Chipsi Mayai
A chips omelette: fried potato chips folded into beaten egg and set in a pan, served with kachumbari-style salad.
Photograph credit: Chipsi mayai (zege) (image of chipsi mayai on Wikidata Q5101741) by iamkevoo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Before You Start
Cut the chips thin and even so they cook through.
Add the egg to the hot chips so it sets quickly.
Flip with a plate rather than a spatula.
Add chilli to the salad if you like heat.
Making Chipsi Mayai
Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.
-
Heat 3 tbsp of the oil in a frying pan and fry the chips for 12 minutes, turning, until golden and cooked through. Drain on kitchen paper.
-
Beat the eggs with half the salt and the pepper.
-
Heat the remaining oil in the pan. Add the chips, then pour the egg over them. Cook on a medium heat for 4 minutes until the base is golden.
-
Slide onto a plate, invert back into the pan and cook for 2 minutes more.
-
Toss the tomato, onion, lemon juice and remaining salt together and serve with the omelette.
Something wrong or unclear in this recipe? Report a problem with this recipe.
Why It Works
It looks like a pancake and cooks like an omelette, which is why the pan has to be hotter than you expect. Chipsi mayai is a chips and egg dish from East Africa, usually sold hot from a street stall, and it turns a pile of chips into a meal.
The chips can be fresh-fried or oven-baked. Either way they should be crisp when they hit the egg. Add them to the pan first. Pour the beaten egg over so it sets around each chip and holds the whole thing together.
Cook on a medium heat until the underside is golden, about 5 minutes. Slide the omelette onto a plate, then invert it back into the pan to cook the other side.
Serve with a salad of tomato, onion and chilli. The sharp, fresh salad cuts through the rich egg and potato. Frozen chips work well if you cook them first, and they make this a very quick supper. Cut-up leftover roast potatoes are another good option.
Storage and Reheating
Best eaten straight away. The chips lose their crispness as it stands.
What to Serve Alongside
- Tomato and onion salad
- Chilli sauce
- Ketchup
- Sliced cabbage
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Attieke.
Chipsi Mayai Nutrition
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
You Might Also Like
More African cooking and dinner ideas from Weekly Delight.
Potato Frittata
Thin-sliced potato and onion cooked in olive oil, set in eggs and finished in the oven. Four servings in 30 minutes.
Spanish Omelette
Potatoes and onion slowly cooked in olive oil, then set in beaten eggs into a thick round omelette. Four servings in…
Kookoo Sibzamini
A Persian potato kuku: mashed potatoes mixed with egg, turmeric, onion and herbs and pan-fried into a thick, golden…
Tiroler Gröstl
Fried potatoes, onions and leftover roast meat in a heavy pan, topped with a fried egg, a Tyrolean supper ready in…
.jpg){kind=link}
Cheese Fondue
Gruyère and Vacherin melted into white wine with a little cornflour and kirsch, kept just below a simmer and eaten…
Psari Plaki
White fish baked on a bed of tomatoes, onions, garlic, potatoes and parsley with olive oil and lemon, ready in 1 hour.