What Are All Dressed Chips?

Sporked’s Jordan Myrick loves dill pickle chips and is constantly trying to force them down my throat. It’s getting to be a problem, actually. I’m more of a normal chip person, like the totally normal flavor of salt and vinegar. These days, it seems like there are all kinds of chip flavors, but the one that intrigues me the most is all dressed chips. What are all dressed chips? What is on all dressed chips? What do all dressed chips taste like? All that info and more awaits.

What are all dressed chips?

We have Canadians to thank for the all dressed chip. Yes, the place that brought us Canadian ham, maple syrup, and KallMeKris is delivering in the potato chip game, and they’re a big step up from ketchup-flavored chips. I shudder at the thought of them.

It is believed that the Quebecois company Yum Yum created the first all dressed chip in 1978. Or, as the French Canadians say, “toute garnie.” The term is derived from a type of pizza that we Americans might call “the works” or “supreme,” meaning it had all the toppings. 

So, Yum Yum thought, “What if pizza, but on a chip?” It’s this kind of 3 a.m. thinking that led to the all dressed potato chip. I imagine the testing phase involved some food scientist taking a chip from all their pre-existing flavors, laying them on top of each other, taking one big bite, and, with a single tear in their eye, exclaiming, “What I have done here…it is good…c’est bon.”

What are the flavors in all dressed chips?

What part of “all” don’t you understand?! Sorry for the outburst, I hunger. Let’s turn to a chip titan for the answer to the question, what is on all dressed chips? Ruffles! 

Ruffles started making an all dressed chip in 2015 but they were discontinued in 2021. They brought them back—kind of—with a kettle-cooked all dressed chip in 2023 but it was a limited edition. Why are you doing this to us, Ruffles?!

Anyway, Ruffles described the flavors as a combination of ketchup, BBQ sauce, sour cream & onion, and salt & vinegar. Basically, all the chip flavor heavy hitters.

What do all dressed chips taste like?

With all those flavors in there, it’s hard to describe the singular flavor of all dressed chips. I guess if you have a really sophisticated palate like flavor king Guy Fieri, you might be able to distinguish the chip’s individual flavor components. But for a chip simpleton like myself, the dominant flavor is the BBQ/ketchup sweetness paired with the tang of vinegar.  Personally speaking, all dressed chips hit the spot—the spot where I store the chips in my stomach.