I Tried the Viral ‘Chippy Boys’ Snack—Here’s How Nutritionists Are Making It Healthier
Kettle-cooked chips with melty cheese and zippy sauce are hiding loads of nutrients
Calling all snack lovers! If you’re looking for craveable foods that also help keep you well-nourished, we have fun suggestion: “Chippy Boys”. The viral nosh—made by melting cheese over potato chips and then drizzling with balsamic glaze or hot honey—is creamy-salty-sweet flavor bomb that also happens to be a decent source of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, probiotics and even a little acetic acid to help with blood sugar control, says researcher Tim Steele, MS, author of The Potato Hack: Weight Loss Simplified.
Meanwhile, Tennessee-based nutrition pro Chelsea LeBlanc, RDN, is sharing easy tweaks that turn Chippy Boys into a mega-healthy option that can be a great choice for just about any eating style. Keep reading for the original Chippy Boys recipe, some yummy variations and our Fit Chippy Boys recipe twists.
What are Chippy Boys and why are they going viral?
TikTok’s original Chippy Boys video features creator Kaelah sharing her take on a dish she ate while growing up in Middletown, Ohio. “Whenever I have something really good at a restaurant, I always come home and try to recreate it,” she says.
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Her rendition of kettle-cooked chips topped with melty gorgonzola and balsamic glaze was so good, she’s been making them for years; her husband started calling them Chipping Boys, and the name stuck. The restaurant that first served the snack has closed, but its legacy lives on.
To date, Kaelah’s posts on the fancy chips have over 13 million views. And other popular creators have been coming up with their own twists on Chippy Boys, vying to see who can come up with the most mouthwatering combo of chips, cheese and sauce.
The original Chippy Boys recipe
Here’s how Kaleah makes her classic version of the dish. And to make it healthier, check out our pro tips below.
Ingredients:
- 2-3 cups kettle-cooked potato chips (or as many as you want to eat)
- 2-3 oz. gorgonzola cheese (about 1 oz. per cup of chips, or to taste)
- Balsamic reduction or glaze for drizzling, such as Nonna Pia’s Balsamic Glaze Reduction or Alessi Balsamic Reduction (both sold at Walmart and many large grocery stores)
Instructions:
Spread chips on a small lined baking sheet. Crumble cheese evenly over top. Broil 3 to 5 minutes, watching carefully to be sure they don’t burn. Drizzle with reduction and enjoy. Serves 2.
Fun twists on classic Chippy Boys
Content creators like @BudgetbyLauren experiment with flavored kettle-cooked chips, different types of cheese, different flavors of glaze or hot honey and even charcuterie-stye toppings. Some variations include winning fans include:
- Jalapeno chips with goat cheese and strawberry balsamic glaze
- Nashville hot chips with blue cheese and hot honey
- Classic chips with brie and fig jam
- Sweet potato chips with Boursin and hot honey
3 nutritionist-approved ways to make Chippy Boys healthier
While experts we spoke to say it’d be hard to reach your health goals while eating large quantities of Chippy Boys, they are by no means an empty-calorie option. Eaten in moderation, “potatoes, cheese and vinegar are all seriously healthy foods,” notes Steele. To give Chippy Boys a healthier twist, try these smart tweaks:
Choose the best chips
Your healthiest option is making the chips yourself in an air fryer using a recipe like this one from LeBlanc. You’ll get all the nutrients of potatoes with very little fat, she says. For an extra boost of nutrients, use sweet potatoes to make your chips.
Even if you stick to the original recipe, it’s not as bad as you might think. Purdue University research notes that a 357-calorie serving of chips has 361 mg of potassium and 8.8 mg of vitamin C, or roughly 10 percent of a woman’s estimated daily needs—which is more of these nutrients than we get from a serving of avocado.
Plus, Chippy Boys are made with kettle-cooked chips (which are thicker and don’t get soggy when you add toppings). Because kettle chips are cooked at lower temperatures, they retain more nutrients and absorb less fat, per a 2017 study in Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science.
Use aged, protein-rich cheese
The classic Chippy Boys recipe is made with gorgonzola, a type of blue cheese that is both aged and fermented. This means the cheese can “contain live cultures that act as probiotics” says LeBlanc, owner of Chelsea LeBlanc Nutrition in Nashville. You get this benefit from any aged cheese, including feta and Brie, which people also love on Chippy Boys. Probiotics help improve immunity, digestion, weight control and more.
The hitch: You’ll have to seek out unpasteurized cheese, since pasteurization kills both bad and good bacteria. Prefer pasteurized cheese? Then opt for one that’s high in protein! Fan love both Gruyere and aged cheddar on Chippy Boys, and LeBlanc says both contain nice amounts of protein to help keep muscle strong and your metabolism humming.
Make a no sugar-added vinegar glaze
Chippy Boys are typically drizzled with a balsamic vinegar reduction made with added sugar. “It’s fine in moderation,” notes LeBlanc. But if you want to take it to the next level health-wise, make your own no sugar-added version using a recipe like this one.
Turns out, acids in vinegar cause food to stay in the stomach longer, so you feel full longer. Plus, Arizona State University study findings show that because vinegar slows digestion, it reduces blood-sugar spikes by up to 81 percent—a factor that may help kill cravings, rev metabolism and stave off diabetes. “It’s an interesting bonus, especially when pairing vinegar with carb-dense snacks like chips,” says LeBlanc.
Another way to boost nutrition: Add some pickled red onion or shaved Brussels sprouts on top!
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