diff --git a/pangeo_forge_recipes/recipes/xarray_zarr.py b/pangeo_forge_recipes/recipes/xarray_zarr.py
index 2b1ffb75..7f115653 100644
--- a/pangeo_forge_recipes/recipes/xarray_zarr.py
+++ b/pangeo_forge_recipes/recipes/xarray_zarr.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 """
 
 import functools
+import itertools
 import logging
 import os
 import warnings
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@
 # use this filename to store global recipe metadata in the metadata_cache
 # it will be written once (by prepare_target) and read many times (by store_chunk)
 _GLOBAL_METADATA_KEY = "pangeo-forge-recipe-metadata.json"
+_ARRAY_DIMENSIONS = "_ARRAY_DIMENSIONS"
 MAX_MEMORY = (
     int(os.getenv("PANGEO_FORGE_MAX_MEMORY"))  # type: ignore
     if os.getenv("PANGEO_FORGE_MAX_MEMORY")
@@ -621,9 +623,41 @@ def store_chunk(
                 zarr_array[zarr_region] = data
 
 
-def finalize_target(target: CacheFSSpecTarget, consolidate_zarr: bool) -> None:
+def _gather_coordinate_dimensions(group: zarr.Group) -> List[str]:
+    return list(
+        set(itertools.chain(*(group[var].attrs.get(_ARRAY_DIMENSIONS, []) for var in group)))
+    )
+
+
+def finalize_target(
+    target: CacheFSSpecTarget,
+    consolidate_zarr: bool,
+    consolidate_dimension_coordinates: bool = True,
+) -> None:
     if target is None:
         raise ValueError("target has not been set.")
+
+    if consolidate_dimension_coordinates:
+        logger.info("Consolidating dimension coordinate arrays")
+        target_mapper = target.get_mapper()
+        group = zarr.open(target_mapper, mode="a")
+        dims = _gather_coordinate_dimensions(group)
+        for dim in dims:
+            arr = group[dim]
+            attrs = dict(arr.attrs)
+            new = group.array(
+                dim,
+                arr[:],
+                chunks=arr.shape,
+                dtype=arr.dtype,
+                compressor=arr.compressor,
+                fill_value=arr.fill_value,
+                order=arr.order,
+                filters=arr.filters,
+                overwrite=True,
+            )
+            new.attrs.update(attrs)
+
     if consolidate_zarr:
         logger.info("Consolidating Zarr metadata")
         target_mapper = target.get_mapper()
@@ -661,6 +695,9 @@ class XarrayZarrRecipe(BaseRecipe, FilePatternRecipeMixin):
       ``xr.open_dataset``. This is required for engines that can't open
       file-like objects (e.g. pynio).
     :param consolidate_zarr: Whether to consolidate the resulting Zarr dataset.
+    :param consolidate_dimension_coordinates: Whether to rewrite coordinate variables as a
+        single chunk. We recommend consolidating coordinate variables to avoid
+        many small read requests to get the coordinates in xarray.
     :param xarray_open_kwargs: Extra options for opening the inputs with Xarray.
     :param xarray_concat_kwargs: Extra options to pass to Xarray when concatenating
       the inputs to form a chunk.
@@ -685,6 +722,7 @@ class XarrayZarrRecipe(BaseRecipe, FilePatternRecipeMixin):
     cache_inputs: Optional[bool] = None
     copy_input_to_local_file: bool = False
     consolidate_zarr: bool = True
+    consolidate_dimension_coordinates: bool = True
     xarray_open_kwargs: dict = field(default_factory=dict)
     xarray_concat_kwargs: dict = field(default_factory=dict)
     delete_input_encoding: bool = True
@@ -851,7 +889,10 @@ def store_chunk(self) -> Callable[[Hashable], None]:
     @property
     def finalize_target(self) -> Callable[[], None]:
         return functools.partial(
-            finalize_target, target=self.target, consolidate_zarr=self.consolidate_zarr
+            finalize_target,
+            target=self.target,
+            consolidate_zarr=self.consolidate_zarr,
+            consolidate_dimension_coordinates=self.consolidate_dimension_coordinates,
         )
 
     def iter_inputs(self) -> Iterator[InputKey]:
diff --git a/tests/recipe_tests/test_XarrayZarrRecipe.py b/tests/recipe_tests/test_XarrayZarrRecipe.py
index 38297456..547c8f64 100644
--- a/tests/recipe_tests/test_XarrayZarrRecipe.py
+++ b/tests/recipe_tests/test_XarrayZarrRecipe.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 import pytest
 import xarray as xr
+import zarr
 
 # need to import this way (rather than use pytest.lazy_fixture) to make it work with dask
 from pytest_lazyfixture import lazy_fixture
@@ -274,6 +275,10 @@ def do_actual_chunks_test(
         assert all([item == chunk_len for item in ds_actual.chunks[other_dim][:-1]])
 
     ds_actual.load()
+    store = zarr.open_consolidated(target.get_mapper())
+    for dim in ds_actual.dims:
+        assert store[dim].chunks == ds_actual[dim].shape
+
     xr.testing.assert_identical(ds_actual, ds_expected)
 
 
@@ -340,6 +345,19 @@ def test_chunks_distributed_locking(
     )
 
 
+def test_no_consolidate_dimension_coordinates(netCDFtoZarr_recipe):
+    RecipeClass, file_pattern, kwargs, ds_expected, target = netCDFtoZarr_recipe
+
+    rec = RecipeClass(file_pattern, **kwargs)
+    rec.consolidate_dimension_coordinates = False
+    rec.to_function()()
+    ds_actual = xr.open_zarr(target.get_mapper()).load()
+    xr.testing.assert_identical(ds_actual, ds_expected)
+
+    store = zarr.open_consolidated(target.get_mapper())
+    assert store["time"].chunks == (file_pattern.nitems_per_input["time"],)
+
+
 def test_lock_timeout(netCDFtoZarr_recipe_sequential_only, execute_recipe_no_dask):
     RecipeClass, file_pattern, kwargs, ds_expected, target = netCDFtoZarr_recipe_sequential_only