Crispy Baked Zucchini Chips Recipe

Name: Crispy Baked Zucchini Chips
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 1 medium zucchini (washed and dried); 1 tablespoon olive oil; ½ teaspoon kosher salt; ½ teaspoon black pepper; ¼ teaspoon onion powder; ½ teaspoon paprika

Learn how to make crispy, crunchy baked Zucchini Chips in the oven. They're a perfectly seasoned light alternative to potato chips!

4.6 from 105 votes

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 50

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Learn how to make crispy, crunchy baked Zucchini Chips in the oven! They’re tossed in salt, pepper, onion powder, and paprika for a perfectly seasoned healthy snack alternative to potato chips.

This crispy, oven baked Zucchini Chips recipe actually started out with one of those posts that get passed around on Facebook. You know the ones. Recipes that everybody shares over and over, you have no idea where they came from, they look really good, but you just don’t know whether they’ll truly work. Yeah, those recipes.

After seeing the Zucchini Chip recipe for what felt like the hundredth time, I just had to give it a try.

The first batch burned to a crisp. The second batch was soggy. And, well, the third oven batch… let’s not even go there. But, I knew it had the potential to work, so I kept working with it until I got it right!

These chips are so light and crispy, you just might mistake them for potato chips. The best thing about them? They’ll help you use up some of that flood of garden zucchini! Plus they go really well with drinks.

I do hope you enjoy this one. It’s an easy recipe but does require some patience and attention during the first phase of cooking. Let me know what you think.

💗 Why We Love This Recipe

This crispy zucchini chip recipe is a low-carb healthy alternative to potato chips.
Quick, under an hour of bake time, and easy to make compared to most vegetable chips.
Great way to use up too much zucchini.

🥘 Ingredient Notes

Ingredients needed for making crispy zucchini chips in the oven.

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A few simple ingredients, readily available year-round are all that are needed to make delicious oven-baked zucchini chips.

Fresh Zucchini – This is a rare occasion when I’d recommend larger, more mature zucchini for a recipe. Two reasons – (1) younger zucchini tend to have more moisture content and will take longer to bake, and (2) older zucchini are larger – the chips shrink a lot while baking so larger zucchini give you larger chips when finished.
Olive Oil – Coats the zucchini slices so that the spices stick and also promotes crisping while baking.
Kosher Salt – Milder and more flavorful than table salt. The larger flakes stick to the surface of the zucchini and add to the crispy texture. I use Morton brand kosher salt. You can also use Maldon salt.
Black Pepper – Where salt goes, there goes pepper. Seriously, the sharp flavor of pepper is lovely in the finished chips.
Onion Powder – Gives a lovely flavor to these crispy chips.
Paprika – Adds both color and flavor.

You’ll find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe at the bottom of this post.

🔪 How to Make Zucchini Chips

Do the Prep Work

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

A baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Thinly sliced zucchini on a cutting board.

Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or line with a Silpat (reusable baking mat).

Slice the Zucchini into Rounds

Thinly slice the zucchini with a knife or mandolin.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the oil, salt, pepper, onion powder, and paprika. Stir to combine.

👉 PRO TIP: I prefer a mandoline slicer to get really thin slices. I use an OXO mandoline with three thickness settings (1, 2, and 3). For these chips, I use setting #3 for thinner slices.

If you do use a mandoline, be sure to use the finger guard. Those things are basically razor blades with a handle, you know, so take precautions! If you prefer to slice the zucchini with a knife, use a very sharp thin-bladed knife and make uniform cuts of approximately 1/8 inch.

Toss with Oil and Spices

Tossing zucchini chips with oil and spices.

Add the sliced zucchini to the bowl and toss so that each slice is coated with the seasoned oil. Actually, you have to do a little more than just toss the slices. You do have to work at it to get each slice coated. They just naturally want to stick together so you have to coax them a bit, separating the slices and rubbing them with the oil. Just be gentle and don’t break the slices into pieces.

Place the Slices on Baking Sheets

Place the zucchini rounds in a single layer on each prepared rimmed baking sheet. You don’t have to space them very far apart since they’re going to shrink up while they cook.

Bake the Zucchini Rounds

Bake for 8-15 minutes watching very closely. Don’t walk away during this time. When the zucchini starts to show some brown spots, immediately remove them from the oven and set them aside.

👉 PRO TIP: This is the tricky part of the recipe. The baking time is going to vary wildly depending on how thickly you sliced your zucchini, how much moisture is in the zucchini, how humid the day is, and the alignment of the planets around the sun 😉.

But seriously, it can take anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes, but be aware that once they start to brown, they will go from beautifully golden to BURNED in about 30 seconds. Watch them like a hawk.

Reduce the oven temperature to between 180 and 200 degrees (not all ovens go down to 180). When the oven has reached the lower temperature setting, return the zucchini to the oven and cook for an additional 20-60 minutes or until the slices are crispy. Again, the cooking time will vary but they’re not likely to burn during this part of the cooking.

Keep checking every 10 minutes or so and when the thickest slices are crispy, they’re done! Remember that oven times and temperatures vary and yours may take more or less time to cook. Remove from the oven and cool.

🍽 Serving Suggestions

What goes better with chips than a sandwich? Not much! This salty snack would be a great side dish with any one of my many sandwich recipes like the Grilled Chicken, Apple, and Gouda Sandwich, Steak Sandwich with Grilled Onions, the Mediterranean Pressed Sandwich, or a Ham, Apple, and Brie Panini, just to name a few! They’re also perfect just by themselves for a light afternoon snack.
I’m often asked whether these chips can be served with dips or a favorite dipping sauce (Ranch dressing, for instance). Be aware that these are very delicate and even lighter than regular potato chips so they don’t hold up well for dipping.

Baked zucchini chips stacked in a white bowl.

🔀 Recipe Variations and Suggestions

Substitute the olive oil with avocado oil.
Add a couple of tablespoons of finely grated parmesan cheese with the spices.
Use garlic powder instead of onion powder.
Add a half teaspoon of cayenne pepper for a spicy chip!
Use your favorite spice blends to create a recipe all your own.

🍚 Storage

Since the chips don’t have any preservatives like commercially produced chips, they are best eaten right away. They will keep for a very short time, 24 hours at the most, in a tightly sealed airtight container at room temperature. I suggest a rigid container rather than a zip lock bag to prevent the chips from being crushed.

❓ Questions About Easy Zucchini Chips

Why do the chips shrink so much?

As with any vegetable chip, these do shrink quite a lot. Remember that zucchini are over 90% water so any time you dry them out and evaporate the water you’ll lose a significant amount of volume.

Can you bread zucchini chips to make them crispier?

Breading the chips won’t necessarily make them crispier. In fact, since breading requires dipping into something like beaten egg white to get the bread crumbs to adhere, it may actually have the opposite effect.

Why are my zucchini chips soggy instead of crispy?

As I mentioned above, this recipe can be finicky. A lot depends on the size, thickness, and moisture contained in the zucchini. Your chips should be crispy all the way through and if they aren’t you most likely didn’t cook them quite long enough. Make sure you test one before pulling out the whole batch. If they have any chewiness left, then put them back in the oven for about 10 more minutes before testing again.

Can I make these in a dehydrator or air fryer?

This recipe has not been tested using either an air fryer or a dehydrator so I can’t advise on how to adapt for that.

🧾 More Recipes You’ll Like

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HAVE YOU TRIED THIS RECIPE?

I’d LOVE to know what you thought!
Leave a rating below in the comments and let me know how you liked it!

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📖 Recipe