Banana Chips | Crispy Kerala Banana Chips

Banana Chips are wafers made with raw bananas. These crispy banana chips or wafers, are an easy and quick snack.

I belong to north India but south Indian by birth. Sounds interesting, na! Well, no points for guessing that my father was in a transferable job and so it happened that my birth place is in south India. May be that’s why (really??) or just like that, I simply love south Indian cuisine. And in that, my favorite is Banana chips or kerala banana chips as I used to call them.

• Save

Like many other kids, my boys also love to snack away on chips. I have made crispy potato wafers at home and my kids loved those. It was then, when the idea of making banana chips occurred to me. I didn’t have raw bananas and so I forgot all about banana chips. Then one day, when someone sent the raw bananas to me, that grew in her kitchen garden, the idea instantly came back to me and I didn’t waste anytime at all in trying to make them at home.

Two methods for making Banana chips

I have tried making banana chips in two ways. Both ways are super simple and require no preparations.

1.Direct Frying – In this method, you can simply clean, peel and cut the banana slices directly in the hot oil for frying. Now, this sounds simple and so much less work but;

First, to do this you need some practice and have to be very careful.

Second, in this method, there’s no proper seasoning of the chips. I mean you fry them directly, so you add salt and spices after you fry them. I personally don’t like, salt and spices coming on my hands when I eat these chips.

Third, the color of the banana wafers made by this method remains white or creamish. But for me banana chips have to be yellow, just as they are sold in the market.

So this method is totally not for me. Though, you can definitely try making kerala banana wafers this way and let me know too.

• Save

2. Soak and Fry – Now, in this second method, you have to do a small step just before frying. I would put it up as, clean, peel, soak and then fry. After cleaning and peeling, the banana slices are put in water with spices and seasoning. This way the chips made have subtle and just enough spices and seasoning. Also they are the prettiest yellow color, just like the market bought banana chips.

This method works for me and that’s why I am sharing this recipe of making kerala banana wafers with you all.

Fried, Dehydrated or Baked Banana Chips?

The topic of whether to make the banana crispies by frying, dehydrating or baking is more of personal nature, I think. There is definitely a difference in the taste, when made by these different method.

Frying – Deep frying banana chips, gives you a crispy and flavorful banana wafers. The taste of banana is profound in these type of chips. But off course, they have high calorific value. They are crunchy and bright yellow in color or sometimes cream also.

Dehydrating – Some varieties of bananas are made into crispies or chips by dehydrating them. These chips are not yellow or cream in color. They are brownish and chewy kind of chips. Just like the dehydrated apples or raw mangoes. And such chips have intense flavor of banana in them.

Baking – Now, like many other chips, these chips can also be, off course, baked. This sounds something healthy and great. But for banana wafers, it has a little down side too. Baked banana chips are not very intense in flavor. There I said it!

Though honestly speaking, I have yet to try the baked ones. Will definitely try baking them sometime soon, but till then, fried kerala banana wafers are the ones for me.

• Save

Storing Banana Chips

Storing these chips is actually very easy. You just have to keep them in an air-tight jar and store away in your kitchen, at room temperature only. These chips are not affected much by the temperature changes but might get soggy or spoiled, if they come in contact with the moisture. So air-tight container is the best way to store them. Zip lock bags will also work good here.

Now, its important to note here, that these chips should be fried well. And why? because, if they are not fried well, then some amount of moisture will remain in them, and the banana chips won’t be very crispy and will definitely get spoiled even if kept in an air-tight jar.

Some other interesting recipes;

1. Pani puri
2. Dhokla | Soft and spongy | Instant Dhokla recipe
3. Kadai Paneer
4. Samosa: Perfect homemade Samosa recipe, market style and crunchy (All Tips)
5. Jalebi Recipe
6. Ice Cream Recipe : Home made strawberry ice cream

Banana Chips Recipe Video

Ingredients

• Raw bananas – 3
• Salt – 2 tsp
• Haldi (turmeric) powder – 1 tsp
• Oil for frying

Method

1.Wash and clean the raw bananas nicely.

• Save

2. Cut the edges of banana and peel the outer green layer of it. Be careful, not to peel away the flesh part.

• Save

• Save

3. Slice the raw bananas with a thick slicer. If you want very thin banana chips then take a thin slicer, but in my personal experience, the thick banana slices make better chips, though the choice is yours. Try slicing the bananas in slanting position. That way you will get long slices for chips.

• Save

• Save

• Save

4. Once sliced, pour about one litre water in the bowl of sliced bananas.

• Save

5. Add 2 tsp salt. You can reduce or increase the amount of salt as per your taste.

• Save

6. Add 1 tsp haldi (turmeric) powder. Haldi helps in giving a wonderful yellow color to the banana chips. You may add a few drops of yellow color too in place of haldi. As haldi is natural and has great beneficial properties, so I always prefer haldi for yellow color.

• Save

7. Mix salt and haldi and leave the banana chips soaked in this water for 5 -10 min.

• Save

8. Heat the oil for frying.

• Save

9. Put the banana slices in oil. You can directly add the slices in oil without wiping them, but just be very careful. The oil will splutter a lot. I generally put the slices with a ladle and then stand away for a few seconds till the oil settles.

• Save

10. When you put banana slices in the oil, you will see a lot of foam forming in the oil. It’s okay and quiet normal. Wait for a few seconds and the foam will settle down. But be careful!! Also carefully, separate the chips from each other while frying. Check out video, how I did that.

• Save

• Save

11. Now patiently, fry these chips till they are crisp. The flame should be high.

• Save

12. Once fried nicely, take them out on a tissue paper and let them cool completely.

• Save

13. Enjoy them as a snack.

• Save

These yummy crunchy banana chips are an amazing snack to munch away but do watch yourself, or else you might over do your calories intake. Although I do admit that they are so hard to resist. Would love to hear about your experiences when you try these out. So don’t forget to comment below.

Also, I regularly share my culinary experiences on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Stumbleupon. Do follow me there to get my food stories, ” from my palate to yours”.