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This simple coconut chia granola recipe uses my tried and true FAVORITE ratio of ingredients to make a delicious granola recipe for breakfast or a healthy snack! It's vegan, naturally sweetened with maple syrup, and truly addictive.
Friends, a clustery, crunchy, coconutty, naturally sweetened granola is HERE for all of your breakfast, snack, and even dessert cravings! A fair warning: this simple coconut chia granola is highly addictive... and sneaking delicious, crunchy bites with each stop to your kitchen is encouraged.
The Ingredients
Granola typically has a ton of add-in ingredients, which I LOVE but don't always have on hand, so I wanted to create a more minimalist recipe for making granola at home. If you have extra ingredients to add in, do it! But otherwise, you'll be all set with the below:
- Rolled oats - Oats will be our main ingredient for this granola. Make sure they're not quick-cooking, which are broken down further for faster cooking. We need sturdy oats!
- Flour - We'll only be using a little bit. I always use white whole wheat, whole wheat, or whole wheat pastry.
- Salt - An absolutely necessity for balancing out the sweetness of maple syrup!
- Cinnamon - A simple but delicious flavor-add for this granola.
- Chia seeds - Add a wonderful crunch. If you don't have them, feel free to omit.
- Coconut oil - My favorite oil for granola.
- Maple syrup - For the perfect flavor and natural sweetness.
- Vanilla extract - For flavor, always!
- Unsweetened coconut flakes - We'll add these in about halfway through baking so they get toasted but not burned.
How to Make It
To prep, you'll preheat your oven to 300 degrees. For granola, it's best to bake it slower at a lower heat to avoid burning any of those delicate oats, coconut flakes, or other ingredients you might add. Then, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine the oats, flour, chia seeds, and salt into a bowl and stir to combine. In a separate, microwave-safe bowl, heat the coconut oil in the microwave until it melts. Then, whisk in the maple syrup and vanilla. Pour this mixture all over the oat mixture and stir to coat evenly.
Once everything is mixed together, spread the granola in an even layer across the prepared sheet pan, and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Halfway through baking, sprinkle the unsweetened coconut flakes over the top and gently stir the ingredients directly on the sheet pan to combine, but no need to overdo it or get it perfectly mixed. Three or four extra gentle stirs should do the trick.
After 30 minutes, the coconut should be lightly toasted with slightly browned edges. Take the granola out of the oven and let it cool completely before stirring or removing from the sheet pan. If you need to nibble, though, I completely understand 😉 Cooling the granola completely on the sheet pan is a critical step if you like those big granola clusters! You can break them up later to be more bite-sized clusters.
And that's it! That's everything you need to do to make a simple coconut chia granola for endless snacking, breakfast-ing, and even dessert-ing.
Common Granola Questions
- How should I store my simple coconut chia granola? You can store fresh granola in an airtight glass container for a couple weeks on the counter or in your pantry. I love using a mason jar or a glass food storage container with a top that snaps tightly shut, locking out any air.
- Is this granola gluten-free? If you use certified gluten-free oats and a gluten free flour, then this granola will be gluten-free. You can sub the ¼ cup flour 1:1 for a gluten-free flour.
- What are serving ideas for granola? Granola is so versatile! I love it in bowls with Greek yogurt and fruit or plain while I'm hiking or on-the-go. You can also enjoy it with milk, just like cereal, or even as a delicious ice cream/dessert topping. Oh, OR make this mango turmeric ginger smoothie and top it with simple coconut chia granola... YES.
More Granola...
If you like this coconut chia granola, then you'll also enjoy this maple cranberry almond granola!
From other blogs, this homemade chunky healthy granola is OMG good, as is this ultimate chocolate granola.
An action item for you! I hope you enjoy this granola recipe, friends! If you try it, please leave a comment and rating below 🙂 I'm trying to learn from readers every day so I can keep producing content that you love... so I'd love to hear your voice!
PrintSimple Coconut Chia Granola
A simple and delicious granola recipe made with oats, chia seeds, and coconut! This granola travels well, so you can enjoy it as a healthy breakfast or snack at home or on the go.
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 cups 1x
- Category: Breakfast, snacks
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 3 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
- ¼ cup white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, spelt)
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
Instructions
- Preheat oven: Preheat your oven to 300 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat (or use some nonstick cooking spray).
- Combine dry ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, chia seeds, salt, and cinnamon.
- Mix wet ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract.
- Combine wet & dry ingredients: Pour the coconut oil mixture all over the oat mixture, and stir until oats are evenly coated.
- Add granola to sheet pan: Spread the granola onto the prepared sheet pan in an even layer. The layer will be pretty thick, so don't worry that oats are toppling all over each other -- this is how we get those delicious clusters!
- Bake granola & add coconut flakes: Bake the granola for 30 minutes. Add the coconut flakes halfway through baking time by sprinkling them evenly over the granola and lightly stirring them in. Return the coconut granola to the sheet pan for the rest of the baking time.
- Let granola cool: After 30 minutes, when the coconut flakes are lightly toasted and browned, remove the granola from the oven and let it cool completely on the sheet pan before moving it. Allowing it to cool on the sheet pan will help those large granola clusters bind together, and you can break them into smaller clusters if desired.
Notes
- Parchment Paper: I cannot recommend enough using parchment paper for this recipe to avoid it sticking to the sheet pan! Parchment paper helps the granola crisp up on the pan-facing layer and cool without become stuck, which helps so much for getting big granola clusters.
- Storing: Store this granola in an airtight glass container. Either a jar with a tightly sealed lid or a glass leftovers container will work perfectly!
- Serving: Serve this granola with yogurt and fruit, milk, as a smoothie bowl or ice cream topping, or just eat it plain.
Keywords: healthy coconut granola recipe, simple coconut chia granola
Kristin
I made this tonight and have fallen in love. Such a complete recipe that was easy and turned out beautifully delicious! A bonus is how amazing the house smells! So good! Thank you for this! It will be in my rotation for sure!
★★★★★
Tera
Yay!! I'm so glad you liked it! Thank you Kristin!
C.
I made this and it's delicious. I added a little more chia and threw in pumpkin seeds once it was done.
Can you recommend a good alternative oil?
Tera
I'm so glad you liked it! I have not tested with anything other than coconut oil; however, if I were to make this with an alternative oil, I would use 1/2 cup of a neutral flavored oil such as grapeseed or avocado oil.