Long gone are the days of most families making their own chips from scratch in a chip pan bubbling with oil.
Now oven chips are the ideal cheat when you don't have the energy or spare cash to go down to the chippy. But with so many options available, it can be hard to know which ones to purchase.
McCain has set a high bar in the oven chip arena. However supermarkets have a variety of their own oven chips which include straight cut, crinkle cut, steak cut and chunky.
Alison Brinkworth, a reporter from Birmingham Live, compared the supermarket own-brand options to McCain and found that the price varied slightly. The cheapest chips were from Morrisons under the Savers brand and cost 99p.
She said: "Picking what was available from the supermarket freezers in Redditch and Bromsgrove at the time, I ended up with a mix of straight cut, chunky and steak chips that varied between brands. Here's what I found when I put them to the taste and value for money test."
McCain Home Chips
1.6kg for £4
Promoted as the 'nation's favourite', these chips take some beating. Chunky and slightly crisp with soft, fluffy potato inside, they are everything a chip should be.
There's plenty of flavour in McCain's high quality product but you also pay a price for that and a slightly larger sized bag of oven chips costs much more than the supermarket own-brand equivalents.
That said, will the taste of its contenders come close to the McCain super chip? I deducted a point for its higher price not being as good value for money.
4/5
Asda Straight Cut Chips
This Asda chip is described as being its "classic". Disappointingly, they are much smaller and slimmer than the rest of those tested out.
Added to that, there is hardly any soft potato inside and they end up feeling quite hard. They also have an average unforgettable taste.
Children may like them because they are smaller. Price-wise it is one of the cheaper options, which counts it in its favour.
2/5
Morrisons Savers Chips
I had a bad feeling about these Morrisons Savers value chips when I looked close up at the bag. Even when frozen, I could see the odd green chips and even worse, about a third of them had potato eyes in them or were discoloured with a black or green tinge.
Once cooked, they looked even worse and the taste was bland and starchy with hardly any soft potato filling. These chips are absolutely appalling. The bag says you can oven, grill or fry, but I tested them in the oven, which didn't seem to be their forte.
Even if they are a 'budget' chip, they shouldn't be selling them with potato eyes and black bits in to anyone. They may be the cheapest of the bunch but they are practically inedible. A terrible, terrible chip.
0/5
Lidl Deluxe Chunky Chips
Part of Lidl's Deluxe range, these are pretty large chunky chips made with Maris Piper potatoes.
They aren't very uniform in shape but are large enough to have a fair bit of enjoyable soft potato filling inside. They do come out looking paler than the photo on the packaging.
They don't have a particularly memorable flavour or coating, which lets them down a little. Also, one of the more expensive of the own-brands, which is surprising for Lidl.
3/5
Sainsbury’s Crinkle Cut Chips
These chips are smaller than McCain's and crinkled. Although there is a bit of soft potato inside, the taste was bland.
Although these are the lower end of the price bracket among those compared, the Sainsbury's chips are nothing special with no particularly memorable flavour.
You would need to disguise them in lots of salt, vinegar and sauce to make them worth buying at all.
2/5
Tesco Steak Cut Oven Chips
These chunky chips from Tesco are long, oblong affairs packed with soft potato. They also have a good flavour to them and stand out from many of its bland supermarket competitors.
Surprisingly, they are the same price as Asda's bag but offer so much more. These really are value for money at £2.15.
The taste comes close to McCain's Home Chips but isn't quite as good, although they are far cheaper.
4/5
Aldi Chunky Oven Chips
Can you have a chip that is too large? This Aldi option made me wonder at first glance as they are huge. It means you get fewer chips but each one is much bigger, so you don't need as many in theory.
One oven tray full of chips and half of the bag was gone but what I was left with tasted marvellous. With light and fluffy potato on the inside and a delicious coating on the chip, this Aldi offering were the only own-brand that could match McCain's.
Part of the Specially Selected range, these huge chips are made with British Maris Piper potatoes - and you can taste it. They come out of the oven with a lovely golden colour and are as chunky as you can get. They were the most expensive of the supermarket brands but are still cheaper than McCain's.
5/5
Overall verdict
McCain - 4/5
Asda - 2/5
Morrisons - 0/5
Lidl - 3/5
Sainsbury's - 2/5
Tesco - 4/5
Aldi - 5/5
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