to be able to roll them. This is probably the only recipe where you shouldn’t. Wet sheets may get crispy, but will definitely not get puffed!

Better to cut with scissors than breaking it – I found breaking them apart with my hands resulted was a mess. Small pieces were flying around the kitchen and it was hard to break them into a specific shape. Cutting them with scissors provides a neater result.

🔄 Variations

In the microwave

I found several recommendations to make rice paper chips in a microwave, saying to leave the rice paper wrappers for one minute there then turn it around and microwave it for another minute. I tested this concept, but I found it to be too long. How I did do it successfully?

• Set the microwave to 800 Watts.
• Place a whole rice paper sheet on a microwave-compatible plate.
• Microwave it for 30 seconds. Check and only increase the time if you see unpuffed parts.

TOP tip: I use a plate a bit smaller than my rice paper sheet so that it sits around the rim and the middle is not touching the plate. In this way, you get puffed rice paper all around.

In the oven

I also tested whether it is possible to make baked rice paper chips. Sadly, it is not. I tried several settings like using a broiler with a cold oven or pre-heated fan-oven, cold oven with lower temperature. However, the results were always the same: the rice paper wrappers got brown or burnt even before starting to get puffy.

In the air fryer

I don’t have an air fryer, and I couldn’t find a single mention or reference that anyone successfully made crispy rice paper chips in an air fryer. If you do try it, let us know, and will update this post accordingly.

Seasoning variations

The possibilities are endless. You can use store-bought spice mixes or homemade ones. To season six fried rice paper sheets we used at most one tablespoon of spices.

Important to note that you should choose fine powder mixes (or use a mortar even a simple one like this or coffee grinder) otherwise they will not stick to the fried rice paper wrappers.

No wet ingredients either!

If you need some inspiration check out the below seasoning list.

• Nutritional yeast – Use a mortar to make powder out of the flakes and sprinkle them on top for a cheezy flavor.
• Smoked paprika powder – For a smoky, BBQ flavor, use this albeit sparingly.
• Fajita spice mix I use for fajita veggies – Add a bit of chili powder, cumin, garlic, and oregano to smoked paprika and it will make a fiery Mexican vibe. We use this same mix to make fajita veggies.
• Buffalo spice mix I use for buffalo chicken wings – Mix garlic powder, onion powder, sweet smoked paprika powder, cayenne pepper, cumin and oregano. We use this mix to make buffalo vegan chicken wings.
• Cajun spice mix I use for cajun pasta – Mix cayenne pepper, sweet smoked paprika powder, oregano, thyme, garlic powder and onion powder. We use this mix to make cajun sauce for pasta.
• Vegan prawn crackers – The texture of puffed rice papers is almost identical to prawn crackers. Use a mortar or a coffee grinder to turn nori sheets into flakes. Sprinkle them with it and a bit of salt. And voila, so yummy!
• Old Bay seasoning
• Indian masala powder
• Onion soup mix

More rice paper recipes

If you are looking for more rice paper recipes, I have tons of delicious dishes you can try.

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