When this beautiful basket arrived as a desk drop from the Lay’s PR team, severe cognitive dissonance agitated my brain. Ever since my dietary/lifestyle overhaul, crispy crisps (or potato chips) are not on my consideration list for mindful snacking. And when I think back to my sedentary-face-stuffing days, it was usually chocolate or marvelously milled floury incarnations that got my chin wobbling. But I do remember walking home from school across crispy burnt veld grass, each footfall generating a satisfying crunch and so I do get why, to many, potato crisps are such a rocking party in the bag and in the mouth.

If you’re a potato chip aficionado, you probably will appreciate Lay’s new Deli Kettle Cooked range. With flavours like cream cheese & jalapeno, cheese gratin & caramelised onion, sundried tomato & olive and creamy pepper fillet it all does sound pretty moreish. But still, I’m a loony calorie counter, and the only way I would be able to find peace with these fried potatoes was to either give them away or split the energy load across servings and incorporate it into supper.

Fat-free yoghurt and lean chicken breast assuaged any guilt associated with using a big bag of potato crisps as a crumb coating. It really made for tasty chicken, and if you ever run out of bread crumbs or your regular coating, the crisps are a good substitute.

 Oven-baked Crisp Crumbed Chicken Fillets
  • 2 plump chicken breasts (slit lengthwise to give you four pieces)
  • 1 cup yogurt (I used Woolworths’ fat-free Bulgarian)
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon ras el hanout
  • peri-peri to taste
  • garlic salt to taste
  • black pepper to taste
  • white pepper to taste
  • lemon pepper to taste
  • 110g packet Lay’s Deli Kettle Cooked Potato Chips (I used the Cheese Gratin & Caramelized Onion flavour)

Mix the yogurt with the spices and seasoning. Cover the chicken pieces with this yogurt marinade and set aside for a little while or even overnight.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Crush potato chips and scatter a little at at a time into a shallow bowl, just enough to cover the base of the bowl (this is to prevent the crumbs from getting too soggy during the coating process). Dip the chicken breast into the crumbs, coating evenly on both sides.

Place crumbed fillets onto a greased tray and bake for half an hour or until done.