Football season is (almost) here and the potato chip industry is ready for kickoff (sorry). The assignment this year is simple: Make chips for the tailgate party that taste like other snacks at the tailgate party. Lay’s just dropped chips that taste like loaded nachos and cheesy Buffalo dip (review coming soon), and Kroger launched a line of “Champion Chips” in three finger food-y flavors: Mozzarella Sticks, Buffalo Wing, and Pigs in a Blanket. Ambitious for a grocery store! We got our grubby hands on all three flavors and hut-hut-hiked these puppies right into our pieholes to let you know if they’re Big Game ready.
Pros: Do you like pizza-flavored chips? That signature, nostalgic blend of oregano, tomato powder, and something vaguely sour creamy on the finish? That’s what these chips have going on. We like the “ripples” style chips, too—for generic potato chips, all of the Champion Chips are
Cons: I don’t think anyone would peg them as “mozzarella stick” flavored, but these Kroger chips aren’t bad if you know what to expect. But I should add that they aren’t good if you have an aversion to the bitter flavor of oregano on your chips. They made my colleague Justine Sterling grimace.
Pros: Sometimes Bbuffalo sauce-flavored snacks can be too intense. I like big flavors, but I also like being able to eat a lot of chips in one sitting, so I tend to avoid things that burn out my taste buds. These Kroger Buffalo Wing chips have a relatively tame Bbuffalo sauce flavor that’s almost like a blend of BBQ and Buffalo. You get just a little of that buttery backbone and enough vinegary tang to remind you you’re alive.
Cons: There isn’t much of a “wing” element really. Maybe—maybe—the BBQ seasoning is supposed to channel meat, but it’s a little bit of a stretch.
Pros: They did it. Those crazy bastards did it. They made potato chips that taste like hot dogs. I’ve eaten a lot of bonkers stuff since I signed on at Sporked three years ago (time flies when you’re eating junk!), but I honestly can’t recall another chip brand attempting to capture the blend of paprika, mustard seed, onion powder, and various meat byproducts found in hot dogs. You get the tangy taste of mustard up front and that settles into a salty, meaty flavor that’s pretty damn accurate. We love the chips themselves, too. They’re thin and crisp but not quite as greasy as Lay’s—a real treat to eat.
Cons: Okay, okay, so they don’t really capture the flavor of the piping-hot crescent roll dough component of pigs in a blanket—but I’ll worry about that when I’m done housing this entire bag of chips, against both my gastroenterologist’s and general practitioner’s wishes. Kick rocks, boys!
Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks.
Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown.
What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction.
Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home.
Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.
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Gwynedd Stuart
Griffin Parker
Ariana Losch
