We Tried 9 Types of Pita Chips and These Were Our Favorite

Pita has been a favored bread in Middle Eastern cuisine for thousands of years. But if you're guessing that pita chips are a bit of a newer invention, you'd be right. Pita chips first entered the wider market in the mid-'90s as a side dish for customers frequenting Stacy Madison's Boston-based sandwich cart. The popularity of those chips led Madison to open her own company in the late 1990s. In the 2000s, when Middle Eastern dips like hummus and baba ghanoush came to the attention of more American eaters, so did pita chips. And from there, several other companies have picked up on Madison's trend.

The increased popularity of pita chips leaves enthusiasts with the pressing question of which company most deserves to eat up their snack budget. Presently, one can find pita chips as well as pita crackers when looking for something to go with their dip. To find out which deserves space in your pantry, we tried out nine different pita chips and crackers, all of which are available online or in stores. Here are our picks, from best to worst.

Best Pita Chips at a Glance

Best Overall: Stacy's Simply Naked Baked Pita Chips
Runner-Up: Open Nature Pita Crackers
Best Pita Cracker: Kellogg's Town House Pita Crackers
Best Thick Pita Chip: Open Nature Original Pita Chips
Best Seasoned Pita Chip: 365 Pita Crackers with Parmesan and Garlic
Best Gluten-Free Pita Chip: Simple Mills Veggie Pita Crackers
Most Dippable Pita Cracker: Aplenty Pita Chips

What We Looked For When Ranking Pita Chips:

Taste: Flavor, as always, is our primary consideration when conducting these tests. While sampling pita chips, we looked for brands that provided quality, toasted chips with hummus-appropriate seasonings, like garlic and parmesan. Chips that were under-seasoned or that seemed to lack salt entirely fell to the bottom of our list.

Price: Pita chips might not be an easy snack food to whip up from scratch, but that doesn't mean they should cost a fortune. Most of the pita chip varieties we sampled charged less than $5 for a bag or box containing at least five ounces; one provided a pound of pita chips for that same price.

Texture: Some like their chips thick. Some like their chips thin. But no one likes when their chip breaks mid-dip. In addition to judging taste, we took the general texture and durability of the chip into consideration. We also made note of which brands might work best for those who prefer scooped dippers, triangular chips or a simple round cracker.

Additional Features: Lastly, we tried to keep some of the relevant nutritional facts in mind during this test, especially when it came to sodium content. Most of the chips we tried contained a gram or less of sugar and provided two to four grams of protein, but the sodium content between brands was more wide-ranging, with one containing more than 250 mg per serving. A few, however, included less than half that amount, so if salt is a concern in your diet, we'll be sure to steer you toward the right pick.

How We Tested Each Pita Chip

For this test, I had the pleasure of trying out the pita chip varieties we rounded up solo. To make sure I had a better idea of their flavor and texture when eaten plain, I made sure to eat at least a few chips by themselves first. Since I was also testing 14 varieties of hummus alongside the chips, I then tested the pita chips against at least two different hummus varieties, which allowed me to get a better idea of how each variety tasted with dip, as well as how durable the chips would be against thicker appetizers.