Crispy Sea Salt Kale Chips

Kale, if improperly prepared, can be a challenge to choke down.  I love greens, but curly Kale in particular needs a little love to be palatable.

Enter kale chips – the high temperature causes the compounds in kale that taste of cabbage funk to caramelize and become mild.  The crisp saltiness makes these delicious and downright addictive. I have made this recipe dozens of times and it just keeps getting better.

Golden and crispy

Ingredients

1 large bunch kale

4 TBS olive oil

Sea salt to taste

Easy ingredient lineup

Start by picking the kale leaves off of the stem in 2 inch long pieces.

Stripping leaves from the stem

Throw the leaves into a large bowl full of water and discard the stems (they’re woody and not very tasty). Swish the kale leaves around to remove and dirt or grit.

The most important step to ensure crispy kale chips is completely draining and drying the leaves.  A salad spinner is really is really the best tool for the job but you can use a clean tea towel in a pinch.  Any dampness when cooking will cause the kale to steam rather than crisp up.

Spread half of the dried kale leaves into a large metal baking pan.  Make sure that the leaves are in one even layer.  I usually bake the kale into two batches.

Drizzle the kale with olive oil and give them a scrunch to make sure the leaves are fully coated in oil.  Sprinkle lightly with sea salt, keeping in mind that the kale will shrink significantly with baking and concentrating the salty flavor.

Scrunch claw!

Bake on the bottom rack of a 400 degree oven.  Baking on the bottom rack seems to prevent the delicate leaves from charring too quickly.  Check on the kale every 5 minutes, giving it a stir to make sure that the leaves aren’t sticking or darkening too quickly.  

This is how kale chips should look after about 5 min of cooking and aren't crisp enough yet

Full cooking time usually varies between 10 and 15 minutes.  You’ll know the kale chips are done when they have just a touch of golden brown at the end.  The chips will also sound crisp when you stir them.

Once you remove the kale chips from the oven they’ll continue to become more crispy as the cool slightly. Enjoy these while they're still warm from the oven.