Abstract Solar drying is a non-polluting and economic drying process which utilizes solar energy to dry the food materials for better shelf life. We have fabricated a simple, efficient, and economically feasible indirect type solar dryer for food preservation. This article presents the dynamic model of fabricated solar dryer. This model consists of thermal modeling of the drying chamber, solar collector, and solar dried- food sample. The energy balance has been applied to evaluate the temperature at different sections of the solar dryer with respect to drying time. Model equations have been solved in the MATLAB environment. Solar power meter and infrared thermometer used as measuring instruments. This study helps to examine the influence of solar radiation on the collector plate temperature, drying chamber temperature, food sample temperature, and performance parameters such as thermal efficiency with respect to drying time. Model data has been found in good agreement with experimental data within 4% error. It is concluded that the drying of food material is affected by air temperature, the collector temperature, mode of heat transfer, and material characteristics such as dimension, and mass of the food sample.