Homemade Banana Chips

Homemade banana chips are crispy, addictive, delicious and all time favorite snack made of green bananas or raw plantains. Vegan and gluten free recipe.

Plantain chips or green banana chips are super popular in India and you will find them sold like hot cake in many street cars and hot chips stores.

In this post I am sharing a super easy homemade banana chip recipe that is paper thin, delicious, crunchy and absolutely moreish. Recipe includes instructions for fried as well as homemade baked banana chips with flavor variations.

Banana chips are plantain chips is our top favorite snack at home. It is a great as evening snacks with tea as well as goes very well as side dish with Indian rice varieties like lemon rice, coconut rice, tomato rice. My daughter also loves to carry plantain chips in snack box. Kids love banan chips, potato chips and it is always a hit with entire family.

I prefer to make this make these at home rather than buying from stores as homemade chips are cleaner & economical than store bought chips.

This is a super easy recipe and all you need are a sturdy slicer or handheld mandoline, deep heavy pan to fry the chips apart from a few bananas. You can also use an air fryer or bake these chips in oven. The whole process takes less than an an hour. Let’s begin!

About This Recipe

Banana chips or a plantain chips is a very popular south Indian snack made with both raw banana or ripe banana slices.

These are basically thinly sliced fresh bananas that are deep fried and seasoned. Traditionally these chips are fried in coconut oil only. It increases flavor and shelf life.

For healthy snack banana chips you can bake them or even air fry them. One of my friends in the United States uses a dehydrator for these. She slices the bananas and place them in a dehydrator until completely dry and crispy. She then adds seasoning to the dehydrated bananas and delicious chips are ready 🙂

In this post I am sharing two methods that I follow.

1. Traditional way of making fried banana chips
2. Homemade baked banana chips.

For both these methods you can use raw green bananas or ripe bananas. Just make sure not to use overripe bananas though, they are hard to slice and may not hold shape while frying.

Mildly sweet chips made from firm ripe bananas are super popular in Kerala and they taste awesome. I personally like deliciously sweet chips these more than completely salty ones 🙂

You can season these plantain chips in so many ways. The most popular and common one is salt and turmeric powder. I have mentioned some interesting variations for you to try.

Do try out these simple yet amazingly delicious homemade banana chips recipe and enjoy. These are

Super crispy, crunchy & tasty

Very flavorful

perfect as snack food or side dish

so much better than store bought chips

vegan and gluten free

Easy to make

Ingredients

You will need very few simple pantry staple ingredients for making banana chips at home. Here is the breakdown of ingredients you will need.

Banana Slices

You can use raw bananas also known as plantains or firm ripe bananas. In south India a special variety of banana called Nenthiran but you can use whatever is available.

You will have to peel and cut the bananas into thin slices, thinner the better. I prefer to use a handheld slicer and slice the bananas directly over hot oil. It takes some expertise and if you are beginner you can always slice them to a plate and slide into the hot oil.

Oil

Traditionally these chips are fried in coconut oil. Many people love the taste and flavor of banana chips fried in coconut oil. At our home we do not prefer it though, I feel the flavor is overpowering. I prefer to use peanut oil for frying chips. You can even use canola oil or any cooking oil for frying.

Seasoning

For this batch I used salt, chilli powder and a pinch of turmeric. While frying banana chips we usually make a mixture of seasoning with water and sprinkle to the chips while frying. This ensures all the chips are perfectly seasoned. Again this method takes some expertise as hot oil will splash around when you sprinkle water.

If you are beginner, you can fry the chips and then toss the salt, turmeric and chili powder over the hot chips.

How To Make Banana Chips Recipe

Heat oil for deep frying. Peel the skin of banana.

2. Using a slicer, slice the banana into thin wafers directly into the hot oil. Maintain medium heat throughout frying.

3. After few minutes gently turn the chips.

4. Deep fry till the sizzling sound ceases. The chips will tend to stick, so do not over crowd the pan.

5. Once done, add salt and chili powder while the chips are still hot. Toss very well and allow to cool.

6. Store banana chips in airtight container and serve as required.

Baked Banana Chips Recipe

To begin with preheat the oven at 200 C or 400 F. Prepare a large baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper. You can also use a cooking spray alternately.

Peel and thinly slice the bananas. For baking, it is better to make the slices slightly thick. To a large bowl add 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, 2 teaspoons chili powder, 1 teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons oil. You can also add few drops of lemon juice for even browning. Add the sliced bananas and toss very well.

Arrange the seasoned banana slices as single layer in the prepared baking sheet. You can lightly brush them with few drops of oil. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes. After 10 minutes you can flip the chips with a metal spatula for even baking & continue baking.

Once done, let the baked chips cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. Store in airtight container. Serve baked banana chips as snack.

Tips For Making Best Plantain Chips

• Use a very good sharp hand held mandoline or sharp slicer for slicing the bananas.
• Use firm unripe banana that is hallow when you tap for tasty chips.
• To get very fresh and crispy banana chips use fresh oil for deep frying, do not reheat and use the oil.
• You can use any refined oil or coconut oil for deep frying. Olive oil or sesame oil or gingely oil is not apt for frying banana chips.
• You can season the banana chips with salt OR salt and pepper powder or salt and chili powder. Sometimes I add a pinch of asafoetida too.
• These chips keeps well for 10 days at room temperature when stored airtight.

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