These Air Fryer Zucchini Chips are a healthy side dish or snack, made even more delicious with a sour cream scallion dip on the side.
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Why Make This Recipe
- Healthy side dish: These zucchini chips have no breading, no cheese, and no egg. Just zucchini, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Plus you can add less oil if you’d like. The yogurt in the sour cream dip keeps that healthy too!
- So easy to make: One of the things I love about this air fryer recipe is that you don’t need to flip the chips midway through. The air fryer cooks from both sides, so the tops and bottoms brown nicely without you having to flip.
- Great use for zucchini: I have some go-to zucchini recipes, like this Chicken Curry with Zucchini and this Zucchini Stir-Fry with Tofu, but these chips are perfect in summer when zucchini explodes!
🥗 Ingredients
- Zucchini: You can use any size zucchinis for this recipe, as long as you slice them into coins of the same thickness. This recipe will work with yellow squash as well.
- Olive Oil: No need for a fancy extra-virgin olive oil for this dish. And, you can use any high-heat oil, such as sunflower oil or avocado oil. And feel free to use less oil than the recipe suggests if you want to make this dish lower calorie.
- Sour Cream: If you don’t have sour cream, try substituting crème fraîche, or just double up on the Greek yogurt.
- Greek Yogurt: You can use anything from full-fat to 0% fat depending on what you like. If you don’t have Greek yogurt, which is thicker than regular yogurt, you can put regular yogurt into a strainer over a bowl and let it drain for several hours before using.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Slice 4 medium zucchini into ¼-inch thick circles.
Place in a large bowl, and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Place half of the zucchini circles into the air fryer basket in a single layer.
Fry for 20 minutes (or until lightly browned), then remove and transfer to serving plate. Put the remaining zucchini circles into the air fryer basket and fry for another 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the yogurt dip. Thinly slice scallions until you have about ¼ cup total. Mince garlic clove.
In a small bowl, combine ¼ cup sour cream, ¼ cup Greek yogurt, chopped scallions, and minced garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
When second batch of zucchini chips are done, add to the serving plate and serve with dipping sauce.
🧐 Recipe FAQs
An air fryer circulates hot air around the fryer basket—similar to a convection oven. It allows you to crisp up your ingredients without using much oil, unlike shallow frying or deep frying.
An air fryer is fantastic for heating chicken nuggets, French fries, and pizza, but I also love it for vegetables like these zucchini chips or sliced eggplant. You can even use it for Air Fryer Eggplant Parmesan!
Because of its small size, it heats up quickly, saving you time when compared with a regular oven. Make sure to try my Air Fryer Chickpeas too—so delicious and easy!
Zucchini chips are really best made the same day you want to eat them. That said, you can store them in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 2-3 days and then reheat them in the air fryer to crisp them up again.
The dip can be made 2 days in advance and refrigerated until you’re ready to eat. It will last a total of up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
The trickiest part of this recipe is balancing the thickness of the zucchini circles with the time and temperature on the air fryer. My recipe calls for ¼-inch thick zucchini coins, which brown in the air fryer but stay tender.
If you would like crispy zucchini coins, you will need to cut the coins very thinly (a mandoline helps here). Then, you’ll want to take down the temperature on the air fryer and watch closely—thinner zucchini chips will burn easily.
Note: no need to peel the zucchini for chips of any kind!
If you like a thicker chip but want them crispier, you can also add one more step to the recipe above. After you slice the zucchini, salt the coins and drain them in a colander for 15 minutes.
Pat them dry before tossing with olive oil and pepper (you won’t need any more salt), and continue with the recipe. They may brown faster than zucchini that hasn’t been salted, so check them after 10 or 15 minutes.
If you are new to air frying, know that there are many different types of air fryers. Many of them vary in how hot they get, and how quickly. Play with your settings and watch carefully. You may find you need to reduce the temperature in a recipe or reduce the cook time.
Now that you’ve got this recipe down, you can change it up with different flavors. Try tossing the zucchini coins with spices like smoked paprika, Italian seasoning, or piment d’espelette.
You can also add spices to the sour cream dip, or switch it out with marinara sauce or this Healthy Ranch Dressing. Or try this Sour Cream Chive Dip for a more onion-forward flavor.
Got leftover zucchini? Try a sweet recipe like these Almond Flour Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins. Or turn them into a main course with this Zucchini Mushroom Pasta recipe or these Turkey Zucchini Meatballs.
Other Zucchini Recipes
If you’re looking for other recipes that highlight the humble zucchini, I’ve got you covered. Check out my entire archive of Summer Recipes, or see some of my favorites below.
And, if you love your air fryer as much as I do, try playing around with air frying other vegetables. These Air Fryer Sweet Potato Cubes and these Air Fryer Tomatoes will get you started!
Or, try an air fryer main course. This Air Fryer Tortilla Pizza or these Air Fryer Steak Fingers would go deliciously well with these zucchini chips! Or how about this herb-seasoned Air Fryer Turkey Breast?
If you try this Air Fryer Zucchini Chips recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me. And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
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Air Fryer Zucchini Chips with Sour Cream Dip
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Zucchini Chips
- 4 medium zucchini
- 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the Sour Cream Dip
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2-3 scallions
- 1 small garlic clove
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat air fryer.
- Slice zucchini into ¼-inch thick circles.
- Place in a large bowl, and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
- Place half of the zucchini circles into the air fryer basket in a single layer.
- Fry for 20 minutes (or until lightly browned), then remove and transfer to serving plate.
- Put the remaining zucchini circles into the air fryer basket and fry for another 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the yogurt dip. Thinly slice scallions until you have about ¼ cup total. Mince garlic clove.
- In a small bowl, combine sour cream, Greek yogurt, chopped scallions, minced garlic, salt, and pepper.
- When second batch of zucchini chips are done, add to the serving plate and serve with dipping sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
Mimi Rippee says
These are great! And I finally have an air fryer! I’m still trying to figure out the difference between the air fry and the roast settings. The results are always the same! but the gadget is really handy.
Molly Pisula says
Yeah, I have to admit I'm not an expert on the settings either, but I love my air fryer!