Spicy Smoky Kale Chips
Love kale chips? Try our spicy kale chips recipe for an extra kick of heat to our traditional baked kale chips. These are addicting! 
Spicy Kale Chips Recipe
Baked Kale Chips are always one of our forgotten favorites. When we plow through a big bowl of kale chips, we’re always reminding ourselves to make them again soon. But for some reason, this recipe gets buried under our pile of “must make again” list and regrettably, forgotten. That is, until someone makes them for us and our brains get re-freshed with these healthier “green” chips. The aroma of baked kale is certainly unique and rather pungent. Kale greens are a part of the cruciferous family and although they release a rather sulfer-like aroma, the smell is easily forgotten when you bite in to their feathery light chips.
Add chili flakes
To make these this baked kale a little more exciting, we added some chili flakes for a fun and spicy-kick. After they were baked, you can also add a touch of paprika or cayenne pepper on top for the smoky bonus flavor. Either way, these spicy smoky kale chips are fabulously addicting. They’re so light, crunchy and absorb the flavors of a good sea salt perfectly.
If you’re ever got a hankering for potato chips, try making a big batch of our Spicy Kale Chips Recipe. Kale is obviously lighter and less caloric than fried potatoes, and they’re also greener, which means many more vitamins to add to your daily intake. You’ll be feeling less guilty if you ate a bag of kale chips than heavy potato chips.
start with small amount of olive oil to coat, add chili flakes
better than potato chips! (well, almost)
Spicy Smoky Kale Chips Recipe
Ingredients
- about one bunch of kale , rinsed and dried
- 2 Tablespoons Olive oil , or more if needed
- Salt , to taste
- about 2 teaspoons of chili flakes (or to taste)
- sprinkling of paprika or cheyenne pepper power (optional for extra spice)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Remove the kale leaves from their tough end and inner stems. Cut longer leaves in half or preferred bite size pieces.
- Place kale pieces in large bowl. Start by tossing in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. The kale leaves only need to be lightly coated with oil. Too much will make the chips too limp and greasy. Only add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil at a time. Then sprinkle in sea salt and chili flakes.Put the kale pieces in a single layer in a baking sheet lined. You can use parchment paper if you like for easier cleaning.
- Bake for 12-20 minutes or until crisp. Gently flip the chips after baking for the first 12-15 minutes. About 5 minutes before they are finished, you can gently turn them again in the sheet pan for more even baking. They will burn easy, be aware of how they are baking and check on them often. For more smoky or spicy flavor, lightly dust the kale chips with paprika or cheyenne pepper power.
Nutrition Information per Serving
This recipe was originally published in 2011 and re-publihsed in 2021 with updated recipe notes.
I just recently started eating Kale. I love the Tuscan Kale especially. I haven’t tried Kale chips yet, but these sound really tasty. I will definitely have to try this recipe out soon!
Wow, this is so unusual 🙂 I really really want to try this now, and you know what’s the best part? It’s baked! No deep frying means no chance of setting off the fire alarm in my student accomodation! 😀
Oh my gosh, a friend of mine just brought some smoked paprika back from Spain for me… Now I’m super excited to use it in a recipe like this!
This looks like the key to getting my husband to try Kale! Thanks for the recipe!
Your photography is breathtaking – the light is perfect and the shots so crisp. I love kale, so I will certainly be giving this a whirl in my kitchen…
You had me at kale. Anything with kale has my vote. Anything that you two are obsessed with definitely gets my attention, too. 🙂 I can’t wait to make this. xoxox
These would disappear in an instant around here.
Like using chile flakes for the extra kick.
LL
Kale chips are a great, healthy and flavor snack. I love the idea of using some cayenne pepper in here. Also, smoked paprika works nicely. But that’s the fantastic thing about this recipe… you can make it your own.
Beautiful photography. Wow. I love kale chips. I posted one last summer made with chinese five spice powder. Now I’ll try your version!
I love kale chips! Usually I toss the leaves with the tiniest bit of grated Parmesan, and when they are out of the oven, I crush them finely and then sprinkle over some popcorn. Very addicting. Another thing I do is that I toss the kale “dust” with some toasted sesame seeds, some ground peanuts and sea salt and eat it with rice as sort of a furikake.
That sounds delicious! i should start eating these instead of potato chips! Gorgeous photos too 🙂
Can you make these with Swiss Chard too and make Chard Chips? Would it be the same recipe?
We haven’t tried yet. Radish leaves make a fun chip. If you make the Swiss Chard chips let us know how it turns out.
Ooh ooh… we have an answer! We grow lots of chard. Actually… they kinda grow themselves these days. When we got a craving for kale chips last year but didn’t have kale, we pulled some chard leaves ou of the garden, tossed them with duck fat (happened to be roasting a duck on the same day), salt and pepper, and roasted them until they looked like the kale chips above.
So yea, it works with Swiss Chard. 🙂
[K]
P.S. Beautiful photos, T&D!
Awesome! Thanks for the answer, Kim!
Lovely recipe and gorgeous photos
So yummy! I really need to do a dehydrator day!
Love kale chips and actually just posted about them too! I’ve taken to tossing the kale in a homemade caesar dressing before popping them in the oven. Gives them a great salty, cheesy, lemony flavor 🙂
Going to have to try these on the weekend as have a beautiful bag of kale & assorted greens…thinking smoked paprika. Stunning photos as always…so wish I was closer & could come to a workshop! If you are ever in NZ…. 🙂
Thanks Mairi. Smoked paprika sounds fantastic. BTW… We’d love to go to NZ. Top of our list of international travel desires.