Brussels Sprouts Chips

ETA on 10/18/12:  I've made this numerous times since my initial post, and I've found that low and slow is the way to go.  300 degrees F for 25 - 30 minutes allows for most of the leaves to dry out and get crispy before anything starts to burn.  I left the original recipe as-is, but am including this update at the top.

So y'all know how much I love my kale, and kale chips are one of my fav ways to prepare and eat them.  It was just a matter of time before I'd try "chipping" some other leafy green.  Tonight's "chipping" experiment: brussels sprouts.

I was just going to roast them up for dinner, like I usually do, but these sprouts were huge (~3")!  Much larger than the small 1" - 2" ones I normally buy.  So the big leaves got me thinking about chips.  When I roast them normally, some of the outer leaves always fall off and crisp up anyway, and they're yummy, so why not a whole pan (or two) of them?

I removed the outer leaves of all my brussels sprouts, about halfway into the core.  I put all the "hearts" back in the fridge to roast for another day.  I took all the outer leaves I'd removed, washed and dried them in my salad spinner, and prepped them like I do my kale.  I roasted them for a little less time than kale only because the leaves are smaller than my kale pieces tend to be.

The verdict:  they were yummy, but not as evenly crisp as kale chips, most probably due to the thicker bottom-middle stem parts.  The thinner parts browned before the thicker parts could crisp up.  Also, because brussels sprouts leaves are very curved, the tops tended to also brown before the bottoms.  They were still delicious, though, enough so that I would definitely try this again, maybe tweaking oven temps and cook times to see if I can improve on the "chipness" factor.  Oh yeah, and don't season as liberally as you would kale.

Oh, and the 3-year-old ate a handful and demanded more.  And more.  And more.

Brussels Sprouts Chips

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of large brussels sprouts
• olive oil in a mister
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• grated parmesan

Directions:

• Remove the large outer leaves of the sprouts.  I removed leaves halfway to the core.  (Put the "hearts" back into the fridge for another day.)  Wash the outer leaves and thoroughly dry them in a lettuce spinner or by spreading them onto a few paper towels on your kitchen counter.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray 2 baking sheets lightly with olive oil.
• Spread the sprouts leaves out on the baking sheets in a single layer.  Spray the tops lightly with olive oil.  Sprinkle with Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt (or your other favorite seasoned salt, or just plain kosher salt).  Grate some parmesan over the whole thing, as much or as little as you like.
• Bake for 10 - 12 minutes until the leaves are mostly crispy and some parts are lightly browned.