Swiss Chard Chips

I love my Easy Spring Green Swiss Chard Gratin and think it’s a great way to enjoy Swiss chard and other hearty greens, but sometimes I want something fast and crispy and…bacony. And that’s where this super quick and super simple recipe for Swiss chard chips comes in. Honestly, these are almost too good, and, yes, you need to try them now!

I’ve made various vegetables into chips over the years, including kale and beets and parsnips, and while I was looking at my pile of Swiss chard I got from the farm stand, I thought ‘how about chips?’ I wanted something easy and quick and a little different. Everyone sautes chard or throws it into soup, but fewer people toss it with oil and bake it until crispy. My husband, of course, noted that Swiss chard chips could really use some bacon. Usually I tell him no bacon, we’re trying to be healthy, but sometimes you need a little bacon. 🙂 And I have to admit that hearty greens + bacon is a pretty amazing pairing.

This recipe takes almost no time to make and then almost no time to eat up. (It’s so yummy!) In the time it took my oven to heat up, I had washed and stemmed the chard, while the bacon did its thing in my skillet. As soon as the oven beeped, I was tossing the chard with the bacon fat and laying it out on the baking tray. The chard will overlap a bit at first! But it’ll shrink up in the first couple of minutes when you can separate them out a bit more. And then, before you know it, you’ll have a bowl of crispy, yummy, bacony chard chips!

– Happy Eating, Annemarie

Swiss Chard Chips

 

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Prep/Hold time

7 mins

Cook time

8 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

Swiss chard leaves are tossed in bacon fat and baked to crispness to make addictively yummy chard chips.

Author: Just a Little Bit of Bacon

Recipe type: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 slices thick cut bacon
• 1 bunch Swiss chard, washed and dried well
• ¼ tsp kosher salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. In a medium skillet, cook the bacon over medium low heat until the bacon is crispy and much of the fat is rendered out. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate.
3. While the bacon is cooking, stem the chard. You stem the chard by folding each chard leaf along the stem and then cutting the leafs off the stem, leaving two leaf halves. Put the leaf halves in a large bowl. Chop the top half of the stems into 1 inch pieces and put the stems in the bowl too.
4. Pour the bacon fat into the bowl with the chard and sprinkle in the salt. Toss the chard with the bacon fat and salt and then spread it out on a baking sheet.
5. Bake the chard for 3 minutes, then stir the chard, separating the leaves some more so they can get crispy. Bake for 2 minutes longer and then check the chard. When the chard is done it will be at most just a little bit soft, but preferably crisp when you take it out of the oven. If it isn't done yet, continue baking, checking every minute. If any pieces are getting over crisp, take them out and let the rest continue to bake. They should all be done by 7-8 minutes.
6. When they are done, transfer them to a bowl and toss them with the crumbled bacon.

Notes

Make sure your chard is as dry as you can get it. Water is the enemy of crispy and will steam the chard instead of letting it turn into chips.

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