Whoever first came up with the idea to coat a potato chip with chocolate was a genius. Have you ever tried a chocolate-covered potato chip? It?'s pretty awesome. Like salted caramel or kettle corn, the salt and sweet play off nicely against each other and help draw out the other'?s flavor.

Whether the entire chip is coated in chocolate or crushed potato chips are built into the texture of the chocolate bar for that surprising but pleasing crunch, I am a big fan.

For a while, I foolishly gave my money to people who took this idea to mass-market, not realizing that I could easily replicate the magic at home in a matter of minutes.

And then one day the lightbulb went off. Seriously, what took so long?

I've tried making chocolate-covered potato chips with Lay's Wavy chips and with my favorite chips of all time, Cape Cod kettle-cooked chips (specifically the 40 percent reduced fat kind - I don't know why, but they taste so much better than the regular kind). Surprisingly, I ended up liking the Lay's version better. Not only was it easier to dip the flatter, wider Lay's chips in the chocolate, but they just tasted better when combined with chocolate.

Next time I think I'll try using milk chocolate, and dipping only a quarter of each chip in chocolate. The semi-sweet was great, but it kind of overpowered the whole chip, leaving few taste buds free to savor the saltiness of the potato chip. In fact, I tried sprinkling some sea salt on the chocolate to boost the saltiness in each bite, but I should have sprinkled more, as the small amount I added wasn't quite enough.

By the way. I found this chocolate-melting technique on thekitchn.com that chocolate queen Alice Medrich shared, and it revolutionized my baking life. Seriously. Until now, I hated melting chocolate because the double-boiler process is such a pain. I could never find the right bowl to fit the right pot so that the bowl would fit the pot snugly without touching the simmering water. And I always felt like I was going to burn myself when I tried to hold the bowl still while I stirred the chocolate.

Medrich says you can set the bowl DIRECTLY IN THE WATER. You let the water just come to a simmer, then turn the burner off and let that residue heat gently melt the chocolate. It totally works! And once you turn the burner off, you have to do nothing more than wait. I like to coax things along by stirring the chocolate, but you could just leave it until all the chocolate has melted.

Sometimes it's the simple things.

Chocolate-covered potato chips

About 12-16 large potato chips (I like Lay's Wavy chips for this recipe) 4-ounce bar of chocolate (I used semi-sweet)

To melt the chocolate:

Add about 1 inch of water to a skillet. Set a stainless steel or tempered glass bowl directly on the skillet. Break up chocolate bar into pieces and toss in the bowl.

On medium heat, let water come to a simmer, then turn burner off. Let the chocolate melt slowly, stirring occasionally.

Carefully dip each potato chip into the melted chocolate, coating about half of each chip with chocolate. (I found using a spatula helped with the coating process.) Gently shake excess chocolate off the chip, then lay on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with the rest of the potato chips.

Refrigerate the chocolate-covered potato chips until chocolate has hardened (this won't take long). The chips will keep in an airtight container for several days, but I haven't been able to determine exactly how many, since I tend to eat them all within the first day or two.