Wednesday, September 23, 2015

How to Make Zucchini Chips

These are my zucchini plants - I planted four this year. I am now starting to get zucchinis that I've been patiently waiting for.


One of the things I've decided to make is zucchini chips. I've never tried them before and have several recipes in my Pinterest. I decided to use this beauty - over 15" long.


The trick to making chips of any kind is the size and cutting it. I used my Benriner - worked great. 


This is the thickness I was going for - about 1/8".


I managed to get three trays cut.


To start, I tried this recipe, but not exactly - I was just going to follow her baking time and temperature, but it didn't work out. I didn't bread my zucchini - I just put some granulated garlic and onion in a small bowl with salt and pepper and EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). I brushed all the zucchini on both sides and put it in that really hot oven. Within eight minutes, some of the chips were charring and my oven was smoking - not good. I guess my zucchini was too naked (no coating).


I took off what was charred and lowered the temp to about 225 and put the trays back in the oven for another hours. It came out a darker color and the center was really thin - these were delicate and would break easy. Flavor is really good, almost nutty.
These were about gone after the third day they were baked - they are that good.


I tried again yesterday. This time I sliced it about 1/4" thick - enough for two trays. I preheated my oven to 225. I mixed 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, 1 teaspoon of onion and garlic granules mixed together, and a few grinds of black pepper. I coated all that in some EVOO and brushed it on each zucchini. I ended up running out of EVOO, so I just dunked my brush in the mix and brushed on what was on the brush.
I put the pans in the not so hot oven and baked it for a total of two and a half hours. I kept checking after the first hour and baked it at 30 minute intervals - two and a half hours did the trick, longer than I thought, but that's what it needed.


Finished chip. Still on the dark side, but it's crisp and really good.



This is how thick/thin they came out.



I had some of the coating left over in the bowl, but that didn't go to waste - I put it in some soup I made for dinner.


So, if you have a huge zucchini, and you know you're going to be home most of the day, plan to make some zucchini chips - they are seriously good. These are great crushed up and used as a topping for popcorn - crushed kale chips are yummy too.

Thanks for reading!


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