Crisp Kale Chips With Chile and Lime

Updated July 2, 2024

Crisp Kale Chips With Chile and Lime
Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
20 minutes
Rating
5(673)
Notes
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Easy, addictive and loaded with bright flavors, this is your new favorite way to prepare kale. Buy more kale than you think you need; these go fast.

Featured in: A Good Appetite: A Dinner Party That’s Warm, Welcoming and Meatless

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Ingredients

Yield:6 to 8 servings
  • 20cups kale from 1-2 bunches (torn into bite-size pieces, washed and thoroughly dried
  • ¼cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ¾teaspoon kosher salt
  • Finely grated zest of 2 limes
  • Flaky sea salt, or to taste
  • Mild chile powder
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Make sure the kale is dry; if it is not, it will steam rather than crisp in the oven.

  2. Step 2

    In a large bowl, toss kale pieces with olive oil and kosher salt; you may need to do this in 2 batches. Massage the oil onto each kale piece until the oil is evenly distributed and the kale glistens. Spread the kale out on 2 17-by-12-inch jellyroll pans (or do this in batches). Bake the kale chips until the leaves look crisp and crumble, about 12-16 minutes. If they are not ready, bake for another 2 to 4 minutes.

  3. Step 3

    Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature. Sprinkle with the lime zest, sea salt and chile powder to taste.

Ratings

5 out of 5
673 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

What's the equivalent of 20 cups of kale in pounds?

I find that they keep quite well for 2-3 days in an airtight container before they lose their crispness. But even then, I have "re-crisped" them by re-baking them for a few minutes at, say, 250F.

I set temp to 275. Takes longer to crisp, but fool-proof. MOST significant factor of my success was use of 1# box of Whole Foods triple-washed Baby Kale. They start out nice and dry. Use spray canola to lightly coat leaves. Guaranteed to deliver gorgeous little leaves that shatter in in your mouth and melt on your tongue. Retain crispness for days.

Spread them out and do in different batches, otherwise they don't crisp up as well.

Love kale chips. I use a spray bottle to apply the olive oil, and my favorite spices to use are sea salt, garlic powder and cayenne pepper, but all family members don't care for the cayenne, so I made half with the mild chile powder. They liked those fine. Thanks for the recipe! Oh, my daughter's Schnauzer loved them, too. He stole them from her toddler's bowl. Ahem. Side effects can be a bit messy, and it's not from the spices... :)

The kale goes past toasty to scorched very quickly. In the future, I will set the oven to 325, and plan for it to take a bit longer. I didn't have mild chili powder, so I used smoked paprika, which was very good.

A great way to use up the leaves on the old kale that overwintered in our garden and bolted this spring.

I followed the directions exactly- around 10 minutes in I smelled burning kale. They were incinerated. Not sure what I did wrong- will try a much lower temperature next time.

It is saver to use 275 degrees.

I followed the process but used spike seasoning mix instead. Delicious. Crispy, lite and a HUGE hit with my 10 year old.
If anyone has tips on storing them I'd love to hear...I'm worried they'll lose their crispiness in a container.

Although it takes a lot of sheet pan space to bake these, it is an easy recipe, they are delicious and a great way to eat more kale. Can be eaten like potato chips. I let them sit on the counter on the sheet pans for a while to make sure they are dry, so they will get crispy.

After washing and tearing them into pieces, I let them dry on some towels in the sun on my kitchen table for an hour or 2. Totally dry and then totally crispy kale chips!

350 is too hot. 300 works perfectly. And 1/4 cup of oil is a lot... a good spraying of oil to coat them works great. And DON'T forget the popcorn salt (and anything else like a little garlic powder and/or ancho chili powder)!! and parchment paper is great here to also help prevent burning

To those who've asked how to dry the kale without a salad spinner: 1) Wash the kale before you remove the midrib. Hold each piece by the stem end and SHAKE it vigorously. (Outdoors!) 2) Trim the kale as directed and lay the pieces on the baking sheets. 3) Wait. (Refrigerate uncovered overnight on the sheets if you have the time and space.)

Clearly an opportunity to use Tajin and make this even simpler. Make sure the leaves are dry too.

Convection bake @300

Trader Joe's Chili Lime seasoning makes a good shortcut.

250 degrees for 40 minutes was perfect. Kale was not completely dry but long low baking dried it then crisped it. It didn’t require close attention as it does with higher temp. I could eat the whole thing for a snack!

Don’t use baby kale. The leaves are too thin. The chips are just too insubstantial.

This is a winner. Kind of hard to believe you're eating kale when it is such a guilty pleasure! By the way, I don't think you need to stress too much on the measurments. You just tear up kale to file a backing sheet without overlap if possible and then pull out an extra sheet if you have more. Two bunches will make a lot.

300 degrees in convection oven for 11 or 12 minutes seems right. I used 1 vtsp of olive oil and light sprinkle of salt

I have been trying to 'dry' my kale all afternoon?! Any suggestions? Thanks

This inspired me to make kale chips with Tajin chile lime seasoning and they are great. Same basic instructions: mix kale, Tajin and olive oil in a bowl and bake as suggested.

Suggestions for drying this much kale (besides buying bagged or boxed versions) without a salad spinner?

Very important to have them dry before baking; added some cheese in the end

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