I’ve suffered through one too many batches of burned or soggy kale chips over the years. It took me a while to master my baked kale chip recipe, but I’ve learned some valuable lessons along the way and I’d like to pass my tips along to you! From the good ‘ol Culinary School of Hard Knocks (aka: my kitchen) to you. Gotta love it.
The first time I made kale chips I remember thinking, “Should they taste burnt like this??” The easy answer is no. I’ve come to find a nice balance between crispiness and chewiness without any burnt edges. Yes, this is very serious business, this kale chip business. When baked properly, they really do make the perfect base for a satisfying chip alternative.
I know some people are eager to claim that kale is “over” due to its popularity in recent years, but seeing as it’s still rated number #1 (along with Mustard/Turnip/Collard Greens) on the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI), I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon. At least not in my diet. Kale for life!
With these few simple techniques you’ll be well on your way to kale chip bliss. Or maybe you already are, in which case, feel free to skip ahead to my All-Dressed Baked Kale Chip recipe below and get crunching!
Ok, here are my top 6 tips for baking the perfect kale chips. No dehydrator required.
1. Remove the stems and tear leaves into large pieces
I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of chewing through woody baked kale stems. I remove the stems very quickly by grabbing the base of the stem with one hand and pushing outwards along the stem to slide off the leaves. Works like a charm!
2. Wash and thoroughly dry the leaves before beginning
If the leaves aren’t properly dried, the water can “steam” the kale chips while baking and lead to the dreaded soggy kale chip! Be sure they are nice and dry before you massage in the oil. A salad spinner works great; just be sure not to overload it so the leaves can properly dry.
3. Don’t skip the oil, but don’t drench it in oil either
A little bit of extra virgin olive oil (or coconut oil, if you prefer) goes a long way. I like to use ½ tablespoon of oil per baking sheet of kale chips. “Massage” the oil into the leaves to ensure all the nooks and crannies are coated. Oil also helps the spices stick to the leaves.
4. Spread kale into a single layer on the baking sheet
I used to dump all the kale into a very thick layer on the baking sheet and hope for the best, but doing this tends to lead to soggy, unevenly baked kale chips. I’ve learned to be a bit more patient and spread them out into a thinner layer on each baking sheet. Be sure to rotate the baking sheet half-way through baking. There’s no real need to flip the chips unless you have the patience for it.
5. It’s all about the low-heat for even baking
As I wrote in my cookbook, I tested all kinds of kale chip recipes at different temperatures from very low to high heats. Surprise, surprise the batches that worked the best were the ones I baked at a very low temperature of 300F. Sure, it takes a bit longer to bake, but I can assure you it’s worth it because you don’t get any burnt pieces. Remember, the goal is to crisp the kale, not scorch it into smithereens! In my oven, I bake at 300F for 10 minutes, then I rotate the pan, and bake for another 15 minutes. So 25 minutes total for kale chip perfection in my oven. This will vary based on your oven, but it’s a good starting off point!
6. Cool for just a few minutes on the baking sheet
I’ve found that waiting just 3 minutes allows the kale chips to crisp up even more once they are out of the oven. Just like baked cookies or roasted chickpeas, kale chips really firm up even more when cooled. Those 3 minutes will feel like hours though. I won’t lie.
Bonus tips: Avoid adding liquids (such as vinegars or hot sauces) pre-baking as liquids can result in soggy chips. It’s best to add a light spritz of liquid seasoning after they’ve been baked, if at all. Also, if your oven has one, feel free to try out the dehydrator or convection setting.
Now, read on for my All-Dressed Kale Chip recipe! I promise this batch will not last long…minutes while standing in front of the oven if you are like me.
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
All-Dressed Kale Chips
Yield
1-2 servings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Crispy and chewy kale chips baked in the oven and seasoned to perfection. Enjoy these as a healthy alternative to potato chips.
Ingredients
per baking sheet:
- approx. 1/2 bunch kale leaves
- 1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or melted coconut oil
- 1.5 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt or pink Himalayan sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Remove leaves from the stems of the kale and roughly tear it up into large pieces. Compost the stems (or freeze for smoothies). Wash and spin the leaves until thoroughly dry.
