These crisp ripe plantain chips are made with ripe plantains and deep fried till brown and crispy.
Ripe plantains? Yes!
Crisp? Yes!
Salty? Yes!
In my pre and earlier teens years when I had lots of time on my hands, basically spent baby sitting my younger sisters and neighbours’ little ones, I would play chef. Experimenting with their tastebuds and stomach, making not always edible goodies and being the best ever and loving baby sitter.
In one of my baby sitting/ chef episodes, I decided to make crisp ripe plantain chips. It didn’t go as planned, it was just soft and oily. Another episode involving my mama and I, led to the same soft plantain coins not chips. We concluded probably something is added to ripe plantains chips from the market to get that crispness.
Apparently nothing is added to achieve that crispness. It is just:
- the plantains should be ripe, a little black spotted but firm. It shouldn’t be fully black and sweet.
- slice the plantains as thin as possible. I use a slicer as knife barely gets the job done.
- keeping the oil temperature stable and frying a little at a time. This is quite tricky as I don’t have a thermometer in the kitchen to check. But what I do is I start frying on medium heat. I realised high heat causes it to brown quickly and might not lead to crispness.
- also do stir from time to time when frying to prevent them from sticking together.
Crisp plantain chips is possible even in your kitchen.
- 2 ripe plantains ripe but not soft and sugary
- odourless oil for deep frying
- salt to taste
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Remove peel of plantains. Using a vegetable slicer, slice the plantains. (I prefer the round disk, like coins as it is easier that way)
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Heat oil in the deep fryer till hot. Check for hotness by putting the back of a wooden ladle in the oil. If the oil bubbles around it, it is hot.
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Put plantains in the oil, whiles stirring continuously to separate them apart. Stir from time to time till the plantains are brown. (Keep an eye on them as they go from brown to burnt quickly). Remove from the oil into a bowl lined with tissue paper. Season with salt immediately.
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Plantain chips can be stored in an airtight container for seven days at room temperature.