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These easy oven-baked zucchini chips are thin, crispy, and perfect for pairing with all your favorite dips!
There is so much you can do with zucchini, from Zucchini Boats to Zucchini Cakes. But I think these oven-baked zucchini chips might just be my favorite. Who knew you could turn zucchini into crispy chips for snacking?!
While you won’t mistake these for potato chips, they are an excellent swap for when you’re trying to cut back on carb-heavy snacks and work some extra veggies into your life. They’re paleo-friendly, keto, naturally gluten-free, vegan, and they pretty much fit perfectly into every possible diet since they’re only made with zucchini, oil, and salt.
The next time you find yourself with an abundance of zucchini to use up, you know what to do with it: make zucchini chips!
What You’ll Need
While you only need 3 ingredients for this recipe, you can also add seasonings, flavored salts, etc.
- Zucchini – Look for one that is large but not too large. The baseball-bat-sized zucchini you harvest at the end of August is not going to work here!
- Olive oil
- Kosher salt
How do you make thin sliced zucchini?
I highly recommend using a mandoline slicer; if yours has thickness settings, set it to 2, otherwise, aim for 1/8-inch. It’s very difficult to cut thin, uniform slices of zucchini with a knife.
How to Make Oven-Baked Zucchini Chips
This is one of those recipes that comes down to technique. Follow these instructions closely and you’ll have perfectly crisp zucchini chips!
Prepare. Preheat your oven to 225ºF and line two large baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
Blot the zucchini dry. After you slice your zucchini, place the slices on a sheet of paper towels. Place another paper towel on top and press down to absorb any excess liquid.
Oil and season the zucchini. Line the zucchini slices on the prepared baking sheet. Don’t overlap them, but they can be very close, as they’ll shrink when they bake. Brush the slices with oil, then sprinkle them with salt.
Bake. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake the zucchini for 2+ hours, or until they start to brown, feel dry, and seem crisp.
Cool. Let the zucchini chips cool on the baking sheet, then serve.
Can you make zucchini chips in a dehydrator?
Yes, zucchini chips can be made in a dehydrator, but you’ll need to follow the directions for your food dehydrator to make them. This recipe was developed for making baked zucchini chips in the oven.
Tips for Success
Again: technique is everything here. These tips will help you nail it.
- Cut thin, uniform slices. Thinly sliced zucchini rounds are a must. Thick slices won’t get crispy, and if your slices are uneven, you’ll have some chips that are burnt while others are still soggy.
- Be conservative with the salt. Use less salt than you think; the zucchini slices will shrink in the oven, so they can easily get too salty.
- Don’t walk away. Once you’re nearing the 2-hour mark, you’ll need to keep a close eye on the chips to make sure they don’t burn.
- Don’t rush them. Bake the zucchini chips until you see that most liquid has cooked off. If you don’t do this, the zucchini will stick to the parchment paper or your chips will be soggy. You’ll also need to let the zucchini chips cool on the pan before removing them.
How to Store
Keep zucchini chips in an airtight container at room temperature for no more than 3 days.
Serving Suggestions
Here are some of my favorite dips for pairing with zucchini chips:
- Beet Hummus
- Homemade Tzatziki Dip
- Street Corn Hummus
- Herbed Tahini Spread
If you love zucchini chips, you may like these recipes with zucchini:
- Roasted vegetables
- Zucchini Turkey Meatballs
- Zucchini Noodle Cashew Stir Fry
- Zucchini Brownies
- Zucchini Chicken Meatballs
Easy Oven-Baked Zucchini Chips
Ingredients
- 1 large zucchini
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- Kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 225 °F (107 °C). Line two large baking sheets (I used two 17" baking sheets) with silicon baking mats or parchment paper.
- Slice your zucchini on a mandolin. Mine had 1, 2, or 3 for thickness and I used 2.
- After you slice your zucchini, place the slices on a sheet of paper towels and take another paper towel and sandwich the zucchini slices and press on them. This helps draw out the liquid so it’ll cook a bit faster.
- Line up the zucchini slices on the prepared baking sheet tightly next to each other in a straight line, making sure not to overlap them.
- In a small bowl, pour your olive oil in and take a pastry brush to brush the olive oil on each zucchini slice.
- Sprinkle salt throughout the baking sheet. Do NOT over-season, in fact, it’s better to use less salt initially because the slices will shrink; so if you over-season, it’ll be way too salty! You can always add more later.
- Bake for 2+ hours until they start to brown and aren’t soggy and are crisp.
- Let cool before removing and serving.
- Keep in an airtight container for no more than 3 days.
Notes
Nutrition
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Not sure where you work within DC but I spent 2 years working at the Department of Health and Human Services (200 Independence Ave, SW … right across the street from the botanical gardens) and from spring until fall there is a farmers market from 11-2 every Wednesday. If that isn’t too far you could stop by on your lunch break… there are also vendors selling sandwiches, wraps, etc for lunch. I loved buying fresh, local, veggies there!
Can’t wait to try these! Thanks for the recipe. By the way…love, love, love your website. Beautiful!!!
Great Zucchini recipe! I think it will work well with Weight Watchers
I tried making these today. They turned out ok…..not nearly as nice looking as yours. But I’ll keep trying. My question for you is have you done a serving size/calorie calculation on these? Even a ballpark figure would be good.
Hi Crissie! Sorry, I haven’t done one of those calculations. I’d say servings size like 5 and 70 calories? I really don’t know. That is a total guess.
One entire large zucchini has around 50 calories. Unless you are drowning them in oil there’s no way 5 chips has 70.
Lol, like I said, I really had no idea, haha
I tried making these this afternoon, but even though some of them started getting very brown (quite dark, looked almost burnt) after 45 minutes they were still kind of floppy. Do you have any suggestions?
A number of factors could’ve attributed to this. The only things I can think of were: how thin were your slices? Did you pat them dry enough? If they weren’t pat dry enough, it would take longer for them to crisp up since there’d be so much water content left in the zucchini. I’d suggest either turning your oven temp. down to 200 next time or put aluminum foil over the pan if they start to get brown really quickly.
Hi! This looks great! Just wanted to clarify.. 225 degrees farenheit or celcius? I’m sure you meant farenheit but I want to confirm before trying this out :)
Just read above reply to CLAISOA… You’ve clarified its Farenheit :D Thank you!
Thanks for reading the other comments to get your answer, Rysa! Enjoy!!
just to clarify because I’m really new to cooking
do I paint olive oil on one side or both sides =) ?
Both.
I’m making these right now! Thanks for sharing!
A good friend of mine told me how to get a lot of the water out of zucchinis before you fry or bake them so they will be crispier. After you slice all your zucchini sprinkle both sides of the slices with regular table salt! Let the salt sit on the slices for 30 minutes (1 hour if you have the time) and then pat dry with a paper towel. You’ll be surprised how much water you actually get out of the zucchini!
These are already a huge hit with my family, even though I have not yet perfected the recipe. Any tips for keeping them from over-browning? I have tried lowering the oven temp and still cannot bake them for even an hour without burning. Thanks for any insight you can provide and for the delectable idea!
Try putting tin foil loosely over the baking sheet when they start browning too much.
Are degrees in Celsius or Fahrenheit?!!
Fahrenheit.