Slimming-friendly Recipes to Make Your Own Delicious Chippy Tea at Home
A British staple, it’s hard to beat a good old chippy tea. Loved up and down the country, everyone has their favourite local chip shop and, most importantly, their own favourite chippy tea order.
Whether you’re a classic fish and chips person or a big fan of a chip shop curry, we’ve got good news for you. While the takeaway version is often deep-fried (and delicious), over the years we’ve come up with a whole load of slimming-friendly chip shop inspired recipes that are just as tasty.
So, if you’d rather skip the queue and recreate a lower-calorie chip shop meal at home, take a scroll through this list and let us know your order! (We love it when you share the recipes you’re making on Instagram and in our Facebook group!).
Healthy Fish and Chips Recipes
There’s nothing wrong with keeping it simple – fish and chips is a classic for a reason, after all. A typical serving from the chippy can come in at anywhere between 800 and 1000 calories, but what if we told you that our Fish and Chips does the job nicely, for only 333 calories?
Instead of heavy batter, we’ve lightened things up by coating the flaky fish in crunchy golden breadcrumbs. A handful of fluffy chips on the side will make your fakeaway complete, although we can never resist adding a spoonful of peas too (the only question is, mushy or garden peas?).
You’ll find the full recipe inside our Everyday Light cookbook – turn to page 48 to get started.
Grab the salt and vinegar! We love to put (probably far too much) on this gorgeous Fish and Chip Wrap. Ideal for lunch, you can have it ready to chomp on in just half an hour. With fish, chips and mushy peas tucked inside a floury tortilla, that’s all the best bits of a chippy tea – quite literally – all wrapped up!
At 272 calories per serving, you can always add a few extra chips on the side if you want to turn this into a more satisfying, hearty midweek dinner. This is such a family favourite that we found a place for it in our Family Meal Planner. You’ll find the full recipe on page 54 (and you can order a copy here, if you don’t already have one on your shelf).
If you’re looking for a healthy fish and chips recipe, we’re guessing you probably wouldn’t think of Fish and Chip Pie. The secret is that, instead of pastry, we’ve topped the layers of melt-in-the-mouth cod and mushy peas with chunky homemade chips.
The fish is poached to perfection, in a mixture of milk, spring onions and lemon zest. This brings out the best flavours in the cod, cooking it until it’s flaky, but still holding its shape. That gorgeous cooking liquid doesn’t get wasted either – it’s thickened with cornflour to turn it into a sumptuous sauce to go inside the pie.
Slimming-friendly Chips Recipes
There’s no chippy tea without the main event: chips. Everyone has their own take on how to perfect the ultimate potato recipe, but we reckon we’ve hit the jackpot with our Homemade Oven Chips. There’s no faffing about with par-boiling, and we think they give the deep-fried versions a run for their money.
Baked until golden and just starting to crisp at the edges, they’re lovely and fluffy in the middle. If you have an air fryer, you can even throw them in there instead – just keep an eye on them as they’ll cook faster than in the oven. We have a handy air fryer conversion guide here to get you started.
If you’ve never tried Cheesy Chips and Gravy, it’s about time that changed! A popular order in the north of England, there’s something so comforting and familiar about a plate of homely chips, loaded up with melty mozzarella, grated Cheddar cheese and piping hot gravy.
If it sounds a little bit of an odd combination to you, don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it. Despite being just 228 calories per portion, it’s the very best kind of stodgy, filling comfort food – which is exactly why you’ll only find the recipe on pages 77-79 of our Comfort Food cookbook.
If your local chippy also offers Chinese-style dishes, chances are you’ll find Salt and Pepper Chips on the menu. A spiced-up version of the chippy tea staple, they’re easier to make at home than you might expect.
Tossed with diced peppers, spring onions and chillies, all the magic is in the spice mix. The beauty of making your own version is that you’re in control of how much chilli goes into it – if you’ve ever thought the chippy version was too spicy, now’s your chance to tweak it to your liking.
Fish and Fishcakes Recipes
If you nip to the chippy more for the fish than the chips, these next few recipes are sure to go down swimmingly…
While battered cod or haddock might be the most popular item on a chip shop menu, we always think a simple fishcake is underrated. Good value for money, the hearty patties of fish and potato are delicious in a sandwich, or with a few chips on the side.
Our own Tuna and Sweetcorn Fishcakes are the kind of recipe you can throw together even when you don’t have much food in the house. With just a few potatoes, a couple of tins of tuna and either tinned or frozen sweetcorn, you can have crispy fishcakes on the table in under an hour.
If you’re looking for a healthy chip shop fish recipe with a twist, plan these Fish Kievs for your next chippy tea fakeaway. You’ll need to use chunky cod loins to make sure there’s room to stuff the middles with the creamy, garlicky filling. Instead of butter, it’s made from reduced-fat spread to keep the calories down, without losing flavour.
Each cod loin is then coated in breadcrumbs made from blitzed-up wholemeal bread, and baked to golden perfection. Just wait until you cut into the middle and reveal the oozy, melted sauce.
On the subject of dreamy, creamy, hidden centres, we can’t miss these Melt-in-the-Middle Fishcakes off our list. One of our favourite comforting lunches, smoked fish and mellow cheese are a match made in heaven.
You can use smoked haddock or smoked basa for this recipe and, because you’re mixing it with potatoes, you’ll find a little bit goes a long way. Wrap the mixture around a Babybel cheese centre, and bake it until it’s melted and mouthwatering.
Psst…this recipe is exclusive to Pinch of Nom: Everyday Light! You can grab a copy here if you don’t already have one.
Chip Shop Curry Recipes
This might divide opinion, but we can’t order a chippy tea without making sure we’ve got a pot of curry sauce on the side. Mild, creamy and packed with flavour, chip shop curry sauce is made for pouring all over a tray of fresh-out-of-the-oven chips.
It took us a while to perfect the flavour and texture, but we’ve recreated curry sauce for a fraction of the calories! Our Chips and Curry Sauce recipe is a surefire, slimming-friendly way to curb your cravings for a chippy tea, any day of the week!
You can crisp up your chips in the oven or in the air fryer, until they’re ready to be smothered in that gorgeous sauce.
If you’ve been following Pinch of Nom recipes for a while, you might already have heard of our Mushy Pea Curry. Who knew a tin of beans and some mushy peas could end up tasting just like chip shop curry?
Fragrant and not too spicy, by the time your sauce ingredients are blended together, you’ll never even taste the tinned veggies. We like to make our curry with tender chicken pieces and any vegetables that need using up, and then serve it with a portion of chips – of course!
Take your Mushy Pea Curry to the next level and turn it into this Curry and Chips Pie. We’ve included chips in this recipe, and sprinkled them with garam masala to give a hint of curry flavour.
Once the curry’s ready and the chips are well on their way to crispy deliciousness, it’s time to layer everything up in an oven dish, and get it back in the oven to finish cooking. We might be biased, but we’re gonna say it anyway – this one beats your usual chip shop order every single time (and it’s just 361 calories per serving).
Ready to make a chippy tea tonight?
We’d love to know which dishes are making it onto your midweek menu! Don’t forget anyone can join our Facebook group (if you haven’t already!). It’s a lovely community of friendly people looking for recipe ideas, tips or slimming motivation – and it’s the perfect place to share your photos with us!
You can also tag us on Instagram, or upload your photos to the Pinch of Nom Gallery.