- Add kale leaves into a large bowl. Massage in the oil until all the nooks and crannies are coated in oil. Now sprinkle on the spices/seasonings and toss to combine.
- Spread out the kale onto the prepared baking sheet into a single layer, being sure not to overcrowd the kale.
- Bake for 10 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake for another 12-15 minutes more until the kale begins to firm up. The kale will look shrunken, but this is normal. I bake for 25 mins. total in my oven.
- Cool the kale on the sheet for 3 minutes before digging in! This really makes all the difference! Enjoy immediately as they lose their crispiness with time.
- Repeat this process for the other half of the bunch.
Tip:
Feel free to make these in a dehydrator if you have one. You can also experiment with the convection or dehydrator setting on your oven (if applicable).
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)I can’t end this post today without thanking you for your lovely comments in my recent post. I’m reading through all of them and greatly appreciate the support, advice, and love. Sketchie’s staple removal went fine (it took a few minutes and didn’t seem to even bother him) and he is healing well from surgery.
Yum going to the fruit and veg shop tomorrow guess what just went to the top of my shopping list
I’m so glad I’ve followed you for other healthy recipes! When my current meal plan called for kale chips & directed to bake them @ 350 to desired crispness, I knew right where to turn for specific directions. I’m SO glad I did because had I baked them @ 350 as they directed, they would have burned as my kale chips have in the past! Your directions were great for me! I baked @ 300 for 10 minutes, rotated the pan then baked another 10 minutes. They are perfect! Thanks again for posting such wonderful recipes!
Thanks for the lovely comment, Amber! I’m so glad these tips helped your kale chips turn out so well. :)
Perfect timing – I just bought some kale and was wondering whether to make chips. Obviously meant to be :-)
I tried for hours to dry my kale after washing it!!! Finally completely frustrated I got out my hair dryer!! So after blotting rolling with towels they are still not dry! After shaking they were still wet. Put your wet kale in a large bowl so it won’t blow away. Put hand held hair dryer on lowest setting, hold about a foot away and blow until dry! It works
Thanks Patty, I don’t have a salad spinner and I was wondering how I was going to dry the kale. The hair dryer is an awesome idea. thanks again
You can blot dry with some clean towels, too. I used my convection roast setting and they were ready 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees. Be careful on the salt, they tend to be really salty after crisping. I did olive oil, Greek seasonings, pepper from the mill and pink Himalayan salt from a mill, also. Delish!
I washed them the day before kept them in a glass filled with water like cut flowers and used them the next day.
After washing my kale I put it in a clean pillowcase, close it up with a rubber band and run it through the spin cycle of my washing machine. Comes out perfectly dry!!
I struggled with drying as well. I found that I had the best results after placing washed kale into organic cashmere sweater, obtaining small commercial aircraft license, tying said sweater to back of my new Cessna, and doing a few laps over death valley. Getting the proper FAA permits was a bear, but totally worth it!
Haha haha. BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN!
I know this is a super delayed reply but OMG perfect response haha
Best thing I’ve ever read
Hehehehe!!!
You’ve made my day!
FINALLY I have a practical use for that small pilot license!
Lol. Love it
Hahaha that is hilarious
That’s ingenious! Fantastic tip.
Tip for those without a salad spinner….I always do this, and refuse to buy one after learning this method: Italian campground ‘salad spinner’ = put wet kale in a tea towel (light weight dish towel or cheese cloth, whatever you have), secure all corners. Hold on to the corners so everything stays inside, go outside and whip it over your head repeatedly until the water stops sprinkling out. Hold on tight!
We discovered this amazing method to dry HUGE amounts of Kale, and it works EVERY time.
After washing it in my bathtub (we grow our own so we have tons of it!!) I place it in a flannel pillowcase, and toss it in the DRYER. 20 min – 30 min later it’s so dry it’s craziness! I also use a spray bottle to spritz the oil on it… give you just the right amount.
Maybe the most creative trick I’ve ever heard on this blog!! hahah
My mom used to wrap the lettuce up in a tea towel after washing then throw it in the washing machine on the spin cycle. Worked great for her. I happen to own a salad spinner but with large amounts I bet that would work great too!
Hi Patty.
You don’t have to dry it as I struggled to dry mine I just tossed it in the olive oil then 6 in the air fryer it came out fantastic. Thanks Angela for the fabulous recipe.
