These Are The Worst BBQ Chips You'll Find On Store Shelves

With so many different potato chip varieties and brands, shopping in a grocery store snack aisle can get overwhelming. Even customers who have sworn allegiance to one brand may find another brand takes everything they love about a particular flavor to a new level. But the opposite can also be true, and sometimes flavors simply miss the mark.

We tried and ranked 10 different kinds of BBQ chips and ranked Lay's Baked Barbecue Chips as the worst barbecue chips. Lay's has a few different takes on barbecue chips, and they can be found everywhere, but this is one that's best left on the shelf. While we admit that baked chips don't have the same kind of crunch as regular potato chips, that's where the leeway ends. We found them to be similar to cardboard that crumbles instead of crunches. The flavor isn't great, the texture isn't pleasant, and the crumbly mouthfeel leaves a bad taste.

Bottom line: These chips may be a welcome option for snackers looking for a healthier option, but we recommend leaving these alone. For those who are craving Lays, pick up the classic Barbecue, which has been a staple on store shelves since 1965 — and ranked sixth on our list which we noted for their light crisp and barbecue flavor.

With so many different varieties of Lay's on store shelves, it's hard to say where the Baked Barbecue chips would rank on a definitive list. Still, ever since Lay's introduced its original baked chips in 1996, the line has proven popular enough to now include multiple Lay's varieties and multiple brands from Frito Lay — Lay's parent company.

Apart from the difference in textures between baked and regular chips, part of the appeal (or lack of appeal) in Lay's Baked Barbecue chips is that the flavor mix in the chips differs from Lay's Classic Barbecue chips. The regular barbecue chips contain molasses, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard seed oil, and paprika, among other ingredients. The baked chips contain many of those same ingredients including tomato powder, paprika, and garlic powder, they also contain brown sugar, possibly giving it enough of a different flavor profile than its regular counterpart.

As we previously mentioned, Lays Baked Barbecue chips can be a crunchy, satisfying option for those who want healthy chips. But for those who want a classic crunchy potato chip, leave these alone and splurge on classic chips.