Making your own crispy crunchy pickle chips is easy with this Dehydrated Pickles recipe! All you need are pickles and an air fryer, oven, or dehydrator. No matter what equipment you have, you can make these pickle chips for a light, low-calorie snack.
More easy dehydrator recipes: Dehydrated Jalapeños (Jalapeño Powder)
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More homemade pickle snacks to make: Air Fryer Fried Pickles
Should I dehydrate pickles or buy pickle chips?
As much as I love these homemade pickle chips, I am going to be honest with you: I don't think it's worth the work to always make them at home when so many options to get freeze-dried pickle chips on Etsy.
Don't get me wrong, these homemade pickle chips are delicious. And they are easy to make. And I love that I can control exactly what ingredients are in them by choosing the pickles I like. But they do take several hours of dehydrating (and that's $$ in electric costs) and they do not stay crisp for very long. They need to be enjoyed within a day or two of making them.
For that reason, I usually get freeze-dried pickle chips and dehydrated pickle powder. The freeze-dried pickles have a similar satisfying crunchy pickly flavor and they satisfy the craving for pickle snacks without having to run my air fryer for 4+ hours.
But with all that said, if you want to make your own crispy pickle chips, it is VERY easy and they make a fun snack!
Related recipe: Dehydrated Apricots
Easy dried pickles
Pickle chips can be made in a food dehydrator, but they can also be made without any special equipment: if your oven or air fryer can be set to about 130-140F, then you can dehydrate pickles.
This is the EASIEST snack / seasoning you can make. All you need is pickles. No other ingredients.
More easy air fryer snacks: Air Fryer Pita Chips
How to use dehydrated pickles
- Snack on them like chips. Low-calorie, salty, satisfying chips!
- Add them to salads.
- Make pickle powder by blending them in a high-speed blender. This powder can be used as a seasoning on popcorn, to season nuts, to stir into sauces, to toss with roasted potatoes, and more!
More easy air fryer snacks: Air Fryer Carrot Chips
What kind of pickles to use for pickle chips
Use pickles that do not have any sugar added to them, such as dill or half-sour. Bread and butter pickles have sugar added and they turn out gummy when dehydrated.
The other important thing is to slice your pickles really thinly and evenly so that they dehydrate at the same time. You can buy thinly sliced chips instead of whole pickles if you want to skip the slicing step, otherwise I recommend using a mandoline slicer.
Equipment
- Mandoline slicer (this is to get the pickles thin and evenly sliced)
- Cut-resistant gloves (these are a MUST when using a mandoline slicer so you don't cut your hand)
- Paper towels
- Food dehydrator OR air fryer with a dehydrator setting (such as the Instant Pot Vortex) OR a regular oven
- Optional: blender (only needed if you want to make pickle powder)
Instructions
Slice your pickles really thin on the mandoline slicer. Be sure to use cut-resistant gloves!
Lay the pickles out on a large plate or cutting board and pat REALLY dry with a paper towel. The more water you remove, the quicker your pickles will dehydrate.
Place the pickles in your dehydrator (or air fryer basket or baking sheet) and dehydrate at 130 - 140F for 4-6 hours, or until the sliced pickles are completely crunchy and not bendy.
The pickles shrink a lot as they dry out, so I eventually combined them all onto one tray.
If you want, blend the crispy pickle chips in a high-powered blender until you get a fine powder. Note: if your pickle chips are not totally crispy but are a little bendy, do NOT blend them into powder, you'll end up with a gunky mix.
Related recipe: Air Fryer Parmesan Zucchini Chips
Dehydrating tips
→ If you want to make pickle powder, be sure to dehydrate to the point where the chips are crisp and snap easily instead of bending. They're delicious and chewy when slightly bendy, but they will not turn into a powder at that point.
→ Do not go higher than 140-150F when dehydrating, because then the pickles will start to fry instead of simply drying out.
→ The exact time you need to dehydrate your pickles will depend on how thinly they're sliced, how much water you removed with paper towels, how efficient your dehydrator/oven/air fryer is, and how humid it is that day.
→ If it is humid around you, this recipe simply might not get to be super crispy. The chips will dehydrate to get crispy but will pick up moisture as they cool down. Sorry.
Storing dehydrated pickles
The only downside to dried pickles is that they get gummy quickly if you live in a somewhat humid place. You have to keep them in a tightly sealed container (use as small container as possible so there's less air in there) and enjoy them within a day or two.
Same goes for the pickle powder. If you make pickle powder, try to use it all right away otherwise it will pick up moisture and turn into a solid gunky mess.
The good part is that if they do pick up moisture, you can pop them back into the dehydrator for an hour to get them nice and crisp again.
Dehydrated Pickle Chips
Special Equipment
- Food Dehydrator OR air fryer OR oven (if using oven, use non-stick baking sheets or line with parchment paper)
- Paper towels
- Cut-resistant gloves (these are a MUST when using the mandoline)
- Blender (optional, for making pickle powder)
Ingredients
- 4 pickles without sugar (such as dill or half-sour. Do not use bread and butter pickles. You can increase the umber of pickles if you have space to dehydrate all the slices)
- optional: dried dill powder
Instructions
- Slice your pickles as thinly as you can. Make sure the slices are all the same width.
- Lay the pickle slices out and pat them dry with a paper towel. Repeat with another piece of dry paper towel to get as much moisture out as you can.
- Arrange the pickle slices in a single layer in your dehydrator, air fryer, or baking sheet. Dehydrate at 130-140F for 4-5 hours, or until the pickles are crispy and snap instead of bend.
- Enjoy immediately or use a blender to make pickle powder. You can sprinkle some dried dill on the pickles if you like.
Notes
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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