Any tips for cooking kale chips in the oven?

[LindaLee]

I made these tonight because I thought they would be a nice "grab and go" treat for me and my husband. I took one bite and I thought they were spicy or bitter or something. My husband really liked them.

I wonder if the problem is the form of the kale and thus perhaps the amount. I couldn't find a head of kale so they brought me a bag of chopped. I filled my strainer to the brim so I could rinse it, but this turned out to make a very, very small amount of chips. Perhaps it was too much seasoning for this amount of kale?

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. As you probably can tell, I'm not an experienced or intuitive cook and I'm still feeling my way through all this.

Thanks!

Linda

[Tom Denham]

The taste of kale shifts through the seasons. I like it best during the winter and less as the weather gets hot, but even hot weather kale should make good chips. And there are lots of varieties of kale and they have subtle differences too.

Kale wilts down a lot, so it takes a lot to make a satisfying amount when you cook it.

If your husband liked your kale chips, it could be that you seasoned it well for him, but too much for you. You might try putting more spice on half the tray and less on the other half and see if you can get some you like.

I've made kale chips so spicy that it hurt to eat them (but I ate them all anyway because they were so good).

[Adagio]

I don't eat the spine, only the leaves, so I buy kale whole and take out the spine. The spine is the most bitter part.

[Colleen Roy]

I have a bag of kale in the fridge waiting to become my first ever batch of kale chips. The nice farmer at the farmer's market also suggested taking out the spine and just using the leaves.

[laurabotts]

I used just the leaves when I made kale chips, and they weren't bitter. However, I used waaaaaay too much salt! >.<