How to Make Kale Chips in a Food Dehydrator

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In this article, I show you how to make kale chips in a food dehydrator. Dehydrating kale chips is so much easier than making them in the oven. Since they are made “chippy” at a much lower temperature, they don’t burn, and yet turn out crispy and delicious. I can’t wait for you to see how easy it is to make kale chips in a food dehydrator, and how great they turn out!

How to Make Kale Chips in a Food Dehydrator

I started off with Prizm kale that I grew in my AeroGarden Harvest 360. I had about 4 “pods” of kale, which I estimate to be equivalent to a large bunch or bunch and a half of kale that you’d buy at the grocery store.

Pro tip: If you happen to be an AeroGarden lover like I am, I recommend Prizm kale. It’s a small variety that worked perfectly in my Harvest. It is small enough that it may even work in an AeroGarden Sprout, but I haven’t tested it in that.

Prepare the Kale for Dehydrating

So now let’s talk about how to prepare the kale for dehydrating.

First, I harvested the kale by cutting it with scissors, one bunch at a time. Obviously, you can skip this step if you buy your kale at the grocery store.

Wash and Pat Dry the Kale

If you purchased your kale at the grocery store, or if you grew it outdoors, you’ll want to wash it. Now it’s important to use a salad spinner or thoroughly pat it dry after washing, because you don’t want any moisture on the kale before making it into kale chips.

Now I didn’t wash mine because I had grown it indoors hydroponically  and didn’t use any pesticides. The main reason I decided not to wash it is that it can be a bit hard to dry it completely, and since it wasn’t dirty I thought it would be easiest to skip this step, without any negative consequences.

Cut Off the Stems

The next step is to cut off the stems, including any thick parts that were part of the leaves. Since I used a small variety of kale, the stems weren’t as thick as with kale you’d buy in the grocery store, so I didn’t have to cut off too much.

Here’s what I cut off.

Now the good news is, there are actually a lot of nutrients in the kale stems. I make green smoothies every day, and use these scraps for my smoothies the next morning. You can also put them into the compost, stick them in the freezer along with other vegetable scraps to make broth, or simply toss them.

Cut the Kale into Bite-Sized Pieces

Next, cut kale into bite-sized pieces. You don’t need to be super precise here, but I’d recommend pieces that are 1.5″ to 2″ in size. The kale will shrink in the dehydrator, so you don’t want to cut them so small that they are mere crumbles when dehydrated.

Add Oil and Seasoning to the Kale

What I’m going to share with you here isn’t a precise recipe. You can see that I ended up with a nice-sized bowl of kale, from the four small bunches of kale that I grew in my AeroGarden. Keep in mind that these were very small bunches of kale, and probably equivalent to one to one and a half large bunches of kale from the grocery store.

To the kale, I added in a capful of olive oil, which was about a half a tablespoon.

I also added 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

If you’re on a salt-restrictive diet, you can use less salt, or you can use salt free seasonings such as Mrs. Dash. If desired, you can add other spices such as cayenne pepper, garlic powder, etc. I’ve had others recommend nutritional yeast to add a cheesy flavor, but I haven’t tried that myself.

Distribute the Oil and Seasonings Throughout the Kale

The best way to distribute the olive oil and salt is to just use your hands – just be sure to wash them thoroughly before using them!

Toss the kale with your hands until it’s all very saturated with the olive oil and salt mixture. You want each piece of the kale to be coated with olive oil, and yet not be dripping with oil. But the oil and salt is important because it’s what differentiates kale chips from plain old dehydrated kale.

Recommended: How to Dehydrate Kale and Make Kale Powder

Turn the Kale into Kale Chips in the Dehydrator

Now is the time when the real magic happens! It’s time to transform the kale that has been cut up and coated with oil and seasonings into wonderful kale chips.

Now is the time to pull out your dehydrator!

Note: If you do not have a dehydrator, you can make kale chips in the oven, but you have to watch them very carefully to avoid burning them.

