Puerto Rican Style Air Fryer Plantain Chips

These air fryer plantain chips are seriously crispy, crunchy, and delicious! They’re made in the air fryer in less than 30 minutes and the perfect snack. Find out how to make them and how to pick the right plantains for this recipe.

One of my favorite elements of this version of this plantain chip recipe is how versatile it is as a snack. With the air fryer you can make sweet fried plantains (using the riper, brown plantains) or more savory tostones (fried green plantains).

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The ‘New’ Chip on the Block

If you’ve ever roamed the chip aisle at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, chances are you’ve heard of plantain chips.

Plantain chips can be a fun alternative to potato chips or fries, and are delicious made in the air fryer with less oil than the traditional method.

They are one of my all time favorite snack recipes!

I remember trying plantains for the first time as a kid in Puerto Rico and falling completely in love with the crunch of the veggie fresh out of the deep fryer.

These chips take all of that flavor and give them a lighter, more chip like texture.

Ingredients

• plantains (green or brown will work)
• olive oil
• salt
• any other seasonings you want

See recipe card below for exact quantities!

Step by Step Instructions

Preheat your air fryer to 350 degrees. Slice your plantains to about 1/2-3/4 inch thickness and toss with half of the olive oil, salt and any other seasonings you want.

Fry in a single layer for 10 minutes.

Using a flat bottomed glass, smash the plantain slices into flatter chips. Toss with remaining oil and seasonings. Fry 5-10 more minutes or until crispy and golden brown.

Enjoy with your favorite salsa or a simple sauce made with equal parts mayo and hot sauce.

A Super Affordable + Adaptable Snack

You’ll be even more motivated to make plantain chips yourselves when you realize it can be rather hard to find them at the store and they can be quite pricey. Another great reason to make your own for under $3 in less than 30 minutes.

Did I mention you can use any seasonings you like?

Today we’re using my favorite Chili Lime salt, but feel free to get creative and use your favorite spice blend. Or keep it simple with salt and pepper.

Picking the Right Plantains (and opening them)

For some reason, until I set out to test this recipe, I had the idea that cooking with plantains was a real challenge.

I had seen them at the store for ridiculously cheap, but never knew what type to buy and was strangely intimidated by the whole process. After talking with my mom, it’s actually ridiculously simple.

The color of the fruit says it all:

• Green plantains – these will result in moderately bland plantains, making this stage in the fruit not ideal for cooking. Leave these on your counter for a few weeks and give them some time to ripen.
• Yellow plantains – these plantains are on the road towards ripening, making this stage in the fruit sort of a blank canvas for whatever spices you want to highlight.
• Brown/black plantains – hello ripe-town! These babies are ripe and ready to fry. The dark color will result in a batch of uniquely sweet chips. This is my favorite stage of the fruit to make air fryer plantian chips with.

Now that we’ve talked about the stages of the fruit, let’s talk about opening them up. This is another stage of this recipe that I let intimidate me for no good reason.

Opening a plantain is as simple as slicing off the top and bottom of the fruit, then slicing into the skin lengthwise to create a slit. From there, peel back the skin carefully and you have a plantain that’s ready to be sliced!

Tips for Making Chips in Your Air Fryer (from raw to crunchy in minutes!)

Today I’m using this Ovente Air Fryer but from what I’ve read, these tips will work with any kind of air fryer:

Here are the tips and tricks that worked for me:

• One layer in the basket – not overcrowding your air fryer basket is key here! This helps things to fry evenly and prevents any burnt edges.
• Cook in batches – again, in the interest of not overcrowding, cooking in batches is important. This makes it easier to see how everything is cooking when you check on your chips.
• The smash & double fry technique – for this recipe we are mimicking the classic Puerto Rican method of double frying the plantain chips. After the first round of frying we’re taking the chips out, smashing them with the bottom of a flat glass and frying again for maximum crispness.

Making Plantain Chips with Ripe Plantains

One common misconception about plantains is that they are either green or brown. The reality is that they can be both depending on how ripe they are.

As mentioned above, the different levels of ripe-ness will dictate the flavor (sweet or savory) that you achieve from this recipe.

Think of this as a sort of catch all – ripe plantain recipe and savory plantain chip recipe in one.

Making your air fryer plantain chips with ripe plantains will be pretty similar to making them with green ones.

Just be careful to slice them a bit thicker than the green ones as they are so soft and can break a bit easier.

Happy frying!

Salima

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