Crispy oven baked kale chips are easy, addicting, and healthy. This is a simple kale chip recipe that is elevated with a little optional lemon juice.
Bake kale chips in the oven at 325F for 15 - 20 minutes or until crispy.
Optional Flavors For Oven Baked Kale Chips
Oven baked kale chip ingredients are versatile. Try adding some of these ingredients once you master this simple kale chip recipe.
- toss with a wee bit of sriracha or hot sauce before baking.
- Add a touch of balsamic vinegar before cooking.
- ground cumin, coriander, Italian spice blend, chili powder, or ground curry before baking.
- red chili flakes or cayenne pepper after or before baking.
- Add some Parmesan cheese a couple minutes before taking out of the oven.
- top with a little fresh lemon zest once the kale chips come out of the oven.
Everybody loves this baked kale chip recipe, even kids.
What Kind Of Kale For Baked Kale Chips?
Use any kind of kale for making kale chips.
Curly kale is my preference for kale chips. I like all the nooks and crannies for ingredients. It also seems to be easier to bake in the oven because the flatter kale varieties get stuck to the pan more. Curly kale is also thicker which helps with it not sticking.
Other kale options are flatter kales like Dinosaur Kale (also known as Lacinato Kale).
The last option is Red Russian Kale. This is the kale I used for the video below and it definitely works but is thinner than curly kale which makes it stick to the baking sheet more.
Pre-bagged kale works as well but it generally has a lot of stems and / or is very young and fragile to work with on a baking sheet.
How To Make Oven Baked Kale Chips
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Toss kale with a little olive oil and optional lemon juice. Conservatively add salt as the kale chips will dehydrate as they shrink and the salt will concentrate.
- Bake 15-20 minutes total turning the sheet pan once in the oven at around 7 minutes. At the 7 minute mark, also run a spatula across the kale chips if they are sticking to the pan.
- Add salt to taste.
Troubleshooting Soggy Baked Kale Chips
Don't crowd the sheet with kale or put too much olive oil or lemon juice on them. They will end up steaming and be soggy and not be as crispy. You may need to cook in two batches if you have a large head of kale.
Most ovens don't cook uniformly or evenly within the oven, so you are giving the ingredients the opportunity to cook more evenly if you rotate the pan halfway through the cooking time.
I've cooked in a lot of different ovens as a personal chef. 90% of the time there is a general hot spot - i.e. - back left side of oven is hotter than the rest. Rotate your pan half way through baking to ensure evenness.
Crispy Oven Baked Kale Chips
EatSimpleFood.com
Crispy oven baked homemade kale chips are easy, addicting, and healthy. The lemon gives this recipe a little kick.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: International
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 1 large head kale, rinsed, dried, de-stemmed, tore apart in large chunks
- olive oil to lightly coat (~1-2 Tbsp)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (add a little more if you like it tangier)
- salt to taste
- optional - black pepper or red chili flakes to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Place kale in large bowl and mix in olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkle conservatively with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Add any other favorite spices if you like. Mix in salt and/or spices.
- Lay kale out in an even layer on a baking sheet and bake ~ 7-10 minutes.
- Take the pan out and loosen up any kale pieces that are stuck. Rotate the pan and bake another 7 minutes or until kale chips are crispy. You may need to take crispy pieces off when they are done and leave other pieces longer if they are not crispy yet.
- Add salt to taste. Happy Eating! Beckie
Notes
- Why rotate the pan? Most ovens don't cook uniformly or evenly within the oven, so you are giving the ingredients the opportunity to cook more evenly if you rotate the pan. I've cooked in a lot of different ovens as a personal chef. 90% of the time there is a general hot spot - i.e. - back left side of oven is hotter than the rest.
- Kale too soggy and not getting crisp? You may have crowded the pan with too much kale. Next time try less kale on the pan and bake in two rounds instead of one. Up your time or temperature if your oven runs on the cooler side.
Things In My Kitchen:
- Affordable & Multi-Use Tongs for tossing the kale with the other ingredients.
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If you this kale chips dish then you may also like some of these other vegetarian kale recipes:
Serving Suggestion
Serve these Crispy Kale Chips as a standalone snack or pair it as a side with any of these dishes:
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