A South Carolina teen shot his cousin in the chest – critically wounding him – after warning him not to eat his salt and vinegar potato chips.

“Do not touch my chips, or I’ll shoot you,” Ryan Dean Langdale barked at the 17-year-old victim before pulling the trigger during the bizarre episode last month, The Post and Courier newspaper reported, citing a sheriff’s incident report.

Langdale, 19, now faces charges of attempted murder, using a firearm in a violent crime and obstructing justice in the Sept. 29 shooting at Langdale’s home in rural Colleton County.

The suspect tried to cover-up the crime, by telling police that his cousin had accidentally shot himself by dropping a hunting rifle while cleaning it, according to the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office.

The victim – succumbing to pressure from his older cousin — initially confirmed the bogus account to police before being rushed into surgery, but cops weren’t buying it.

“We knew from the beginning that something wasn’t right,” sheriff’s Maj. J.W. Chapman said, according to The Post and Courier. “The more we looked into it, the more it seemed odd.”

Chapman noted that the route the bullet took through the victim’s chest was “impossible” if the teenager shot himself by mistake, the news outlet reported.

A week after the shooting incident, the victim awoke at the Trident Medical Center in North Charleston and admitted to investigators that it was indeed the chips– which he never even touched– that nearly sent him six feet under.

After Langdale warned him, Langdale went into a back room, grabbed a rifle and pointed it at the victim, according to the sheriff’s incident report.

“The next thing he knew,” the document said, “the rifle went off.”

According to the report, Langdale had switched out the firearm he used to cover up his involvement.

The rifle was found when authorities searched Langdale’s home this week.

He surrendered to the crime Wednesday and a judge set his bail at $55,000.