It’s never made sense that people make fun of the fish sandwich, particularly a fast food sandwich like the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish. When they’re well made, fried fish sandwiches don’t have the weight or sameness of a griddle-cooked burger. With each bite, the fish flakes off beautifully, perfectly embedding oil and moisture from a proper deep-frying. Draped over a fluffy bun, with a little tartar sauce and cheese, you’ve got a combo that shouldn’t be dismissed as a sometimes food. That said, it doesn’t hurt to enhance that bit of deep-fried cod and bread. One of the easiest upgrades may be staring at you from the checkout aisle: salt-and-vinegar potato chips.
This quick hack is one of many tasty toppings you can use to enhance a fried fish sandwich. Sure, spicy sauces or fancy pickles are great options. But potato chips, particularly salt-and-vinegar flavor, evoke a specific meal in a way the other options can’t. Tear open a bag, dump the contents on the fish, and presto! Instant fish and chips. You can almost smell the newspaper wrapper and British weather. Okay, perhaps not, but trust us: This is a great topping. It adds crunch, salt, and a hint of an umami bite from the vinegar with the smallest of efforts.
Chips add a crunchy contrast to a fish sandwich
You may already be familiar with the benefits of adding potato chips to a tuna fish sandwich. Or at least seen someone do it and stared in wonder. The salty, crumbly crunch adds a complex dimension to standard lunchtime meals. But salt-and-vinegar chips on fish sandwiches marks another level up entirely. Sure, it’s not really going to replace fish-and-chips ordered from a proper chippy, but that McRib order isn’t replacing anything from Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas either. Yet, there’s a reason fish and chips became Britain’s defining street food for so long. The crave-worthy combination of salt, vinegar, HP sauce, fries, and deep-fried fish is difficult to beat.
This trick is similar to taking a small fries and converting a Filet-O-Fish into a pub classic. The one downside is that McD’s and Wendy’s don’t sell salt-and-vinegar chips. So swing by the 7-11 or a bodega first, then it’s an easy fix. Open the sandwich and add a bunch of salt-and-vinegar chips. Make certain they’re not stale or soft, or there will be no point, and learn this hack for closing a large chip bag without clips. Squeeze the buns tightly as you dive in, to hold everything together. You may want to dine outside, as the chips tend to break and crumble. Heck, this trick even enhances fancier fried fish sandwiches from coast to coast.
