24/7 Bebenta Sa'yo, Banana Chips Recipe by Marketman

Banana Chips Recipe by Marketman

Our parents once had a banana chip factory in the early seventies that was decades ahead of its time. Not sure if they had an interest in the large banana plantation where the factory sat on, but all I recall is the endless testing that was going on in our basement garage, sending fried banana aromas into our bedroom. The business failed eventually, and we were left with mountains of banana chips to munch on for months to come. That’s why I never ate them for the next decade or so after that! But today I find I love the crunch and sweetness of a well made banana chip. I am particularly partial to several “pugon” or brick-oven baked banana chips. I like to add them to homemade trail mixes with a pinoy theme including dried mangoes, cashews, peanuts, etc. I have, however, NEVER made any banana chips at home.

I guessed that these semi-ripe lagkitan bananas might be a good one to try and fry… not as starchy and dense as a saba, and not as sweet and delicate as a lakatan. We used a mandoline to slice the bananas thinly…

…the cook heated up some oil and fried the bananas until just lightly golden and removed them to drain on some paper towels. The next problem was how to make them sweet. I tried making a simple syrup of sugar and water and dipped the fried bananas in this mixture… Unfortunately, this resulted in too thick of a sugary coating and the chip had a tendency to get soft over time.

I made a lighter suga/water mixture and lightly brushed it onto the chips and this resulted in a nice lightly sweetened banana chip. I suspect its best to bake these chips for a while to set the sugar and make sure they remain crisp… Or maybe the chips are sprayed with the sugary water before they are fried… who knows?

Considering the extremely reasonable prices for baked banana chips and the convenience of just opening up a pack to munch on whenever you feel like it, this is one of those snacks I will probably just continue to buy rather than making it ourselves.