Crunchy, salty potato chips can be enjoyed on their own or with any of a variety of dips. They are great for parties because they are enjoyed by most people and hold up well when left sitting out for a long time. You can buy large bags of potato chips, but you may find that many of them are crushed into crumbs. Making your own with a deep fryer, you'll have plenty of whole, homemade potato chips to serve at your next party.

Fill deep fryer with oil, according to the directions for your fryer, and heat the oil to 350 to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cover a cookie sheet with a few layers of paper towels and set it aside.

Rinse all of your potatoes in cold water to remove any dirt. Peel the potatoes if you don't want the skin on your chips; otherwise, leave them unpeeled.

Slice potatoes so they are 1 to 2 mm in thickness, or 1/32 to 1/16 of an inch, with a potato slicer. The number of potatoes that you slice depends on the amount of chips you want.

Soak the potato slices in cold water for five minutes and then drain them in a colander. Pat the potato slices dry between two layers of paper towel.

Drop five to 10 slices of potato into the fryer at a time, depending on how big your fryer is. You want to make sure that the slices have plenty of room so they don't clump together. Drop them gently, careful to watch out for any grease splatters to avoid burns.

Scoop the chips out of the fryer once they float to the surface. Lay the chips out on the paper-towel covered cookie sheet to dry. Sprinkle the drying chips with salt before placing another handful of sliced potatoes into the fryer.

Continue the above steps until all of your chips are fried.

Store your chips in a large plastic zipper bag to prevent them from going stale.