How to Dry Parsley: 4 Methods, Times and Temperatures

Got more parsley than you can use? It’s one of the easiest herbs to dry. It’s sturdy enough to air-dry without a dehydrator, and it’s one of the few herbs the university extension guides single out for the microwave.¹ It’ll be milder than fresh, though: America’s Test Kitchen puts parsley among the herbs better used fresh, because delicate herbs get much weaker once dried.² Home-dried parsley is still handy for color and a green note in soups, sauces and dressings.

At a glance

Method	Settings from named sources	Time	Notes
Air-drying	Small bundles hung at 70–80°F in a dry, ventilated spot out of direct sun³	Generally 2–4 weeks for sturdy herbs³	Parsley air-dries easily
Dehydrator	95–115°F, up to 125°F where humid⁴; Penn State says 95–110°F⁵	1–4 hours⁴	Most control
Microwave	On high, from 30 seconds to 3 minutes depending on the source (table below)	Minutes	Works well for parsley in lower-wattage ovens⁶
Oven	Lowest setting, not above 180°F, door open⁵	3–4 hours⁵	Or overnight with only the oven light on⁴
Sun	Not recommended⁴		Costs color and flavor

Before you start

Most herbs are best harvested for drying just before the flowers first open, picked early in the morning once the dew has dried. Cut herbs shouldn’t lie in the sun or sit around after harvest.¹

Rinse the stems in cool water and shake off the excess, then pat off all the visible water with towels or paper towels. You’ll often read that rinsing rids herbs of pathogens. The extension guides call it cleaning and make no such claim.

Air-drying

Air-drying is the easiest and cheapest method. The University of Wisconsin’s guide doesn’t name parsley, but its method for sturdy herbs works: tie washed branches into small bundles of 5–6 stems and hang them upside down somewhere warm (70–80°F), dry and well ventilated, out of direct sun, until the moisture is gone. That’s generally 2–4 weeks.³ Keep the bundles small. Bundles that are too big will mold, the University of Tennessee warns.⁶

Keep drying herbs away from the sink, stove and dishwasher, where the air is moist. An attic, a kitchen or any warm spot with moving air works, and drying indoors usually gives better color and flavor than drying outdoors.⁴ A paper bag punched with holes keeps the dust off, as long as it’s big enough that the leaves don’t touch the sides.

Microwave

Parsley is a good herb for the microwave. Oregon State lists parsley first among the herbs commonly dried this way,¹ and the University of Tennessee says parsley dries well in lower-wattage microwaves, under 1,000 watts.⁶ The guides don’t agree on timing:

Source	Amount	Time on high	Method
Penn State⁵	Per cup	2–3 minutes	Start with 1 minute, mix every 30 seconds, keep checking
University of Tennessee⁶	Per cup	2–3 minutes	Start with 1 minute, mix every 30 seconds
Oregon State¹	1 cup (never more than 1–2 cups)	1–2 minutes	Stir every 30 seconds after the first minute until almost dry, then finish at room temperature
University of Wisconsin³	4 or 5 branches between paper towels	2–3 minutes	Another 30 seconds if not brittle
America’s Test Kitchen²	Not stated, on a paper towel	30–40 seconds	Crumble and store

To start, give a cup of leaves one minute, then 30-second rounds, stirring in between, until the leaves crumble. Tennessee’s wattage note is the only one in the guides. None of them gives times by wattage.

Two safety points apply whatever timing you use. If the load is too small, the paper towels can catch fire, Penn State warns.⁵ And Oregon State says not to use paper towels made from recycled paper, which can contain metal scraps that arc.¹ The Wisconsin guidance calls the microwave a last resort that cooks the herbs and gives very poor quality. It notes that the heat drives off some of the oils along with the water, so microwaved herbs may taste less intense than herbs dried other ways.³

Dehydrator

NCHFP says to preheat with the thermostat at 95–115°F, going as high as 125°F where it’s humid, and to expect 1–4 hours, checking now and then.⁴ Penn State’s range tops out lower, at 110°F.⁵ Spread the sprigs in a single layer and start checking at the one-hour mark. You set the temperature and it stays there, so there’s less risk of scorching than in an oven or microwave.

Oven

An oven only works if it can run cool. Penn State’s method is the lowest temperature, not above 180°F, for 3 to 4 hours with the door open.⁵ The Wisconsin guide gives the same numbers, with the herbs in a single layer and stirred now and then.³ Drying herbs too hot can cost you flavor, Oregon State warns.¹ An hour at 200°F followed by an hour in the cooling oven gets passed around a lot, but it’s in none of the extension guides we checked.

