How To: Make Your Own Kettle Cooked Chips

One of my all time favorite snacks are salty potato chips, my favorite being brands like this, where it's nothing but potato and sea salt. YUM! I've always thought that potato chips would be easy to make, I had just never done it before. With my Reader's Digest Homemade book in hand, it didn't take long to find a recipe for it. Here is the recipe in summary:
*pour veg. oil or shortening in a large pot until it reaches about 2 in. high
*heat oil to 375 degrees (we don't have a thermometer, so we just turned it to med/high
*slice potatoes to 1/8 in. thick (I think Russet works best)
*place small batches of potato in fryer/pot to avoid affecting temp. of the oil. Fry until crisp or golden (3-5 min)
*Use slotted spoon to transfer chips to paper towels to drain.
*lightly sprinkle with salt.

Here's what I would modify after following this recipe:
*I would recommend oil, we used shortening, and it stank up our house like a McDonalds for over 2 days. Not pleasant, and I didn't want to do that again!
* slice smaller than 1/8 of an inch. I recommend using a veggie peeler to slice super thin, this gives the chips much more of an authentic, crunchy taste. Hubs sliced them pretty thick, and although some tasted just like real chips, most of them needed ketchup because they were more like french fries--with a soft inside.
*If you slice thinner, be aware they cook much faster than 3 min! I would expect 30-45 sec. per batch.
*Enjoy! We weren't able to eat all of the chips we made, in fact, if slicing thin, I only recommend doing 1-2 potatoes at a time--we did 3 or 4 and even with thick strips it was way to much!