A snack food product contains potato product and corn product. The potato product provides flavor and the corn product acts as a hardening agent to add rigidity, stiffness, and structural integrity to reduce product breakage during packaging, shipping, and handling. The potato and corn ingredients mixed with other ingredients to provide a dough mixture. The dual-sheeted dough is cut into character-shaped forms. An air-assisted cylindrical cutter with air holes within the character cut-outs is used to at least partially detach the character-shaped forms from the web scrap. A frictional surface removes any remaining dangling snack food forms from the web scrap. The character-shaped forms routed to a fryer to cook the snack food product. The snack food product is rotated while cooking in the fryer with jet streams of cooking oil from nozzles about the fryer bath. The snack food product is inspected and package for shipment.