The urge to repair and regenerate natural tissues can now be satisfactorily fulfilled by various tissue engineering approaches. Chitin and chitosan are the most widely accepted biodegradable and biocompatible materials subsequent to cellulose. The incorporation of nano ZrO₂ onto the chitin–chitosan scaffold is thought to enhance osteogenesis. Hence a nanocomposite scaffold was fabricated by lyophilization technique using chitin–chitosan with nano ZrO₂. The prepared nanocomposite scaffolds were characterized using SEM, FTIR, XRD and TGA. In addition, the swelling, degradation, biomineralization, cell viability and cell attachment of the composite scaffolds were also evaluated. The results demonstrated better swelling and controlled degradation in comparison to the control scaffold. Cell viability studies proved the non toxic nature of the nanocomposite scaffolds. Cells were found to be attached to the pore walls and spread uniformly throughout the scaffolds. All these results suggested that the developed nanocomposite scaffolds possess the prerequisites for tissue engineering scaffolds and could be used for various tissue engineering applications.