Kale will never be “over”! Thanks for all your tips, I’m sure when I make your all-dressed kale chips they’ll be my best batch ever.
Do you always use curly kale? Just wondering if you think it works better than lacinato?
I prefer curly kale when making kale chips because it has a nice texture! I find the Lacinato kale chips are pretty flat.
What is nutritional yeast ?
I would like to Know what nutritional yeast means too? I’m not sure that I will use the bread yeast I have in the fridge.?
Nutritional yeast is a special yeast that is grownand then dried) as a nutritional supplement. It is sold in many health food stores and looks like a flaky yellow powder. It has a cheesy flavor and is full of B vitamins. I love it on popcorn too! DO NOT use the baking yeast that you have in the fridge!
When I was growing up this was called brewer’s yeast, if that helps. Makes popcorn addictive!
Red Star nutritional yeast is a staple to my plant food way of eating. It is wonderful added to any foods basically (except fruit lol), the best on popcorn (organic nongmo of course). Is great substitute for cheese! And full of Bvitamins.
Just to clarify, yeast is not a plant.
but it IS alive aka a living organism :)
Nutritional yeast is deactivated, which means dead.
i was pretty bummed about hillary losing but this kale tip lifted my spirits :)
i love angie
kale-yummy and nutritious
Popular opinion (per vote) would say that Hillary, like Al, won. Let’s make it stick this year! How great that, along with Oh She Glows recipies would make our country! If Joe Cool wins, I think I’ll ask for and give the cookbook as holiday gifts. Even if we can’t gather this Thanksgiving, we can exchange a meal – book, that is!
Great tips, Ange!! I have to admit, I’ve baked my fair share of too-crisp and too-soggy kale chips (mostly my own fault for either rushing and setting my oven to 400 because I was starving, or trying to achieve a super duper salt and vinegar flavour with far too much vinegar!) I agree with you – low temperature and just the right amount of oil are key!
I have yet to jump on the kale chip bandwagon…I think I need to rectify that.
I just get so excited to eat them that I want to bake the kale chips at too high of a temperature. Low and slow is the way to go!
I will have to try your tips!
Any tips on storing kale chips. When I have made in the past, they taste great right after baking, but then are SOGGY the next day ;-(
I would try reheating them in the oven the next day. I do this with roasted chickpeas with great success.
I put them in an airtight, glass, pirex container,
with a layer of dry rice at the bottom,
stored at room temperature.
Still crispy the next day!
great tip! Thanks
Thanks Cash and thanks Angela for the post! Just got a dehydrator which works great but sounds like the oven is faster. I have struggled with the crunch factor (not that there is much left the next day) and will try the air tight container with rice.
Haha- that’s like saying “what should I do with leftover wine?” – to which I say: what is leftover wine? What is leftover kale chips? Teehee
I haven’t tried this so I can’t vouch for if it’ll work – but the logic seems sound. Use one of those Silica gel (“DO NOT EAT”) packs that come in shoes, purses….AND bags of bought kale chips! I would assume one of those in your Ziploc bag/container of chips will help keep the moisture down.
I use a brown paper bag. It works like a charm and they stay crispy for a few days!
Hi Angela, I think I’ll be making these this weekend! A question: would these store best in a glass container as opposed to plastic? I imagine they’ll retain their crunchiness if stored in glass.
To be honest, I don’t think they retain their crispiness no matter how I’ve stored them (glass or otherwise). You might have success reheating them in the oven the next day (I do this with roasted chickpeas all the time and it works great).
I heard that if you save those little freshness packets that come with medicine & supplements and store your leftover kale chips with one of those in the container, they will retain some of their crispness.
Those “little freshness packs” aka silica packs will do nothing.
I quite often see this misinformation all over the internet.
They need to be stored in an airtight container and they fill up with moisture rather quickly when exposed to “fresh air”.
You would need a very large amount of these packets and they would have to be active and then stored in a sealed bag with the chips.
You can bake the packets to remove moisture but I do not recommend it for 100 obvious reasons.
You can buy larger versions of these packages ( pelican sells one) I do not know if they are good safe either and are more for electronic equipment.
