Crispy Mango Chips

Crispy, ultra-healthy, and a cinch to make, these crispy Mango Chips became our go-to snack of the summer. We gave them as party favors, gifts, and ate our weight in mangoes with them.

While we were gone…

Hi all! It’s been a while since we’ve been on your inbox! And while we’ve been radio silence, July, there’s been a bunch of BIG events back to back: Fairchild Botanical Garden’s Mango Festival, last-minute travels all over Florida and South Carolina, and of course, WE GOT MARRIED!

Alicia and I tied the knot (literally) at the end of July and we’re just getting back to normalcy (whatever that means) between juggling this site, cookbook research-more on that later, and planning video content for later on this year.

I’ll write more posts on Mango Festival, the Wedding, and a lot more to catch you up on our journey and what we’re up to. But for now, let’s talk mango!

What Are Mango Chips

You can imagine Crispy Mango Chips to be the ideological love child between crunchy kettle-cooked potato chips and the floral sweetness of Mango at the peak of the season. It’s also another way of saying we got too many mangoes and needed a way to preserve them.

When you eat them, they thin, sweet, and terribly addictive, we were giving them out as wedding gifts to the wedding party. I was a very personal way to show our friends and family that they were appreciated and how grateful we were that they chose to share this beautiful moment with us.

How to make Crispy Mango Chips

Like any dehydrated fruit or vegetable, the process is the same: thin slices placed in a dry ventilated environment will remove the moisture from the fruit. The trick to make these slices is managing heat: high enough to evaporate the moisture, but low enough to not cook the fruit.

To get the best slices, use a very sharp knife or a mandolin. Mandolins will give you consistent cuts without variation- making every slice crispy and even.

If you don’t have a mandolin, you can still get razor-thin slices by gently cutting them with a sharp knife. And gently making very thin cuts in the flesh of the mango.

Still, go with the mandolin. It’s a faster and more convenient option when doing large batches of these chips. And you will make batches and batches of them. So many batches…

Peel or No Peel?

In the process of developing these chips, we tested slices with and without the mango skins. Mango chips with the skin turned out to have about 30% more flavor than chips without the skins. I would recommend peeling them if you know your mangoes were not treated with pesticides.

If the mangoes came from your tree, don’t peel them. If you bought them at the store, the safer approach is to peel the skins and only use the flesh. That way you can avoid pesticides in the food.

Dehydrator Method

Place the fresh mango slices in the dehydrator sheets and leave roughly 1/8 of an inch space between them to allow for airflow. Set the temperature of the dehydrator to 135 F and close the chamber. The chips will start to crisp up at 8 hours but will get really crispy when you leave them overnight.

The next day, when you remove the chips from the trays, they may be a little pliable still but will crisp up in a few minutes.

Oven Method

You can make these mango chips in the oven, though the process is a little more involved and tricky.

Start by placing a silicone baking mat on a sheet pan or cookie sheet- the silicone will prevent the mango slices from sticking to the metal tray. Parchment paper and sprays won’t work here, they will stick to the mango and create a mess.

Like the dehydrator method, set the slices 1/8 of an inch apart. And place the baking sheet in the oven. Bring the temperature down as low as you can, depending on your oven, it may be around 200 degrees. Leave your oven door cracked open to allow moisture to escape and watch them. It will take about 4 hours depending on the oven and the thickness of the mangoes.

Storage

The best way to keep them fresh is in an airtight container. Keeping them closed will protect the chips from the moisture in the air and prevent them from getting stale longer.

These mango chips will keep for well over a month fresh when sealed airtight.

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Other Mango Recipes

Want to do more with mangoes? Check out this Mango Risotto with Chili and Vanilla oils. Did you know you can eat mango skins like chips? This Amazing Mango Bark recipe shows you how to use yet another part of the mango #zerowaste!

Variations:

One of the best things about these chips is that they’re so versatile! If you spray olive oil on the chips and sprinkle salt you’ll get a sweet and salty combination that works really well.

Equipment

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