The boys and I love making kale chips in the oven because it’s a quick way to whip up one of our favorite easy keto friendly snacks.
We’ve been baking kale chips from scratch for more than a decade, and the entire family is addicted. In fact, my husband eats them as fast as we can make ’em.
Healthy Easy Recipe for BBQ Kale Chips in Oven
There are a couple of magical ingredients in this healthy easy recipe that give it tremendous flavor.
My BBQ Kale Chips start with a piquant spice rub combined with macadamia nuts to provide luscious fat and great texture that’s rounded out with nutritional yeast, which adds a cheesy zing.
Healthy Low Carb Snacks
While we love any and all kale chips, we find that this recipe for low carb Barbecue Kale Chips yields an especially crispy, crunchy, keto snack.
With just one taste, it’s goodbye high carb, processed potato chips, hello healthy kale chips!
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BBQ Kale Chips
Ingredients
- 8 ounces curly kale (1-2 bunches without stems)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons macadamia nuts
- 2 teaspoons Primal Palate Barbecue Rub
Instructions
- Tear kale into 3-inch pieces, discarding stems
- Place kale in a large bowl
- Massage oil into kale
- In a food processor, briefly pulse yeast, macadamia nuts, and seasoning to texture of gravel
- Massage seasoning into kale
- Spread kale onto 2 baking sheets
- Bake at 300°F for 25-30 minutes until crispy
- Cool
- Serve
Equipment
Recipes to Make with 5 Ingredients
This easy homemade snack recipe is made with 5 healthy ingredients, starting with a dark green vegetable, kale, that’s great for activating the methylation pathway.
Curly Kale
When it comes to kale, I use curly kale in my BBQ Kale Chips recipe because the increased surface area makes ’em crisp up quite nicely.
Just recently, I made these kale chips with lacinato kale, and this worked too.
I like varying the types of kale I use in this family friendly recipe to give my gut microbiome a nice variety of foods and fiber sources.
Organic Italian Olive Oil
When it comes to olive oil, truth be told, I’ll use just about anything that’s organic, whether from Italy, Greece, or California.
Olive oil is key to the crunch when making baked kale chips in the oven. Don’t omit this crucial ingredient!
Organic Macadamia Nuts
The organic raw macadamia nuts provide a wonderfully rich mouthfeel to my BBQ Kale Chips, adding a rich, fatty base to carry the spicy, cheesy flavors.
Given that organic macadamia nuts are so pricey, I often switch it up and use conventional for this ingredient.
Is Nutritional Yeast Gluten Free?
I know you must be wondering –nutritional yeast in kale chips? Yes. Nutritional yeast adds a zesty, cheesy flavor to this dairy free recipe and is also full of nutritious B vitamins.
Primal Palate BBQ Rub
The amazing barbecue spiciness in this recipe comes from Primal Palate Barbecue Rub. I love this rub and so do my boys. They use it for grilling everything from poultry to meat and seafood to veggies.
This rub is so magical that one of the boys’ friends compared the flavor of our Barbecue Kale Chips to Doritos!
Feel free to experiment with other flavor combinations and leave a comment to let me know if they work.
How To Prepare Kale
See those little hands above? They belong to my older son –I took that photo when he was 8 years old, and I was teaching him How to Prepare Kale.
I still remember that day like it was a minute ago, even though he is now in his mid-twenties.
How to Massage Kale
After we prepped the kale, washing and spinning it dry, I taught him how to massage the olive oil into it, which is as intuitive as it sounds.
What is Roasted Kale?
Wondering what’s the difference between kale chips and roasted kale?
Kale chips are a form of roasted kale, but kale chips have added seasoning.
Kale Chips Baked in Oven
I bake my kale chips in the oven because it’s quick, healthy, and easy. I’ve been to restaurants that deep fry their kale chips.
I’m not a fan of this for two reasons. First, deep fried foods can be a little taxing on the liver; second, if you’re frying at home, the mess is unparalleled.
All in all, kale chips that are baked, not fried, are far easier to make and healthier too!
Salt and Vinegar Kale Chips Baked
Looking for more kale chips baked in the oven? Try my Salt and Vinegar Kale Chips recipe.
If you love salt and vinegar potato chips but follow the SCD (also known as the Specific Carbohydrate Diet), Salt and Vinegar Kale Chips are for you.
Healthier Foods to Eat: Kale
Kale is high in fiber and antioxidants, as well as the following nutrients:
- Calcium
- Vitamin A
- B Complex
- Vitamin C
- Potassium
Did you know that ounce for ounce kale is higher in calcium than milk? This leafy green vegetable has around 250mg of calcium per 100g, while milk has around 110mg per 100g1 .
Keto Snacks
Looking for more healthy, nutrient dense snacks? Try my:
- Recipe for the Best Deviled Eggs
- Keto Crackers with Salt and Pepper
- Keto Tortilla Chips with Almond Flour
Family Friendly Recipe
This family friendly recipe is such a hit in our house that one of my younger son’s friends used to request it every time he came home with my son from tennis practice.
I hope you and yours enjoy it as much as we do!
This post is an oldie but goodie from the archives. I first shared my BBQ Kale Chips in Oven recipe in 2016.
Marysa says
I have never used seasoning on kale chips. I will definitely have to try your recipe!
Elana says
I hope you love it as much as we do, Marysa!
Christina says
The addition of the macadamia nuts make this recipe super interesting to me. I love kale chips!! In fact, I just love anything with kale in.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Elana says
You’re welcome Christine!
Nora says
Why are kale chips with nutritional yeast found on the page for the candida diet? Yeast is candida…no?
Elana says
Nora, thanks for your comment! Nutritional yeast is not associated with the candida albicans strain related to yeast infections, and is in fact a potent source of the nutrients that candida robs from the body :-)
Janis says
Oh my, this is SO good! I can’t have macadamia nuts so I decided to sub cashews. But, I was out of cashews so I used raw cashew butter, nutritional yeast and sea salt (unfortunately I can’t have the spices in the rub). This is the first time my kale chips tasted this good. Thanks so much, Elana!
Elana says
Janis, thanks! I’m so happy to hear that these kale chips were SO good :-)