Banana chips

Banana chips are deep-fried or dried slices of bananas (fruits of herbaceous plants of the genus Musa of the soft, sweet "dessert banana" variety). They can be covered with sugar or honey and have a sweet taste, or they can be fried in oil and spices and have a salty or spicy taste. Banana chips are commonly found in India, Philippines and Indonesia (as kripik). Variants of banana chips may be covered with chocolate instead. Banana chips are similar to chifle, usually made from firmer, starchier fruit varieties of the genus Musa commercially called plantains or "cooking bananas".

Fried banana chips are usually produced from under-ripe banana slices deep-fried in sunflower oil or coconut oil. These chips are dry (like potato chips) and can be salted, spiced, sugar coated or jaggery coated. Sometimes banana flavoring is added. If ripe bananas are used, they come out oily. They are used for desserts, not for dry chips.

Some varieties of banana chips can be produced using only food dehydration. Banana slices that are only dehydrated are not dark yellow and crunchy, but rather are brown, leathery and chewy. They are very sweet and have an intense banana flavor. These are ideally made from bananas that are fully ripe. Another kind is made by baking in an oven, although this process may not result in the same intense banana flavor.

Fried plantain chips, usually made in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and known locally as nenthra-kaaya oopperi or upperi in Kerala, are fried in coconut oil. Both ripe and unripe plantains are used for this variant. Sometimes they are coated with masala or jaggery to form spicy and sweet variants. Almost plain banana and platain chips are called pachkkaya varuthathu and kaya upperi respectively; sweet jaggery-banana chips are called sharkara upperi. It is an integral part of the traditional Kerala meal called sadya served during weddings and traditional festivals such as Onam.

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Wikipedia