Crispy air fryer kale chips (or oven baked)

Kale chips take a nutrient-dense salad green and turn it into a light & crunchy snack. Think of them as nature’s potato chips!

They are a tasty morsel all on their own. They also add color & crunch to rice bowls, and something salty to go alongside a sandwich.

I’ve been baking kale chips in the oven for a decade now. But you know what’s even faster & easier?

Air frying them!

They get uniformly crisp around the edges. So good!

Don’t have an air fryer yet? No worries. I give oven directions as well in the recipe box below.

(By the way, if you love kale chips, give roasted cabbage a shot. It’s another cruciferous vegetable that is so delicious cooked at high temperatures.)

In this post:

Kale: You’ll need one bunch of kale for this recipe. I recommend buying it fresh as opposed to pre-chopped.

You can use any type of kale for these chips, but my favorite is curly kale. Think of them as the Ruffles of the kale world. They have ridges!

Their beautiful feathered edges get nice & crisp all around the outside. Their poufy nature also ensures that air will get around them in the air fryer.

Extra virgin olive oil: A drizzle of oil helps the chips to brown & for the salt to cling to them.

There isn’t much oil here. You can easily replace it with any oil you prefer or use cooking spray for even less oil.

Lemon juice: A squeeze of lemon juice gives the chips a bit of tang. It also plays well against kale’s more bitter qualities.

Salt: Just a pinch of salt is all you need here.

The kale chips shrink as they cook. So if you go overboard, the salt will stand out even more as the surface area of the chip becomes smaller.

Rinse kale. Use your hands to remove the leaves from the hard center ribs.

Tear the kale into medium-sized pieces.

Dry the kale on a clean kitchen towel or with a salad spinner.

Put the kale into a large mixing bowl.

Rub the leaves with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. You want all of the leaves to be evenly coated.

To air fry: Put the kale into the air fryer basket.

Air fry at 375 degrees for 4 to 6 minutes, stopping occasionally to shake the basket for even cooking.

To bake: Put the kale on parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. If they need more time, flip the kale & bake up to 5 minutes longer.

Use fingers to remove kale from stem

Some folks use a knife to cut the stems from kale, but it’s so much easier with your fingers. Just get in there and pull the leaves away from the center stems.

I like to do it while I’m rinsing the kale under water to complete two tasks at once.

Thoroughly dry kale

Make sure to dry the kale on a clean kitchen towel or with a salad spinner before cooking. Wet kale doesn’t crisp well and could lead to soggy chips.

Keep the kale pieces about 2 inches wide

Don’t tear the chips into too small of pieces. Remember that they’ll shrink in the air fryer or oven.

Use a metal rack if needed

To keep the kale from flying into the heating element of the air fryer, top the leaves with a metal air fryer rack to hold them down.

(Some air fryers automatically come with these racks. With others, you have to order them separately as an accessory.)

Cook time varies

Depending on your air fryer/oven & how well you dried the kale chips, the time they take to cook varies.

Be sure to keep an eye on them at the end of their cooking time, because kale chips can quickly go from perfectly crisp to burnt.

You can make these chips your own by varying the type of kale. Try lacinato or rainbow kale.

Replace the salt with a salt blend like Slap Ya Mama or Fox Point seasoning.

After they come out of the air fryer or oven, dust them with seasonings like nutritional yeast, garlic powder, vegan parmesan, or Everything But the Bagel seasoning. (It’s one of my favorite vegan Trader Joe’s products!)

Kale chips are a delicious, light and healthy snack all on their own.

Or you can serve them with a dipping sauce like guacamole, tahini dressing, or ranch dressing.

They’re terrific in a rice bowl, or served alongside a sandwich.

(They are a good fit anywhere you’d typically serve french fries as a side dish.)

Serve crispy kale chips with any of these dishes:

• Baked tofu bowl
• BBQ jackfruit sandwiches
• Rachel sandwich with seitan chicken & coleslaw
• Bagel sandwich with hummus & vegetables
• Vegetable sandwich with jalapeño cashew cheese
• Buffalo chickpea sandwich
• Vegan chicken salad sandwich

Make sure the kale chips are cool & dry before storing them.

Keep any leftover chips on the counter in a paper bag.

They will keep at room temperature for several days, but over time they’ll lose their crispiness.

To make them crispy again, pop them back in the air fryer at 300 degrees for a couple of minutes.

Keep the love going for this nutrient-packed leafy green with any of these dishes.

• Sautéed kale with garlic
• Kale salad with roasted chickpeas
• Sesame kale with garlic
• Tofu scramble
• Creamy gnocchi soup with sausage
• Sweet potato peanut stew
• Creamy vegan wild rice soup