If your oven can’t hold 180°F or lower, use the cool-oven method. Lay leaves on a paper towel so they don’t touch, cover with another towel and another layer of leaves, and repeat for up to five layers. Leave them overnight in an oven warmed only by the light of an electric oven or the pilot light of a gas one.⁴

Why not the sun?

You’ll often see parsley dried outdoors on a tray in the sun. The extension guides that mention it say don’t. NCHFP and Oregon State say sun-drying hurts the herb’s color and flavor,⁴¹ and Penn State adds that in a humid climate like Pennsylvania’s, the moisture can’t come out fast enough.⁵

Where the guides disagree

Question	What named sources say
Dehydrator temperature	95–115°F, up to 125°F where humidity is high (NCHFP, Tennessee, Oregon State)⁴¹⁶; 95–110°F (Penn State)⁵
Air-drying time	Generally 2–4 weeks for sturdy herbs hung in bundles (Wisconsin)³; usually 5–10 days for tender herbs hung in small bunches inside bags (Oregon State)¹
Microwave time	From 30–40 seconds (America’s Test Kitchen) to 2–3 minutes per cup (Penn State, Tennessee); see the table above
Oven	Lowest setting up to 180°F with the door open for 3–4 hours (Penn State, Wisconsin)⁵³; or no heat but the oven light or pilot light, overnight (NCHFP, Tennessee)⁴⁶

Where you get a range, start low and check often.

What drying does to parsley

In a 2005 study, parsley dried at higher temperatures kept fewer of its volatile compounds, in both of the dryers tested. The abstract reports no significant difference in the sensory tests but doesn’t say which samples were compared.⁷ So the takeaway is the one the extension guides already give: keep the heat low.

How to tell it’s done

The herbs are dry when the leaves are crisp and crumble easily between your fingers and the stems break when you bend them. The leaves should also fall off the stems. Strip the leaves and toss the stems.

Check again after you pack them. Wisconsin’s advice is to watch the filled containers for a couple of days. If you see any moisture, take the herbs out and dry them longer.³

Air-dried herbs can carry bugs. The University of Tennessee says air-dried herbs and seeds need treating to kill insects and their eggs, either by heating at 160°F for 30 minutes or by freezing at 0°F or lower for at least 48 hours. It recommends freezing for better flavor.⁶

Storing dried parsley

Keep the leaves whole and crumble them as you cook. Penn State says storing herbs whole is preferred.⁸ Use airtight containers somewhere cool, dry and dark, away from the stove and sink. Dried herbs can also go into airtight containers in the freezer.

How long dried parsley keeps depends on who you ask, and none of these numbers was measured on parsley:

Source	Scope	Figure
Penn State⁵	Most home-dried herbs	Keep well for up to a year
Oregon State¹	Home-dried herbs	Up to one year; for best flavor, use within six months to a year
University of Wisconsin³	Home-dried herbs	Keep for years, but use within a year for best flavor
America’s Test Kitchen²	Herbs dried in the microwave by its method	Up to 3 months, airtight
McCormick⁹	Leafy dried herbs, a spice company’s own guidance	1–3 years

They don’t agree, so we’ve left them side by side. McCormick defines shelf life as how long spices stay most aromatic,⁹ and that’s the right way to read every number here: a quality window, not a safety date. The real test is your nose. Crush a pinch, and if the smell is faint, the parsley has faded.

Herbs in oil are a separate food-safety question. A 2011 review of home-prepared vegetables and herbs stored in oil says to refrigerate them and use them within four days or throw them out, and calls freezing the safest option.¹⁰

Not yet measured

How home drying methods (air, microwave, dehydrator) compare for parsley flavor.
How long home-dried parsley keeps, measured on parsley rather than herbs in general.
Microwave times for parsley by oven wattage, beyond Tennessee’s under-1,000-watt note.

Drying herbs (SP 50-921), Oregon State University Extension Service. extension.oregonstate.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
When You Should Actually Use Dried Herbs, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³
Drying Herbs, Wisconsin Master Gardener Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison. mastergardener.extension.wisc.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Herbs (drying), National Center for Home Food Preservation. nchfp.uga.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Let’s Preserve: Drying Herbs, Penn State Extension. extension.psu.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹
Drying Herbs, University of Tennessee Extension. lawrence.tennessee.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Preservation of flavour components in parsley by heat pump and cabinet drying, Polish Journal of Food and Nutrition Sciences, 2005 (abstract). journal.pan.olsztyn.pl · Peer-reviewed ↩
Preserving Herbs by Drying, Penn State Extension. extension.psu.edu · Reference work ↩
How Long Do Spices Last?, McCormick. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²
Nummer et al., Food Protection Trends, 2011. foodprotection.org · Peer-reviewed ↩

How to Dry Parsley: Microwave, Air, Dehydrator and Oven