I actually have two dehydrators, a Cosori Premium Stainless Steel Dehydrator and a Nesco stackable dehydrator. I love them both, but I generally like to use my Nesco when dehydrating kale or spinach because I put it on pretty thick, and there’s not as much space between dehydrator trays in the Cosori. But in this case, I decided to use my Cosori because  I wasn’t overlapping any of the kale.

The bottom line is, whatever dehydrator you have will work!

My Cosori has metal trays, and the metal can get hot. To keep from scorching the kale while making kale chips, I decided to use mesh screens on the trays. The mesh screens are also helpful in that they keep the kale from falling through the trays. Remember, the kale will shrink as it dehydrates.

Don’t Overlap the Kale on the Dehydrator Trays

When you put the kale on the dehydrator trays, be sure not to overlap any of the kale.

You can have kale touching, but if you overlap any of the kale, it may not turn nice and crispy. Remember, we’re making kale chips, and you don’t want to do anything that will minimize that satisfying crunch! In addition to avoiding overlapping the kale, ideally leave some space in between the pieces of kale.

I mentioned earlier that I have three mesh liners for my Cosori. I used those first, but in order to space out the kale, I needed to use a fourth tray. I used a fruit leather tray on the fourth tray.

Since that tray is solid, I knew that it would possibly slow down the process a bit compared to the trays that allow good airflow. But I wasn’t too worried about this, because after all, when I make kale chips in the oven, they are on a solid tray.

Here is what the dehydrator full of kale looks like.

As you can see in this picture, some of the kale is close to touching the tray right above it.

This is pretty typical when making kale chips in a dehydrator that is a cabinet style such as the Cosori or Excalibur. This is fine, but if you find there isn’t enough room for the kale on each tray, you can leave out some of the empty trays. For instance, if you have six dehydrator trays, and just three trays full of kale, only use three trays in your dehydrator, and leave extra space between each of the trays. In a stackable dehydrator such as the Nesco, you don’t need to worry about this.

Pro tip: My Nesco fits more kale and other leafy vegetables. Read my article, Nesco Dehydrator Review for my thoughts on the Nesco.

Dehydrate Kale Chips for 145 Degrees Fahrenheit for the First Hour

Set the temperature on your dehydrator to 145 degrees for one hour. You’ll want to check your kale chips after that first hour to see if they are ready.

I was surprised that mine were pretty much done after just one hour.

Reduce the Dehydrator Temperature to 115 Degrees Fahrenheit

If your kale chips aren’t quite ready after the first hour, reduce the temperature in your dehydrator to 115 degrees Fahrenheit, and continue dehydrating. It could take an additional three to four hours for the kale chips to be nice and crispy.

Since my kale chips were quite crispy after the first hour at 145 degrees Fahrenheit, I only dehydrated them for an additional 24 minutes at 115 degrees.

There are a lot of variables that impact how much time it will take for your kale to turn into kale chips. For instance, the size of your kale pieces, the amount of moisture in the kale, and even things like humidity in your home can impact the time it takes to make kale chips in your food dehydrator. Because of this, I recommend checking the kale once an hour.

Making Kale Chips in a Food Dehydrator – The Results

In this image, you can see how much the kale chips reduced in size.

Here’s a of the kale chips on a dinner plate give you an idea of the total yield after the kale was made into kale chips.

I divided the kale chips into three portions and we had them with our lunch.

If you want to make kale chips, I definitely recommend using a food dehydrator instead of making them in the oven. These are the best kale chips I’ve ever made, and my family really loved them.

In fact, it’s never been easier for me to make kale chips. They turned out better than the ones I’ve done in the oven and were easier because I didn’t have to watch them closely. I also didn’t accidentally burn any of the edges of the kale, which unfortunately happened to me when I made kale chips in the oven – even though I paid close attention to them.

Since these were so easy, and were so delicious, I’ll probably grow kale just to make kale chips!