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Banana Chips/Plantain Chips/Ethakka upperi

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Delicious Plantain chips made with just 4 ingredients, you need only unripe plantains, oil and salt. simple and easy snack.

 

 
Plantain Chips in a bowl
One of the snacks which uniquely every person in Kerala likes is the banana chips akka plantain chips. There is no “Sadya” (festive feast) without them. There is no Onam, Vishu or wedding celebrations without them.
Every malayali goes out Kerala carrying at least one pack of Banana chips or plantain chips .They are as addictive as potato chips. The other chips I was fond of during my child hood are jackfruit chips.
Plantain Chips
My grandmother used to make big containers of jack fruit chips during my summer holidays.
Here in US Jack fruit costs all almost like gold. So I usually am looking at them in store just window shopping, thinking of all possible dishes I can make with a piece of it.
Luckily, plantains are not costly as jack fruit so I buy them frequently.

How to choose plantains for  chips? 

When they’re not ripe and green I have an itch to make chips with them. I know it is time taking process but the end results are always worth the efforts.
If plantains are ripe (yellowish with lot of dark black spots) we like to eat as such or I will make ethakaa appam (recipe follows). Plantains  taste differently from ordinary banana available in the market.
They are starchier like potato. Mom rarely used to make these chips at home as it is easily available in bakeries or even mobile stall where they fry chips and sell them.
I like raw banana chips. There are couple of ways you can make banana chips such as directly frying in oil or a healthy version of baking with a small amount of oil  or air fryer method. I made banana chips this way.

How to Fry  Plantain Chips 

Ingredients : You need only just 4 ingredients to make this delicious chips 
 
Plantains: You need  green plantains similar to those make for Tostones
Salt:  Is the key ingredients brings out the taste flavor of chips 
Oil: Traditionally in my home town Kerala, Coconut oil is used for frying the chips, however I like to use Peanut oil as they tend to give uniform frying of chips . 
Water: To dissolve the salt. 
 

Points to Remember while making Plantain Chips 

 
You need to  peel of plantains by making cut and remove the green peel. You can't use the peeler. 
Plantain Chips
 
You need to soak the plantains in water . In which you can use turmeric if you want. This will remove the stickiness of plantain and will be easy to slice them and preserve the color and also prevent them from sticking while frying
Plantains
 
You can directly slice the plantain over the oil and fry. Or you can slice plantains and set aside in tissue paper and later add to oil and fry them. In the latter  case make sure plantains shouldn't stick to each other. 
Plantains sliced

Heat oil in medium high flame. Once it   register 350F add  plantain slices and cook until the noise is reduced. Then add salt water. 

 

The addition of salt water is to increase the crispiness of the chips. You can skip the step if you  are afraid of adding water in hot oil. In that case add salt immediately once the chips are removed from the oil. 

If you are looking for healthy version of Plantain chips ?

Then instead of frying ,tastewise that is best.

You can  use bake or air fryer method. Bake at 350F  for 15 minutes or until golden color on the edges.  You need to  coat them with oil. You can use either coconut oil or oil of your choice.

Plantain Chips is not keto-friendly because it is high in carbs.

Other Plantain Recipes are 

Plantains Stuffed with Black Beans
Sweet plantain chips
Plantain Jalousie

Print Recipe
5 from 6 votes

Plantain chips

Delicious Plantain chips made with just salt and oil.
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time35 minutes
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: Indian
Keyword: Plantain Chips
Servings: 8
Calories: 110kcal

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 4 Plantains
  • ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
  • 3 tablespoon Salt water 3 tablespoon salt in 1 tablespoon water
  • 8 cup Water : 8 cup
  • Oil I used Peanut oil and Canola oil, use Coconut oil for authentic taste

Instructions

  • In a sauce pot add water and turmeric and keep aside. Peel plantain skin (you will see white flesh and put in the water for 30 minutes. This will remove the stickiness of plantain and will be easy to slice them and preserve the color and also prevent them from sticking while frying.
  • Slice the plantain into round or oval of ⅛ inch thickness using a mandoline. Dry the sliced pieces in baking sheet lined with kitchen tissue or towel.
  • Heat the oil in a deep pot until they are hot (not smoking). Fry the pieces in the hot oil without overcrowding them. Occasionally give stir to flip them and keep them from sticking together.
  • Once they are ¾ done (around 5 minutes or you will hear sizzling sound while turning theadd 1 teaspoon of salt water and close the pot with a lid (this will prevent splashing, be careful with this method, if you are not comfortable you can add salt lateand remove the lid a minute or two later to check if the splashing has stopped. Fry for another 2 minutes or until golden brown and remove them with a slotted spoon into plate lined with paper towels for draining the excess oil.
  • Next batch reduce the salt content as salt is already present in the oil. Continue until you finish frying all plantains.
  • If you are not using the salt water, season with salt once you removed from the oil.
  • Enjoy these chips with hot tea or coffee.

Video

Notes

You can skip the turmeric if you want in water. 
You can either slice and fry the chips directly in the oil  or slice first  line in  tissue papper and then add to oil and fry the chips. If you are not comfortable working with hot oil you can use the second step. 

Nutrition

Calories: 110kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 2632mg | Potassium: 447mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 1009IU | Vitamin C: 16mg | Calcium: 12mg | Iron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

 

 

 

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  1. Anonymous says

    5 stars

    Reply

  2. Priya R says

    Swathi this is so great to see a step-by-step recipe, my favorite chips and i simply want to have them now 🙂 its 1:22 pm here 😛 love it dear, i hope i get the courage to do it someday... if at all i do all credits to you 🙂

    Love

    Reply

  3. Love cooking says

    Hi,
    I fried banana chips using your recipe, and they turned out so good! This is the first time I have tried to make them at home. I love these chips! Thank you for teaching us step by step, showing photos at every stage. That helped a lot!
    Thank you.
    Gracie Gidwani.

    Reply

    • Swathi Iyer says

      Glad you like it Gracie. I am happy the my post helped you to make this delicious chips.

      Reply

  4. Now Serving says

    Thanks for visitng my blog and your useful comment, Swathi - I have in my write written a fdew notes to myself, which says exactly that - that the banana should be skinned completely - Mu husband had done it and was doing me a favor - so did not want to criticize him too much 😉 but I will certainly be doing it that way next time I make it...xoxo

    Reply

  5. Simba Eats says

    Add some ginger to that!

    Reply

  6. Swathi says

    Nithya, thanks for visiting my blog, glad you like chips
    Ec i love them too. i will try to send some more dishes if possible for the event

    Reply

  7. EC says

    I love these chips.Agree that they are very very addictive..thanks for the entry

    Reply

  8. foodielover says

    They look lovely Swati.They definitely are addictive:).First time to ur blog,u have a nice one out here.

    Nithya Praveen
    http://thefoodielovers.com

    Reply

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