I’m not exactly sure when Old Bay came into my life, but I didn’t grow up on it. We eat a lot of seafood in my family, but it just wasn’t popular in suburban Long Island in the 90s. Luckily, it found its way to me and I’ll forever be putting it on fish tacos, sweet potato fries, and chickpeas.

Crunchy baked chickpeas are a great snack, salad topper, or as part of a party appetizer lineup. In most of my recipes I say “salt to taste” because I love salt more than most people (and use more salt than most people) and our idea of the perfect amount of salt might not align. So I encourage you to taste and adjust to your personal happy salt level. BUT Old Bay has celery salt in it, which makes it pretty salty on its own (which might be why I love it so much), so you don’t need to mess with regular salt here.

If you don’t like Old Bay or can’t get your hands on it where you are, this formula works well with other spice blends, Cajun and Ras el Hanout are both really fun flavors to add. (You might need to add salt to taste to those, though.)

To get your chickpeas real crunchy, make sure they’re really dry before adding the oil and seasoning. I usually drain and rinse them, let them sit in the colander for a bit while I go about my business so they air dry a little. Then, transfer them to a clean kitchen/tea towel and gently blot and jostle them in between the towel. The less water they have on them, the more they’ll crisp up in the oven.

Oh, and these pair well with a pre-dinner glass of sparkling wine or a nice pale ale. Just sayin.

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Crunchy Old Bay Chickpeas

A super easy, tasty, and crunchy snack. 

Course Snack

Servings 1 cup

Ingredients

• 1 can of chickpeas drained, rinsed and dried well with a clean kitchen towel.
• 1 tablespoon avocado or olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning plus more to serve

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 400°F. In a medium mixing bowl combine chickpeas and oil and toss to coat the chickpeas in the oil.
2. Add Old Bay and toss again to coat in the spice blend.
3. Spread the chickpeas out on a baking tray and pop in the oven for 35-40 minutes, rotating and shaking the tray at the 20 minute minute mark to make sure they cook evenly. Let cool on the tray and serve.

Recipe Notes

Heat oven to 400°F. In a medium mixing bowl combine chickpeas and oil and toss to coat the chickpeas in the oil. Add Old Bay and toss again to coat in the spice blend. Spread the chickpeas out on a baking tray and pop in the oven for 35-40 minutes, rotating and shaking the tray at the 20 minute minute mark to make sure they cook evenly. Let cool on the tray and serve.