So in short, throw those packages away they are too small and inactive. They will do nothing. They are intended to keep vitamins etc fresh at the time of
packaging and they degrade quickly…and think of how small that container is when sealed. You would need a pack at least 40X its size and the keyword is it has to be ACTIVE.
Just a bit about silica gel: I don’t know as I would reuse the packets that came with something not food, who knows what might contaminate it. However–I grow edible flowers for some very picky chefs, and small flowers or petals are often candied with sugar and dried for use many months later. The candied flowers would absorb water from the air and get soggy like your kale chips if stored normally. Silica gel can be bought in several sizes of granules, and in packages as much as several pounds at the retail level, for use in keeping foods dry and crisp. There are indicator crystals included, which are blue when ready to use, and turn pink as they absorb water. Directions to refresh the gel beads are on the packages, you do have to heat it in the oven, but it’s reusable indefinitely.
With that said, it would be simple to put a layer of silica gel beads (I use a larger size like little seed beads rather than sand-size) in the bottom of a tight sealing container like tupperware, and put your chips on top. It works for edible flowers just fine. If you can only find the fine sand-like gel particles, you might try putting a layer of paper over the silica gel and then the chips.
If they do nothing why do they put them in the Kale containers I buy from the store??
I thought the same thing. Whatever you do, don’t use the silica gel absorbers (adsorbers?) WITH oxygen absorbers. The silica keeps the oxygen absorbers from working (needs SOME moisture to activate). But silica can be used again using one of a variety of methods. Oxygen absorbers cannot be “recharged” (when they are hardened they are done). Just thought I’d give this input based on what I learned from an expert in food preservation. Also, somewhere I read that silica should not be used with food. Don’t know if it is true as it was just stated previously that silica packs come in kale chips. To that commenter: Are you sure it wasn’t an oxygen absorber?
great tips here..i save the stems though for my vegetable stock :)
Yum! I just made you perfect veggie burger and kale salad – oh my goodness, both were delicious! These tips are great – I made a scorched batch of kale chips yesterday that were beyond edible :(
once you make them, how long do you think they stay good? one day-two days?
I find they are best consumed immediately, otherwise they start to lose their crispiness when stored.
Ive burnt, flooded/over-oiled, under-oiled, charred, turned to coal dust, etc. so much kale in my life but finally feel like Ive got it under control. Low oven like you said, is key! Great pots & info. pinned
After many failed attempts, and many lost bunches of valuable kale, I had given up on the kale chip. Buuuuuuut, after reading this and being a sucker for the ‘all dressed’ flavour, I think I shall try it again. Thanks Angela!
PS – My cat Louis & I have been saying prayers for Sketchie. xxoo
thanks for your thoughts Sharon!
I haven’t made kale chips in forever but I do love them! Smoked paprika has recently become a favorite spice so I am loving that it is included in this recipe. Looks like I am making kale chips this weekend! (And I will likely eat the whole pan while standing at the stove).
Thanks for sharing these tips, Angela! I love making kale chips, but I never know the best way to store them without the kale chips losing their crunch. Do you have any ideas? Thanks again!
To be honest, I don’t think they retain their crispiness no matter how I’ve stored them (glass or otherwise). You might have success reheating them in the oven the next day (I do this with roasted chickpeas all the time and it works great)
Thanks for the advice! I’ll try it next time.
I use a foodsaver container for my flax crackers and that works great… I’m guessing it would work great for kale chips because it pulls all the air out of the container.
Thank you for these tips!! Will definitely try making kale chips again soon.
Thanks for the tips! I made kale chips once and they were nice and crispy when they came out of the oven, but then went soggy. I’ll have to make sure they are really dry next time.
I am pretty much obsessed with kale chips at the moment, especially with paprika. Great tip about the oil. You definitely shouldn’t leave it out, but too much is a bad thing too.
“Kale for life!”
Heck ya! Did you see though, Ginny Messina had a post on how maybe vegans need to eat more beans & less kale (an issue with potassium, as I recall). Anyway, I agree, kale’s not going anywhere anytime soon, especially now that they sell those huge bags of pre-washed kale which makes it super duper easy to eat it every day.
I think I saved her post in my reader but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet! Sounds interesting…will be sure to read soon.
I will be trying kale chips soon with one of those pre washed bags. : ) wish me luck lol!