Banana chips are a healthy and easily portable snack that is perfect for hiking, camping, car trips, and more. This chewy dehydrator version focuses on true banana flavor, with just enough sweetness and chewiness to make this healthy snack feel like banana candy.
Banana chips can be made with fully ripe, or just over ripe bananas. If you are working with over-ripe bananas, you will want to chill them first to prevent the rounds from falling apart when transferring between the lemon juice and dehydrator trays. If you have super over-ripe bananas, fruit leather is also a tasty option.
Standard dehydration techniques create a chewy banana chip, the addition of a lemon juice coating reduces browning and makes for a whiter chip. If you desire crisp banana chips, like the grocery store versions, you can make oil and lemon juice coated banana chips in the oven. The addition of oil, and a higher temperature, help create a crisp chip.
Plantains can also be turned into chips using the same technique. However, plantains are quite bland and adding spices to them can make a more interesting chip. Smoked paprika, chili, lime and cilantro, and cinnamon can all be added to banana or plantain chips to create variety. For a crisp, airy banana chip a freeze dryer could do it.
Print
Homemade Chewy Banana Chips in Your Dehydrator
Description
Easy chewy banana chips.
Ingredients
1–2 bunches of bananas
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup water
Optional: cinnamon, other spices
Instructions
Thinly slice the banana into coins. Combine lemon juice and water, and swish the banana slices through the mixture as they are cut.
Place the treated banana slices on your dehydrator trays.
Dry at 125F for 8-12 hours for chewy banana chips. Banana chips become crisper if the dehydrator temperature is at 135F, but they need to be monitored at that temperature to prevent the sugars from caramelizing.
Let cool naturally, and peel off the trays. Store in ziploc bags, glass jars, or vacuum sealed bags. If you are concerned about the shelf life, store in the freezer. In my experience, dried bananas have lasted in ziploc bags, in cool storage, for several years without any change in flavor or texture.
Note: Banana chips are one of the few dried fruits that may still be sticky after they are fully dried.
If you don’t like the slightly sour impact of the lemon juice on the outside of the banana piece, you do not need to use lemon juice. You can just dehydrate straight sliced banana pieces, they will just slightly oxidize brown and look less visually appealing. The banana flavor and shelf life is about the same.
How to make banana chips
As with many fruit dehydrating recipes, this is actually very simple. Thinly slice the bananas, coat with lemon juice, and dry. If you want more variety you can try sprinkling on cinnamon, or other spices. For the adventurous, try imitating some of the flavors that can be found in Indian ethnic markets for dried plantain chips, like masala, chili, and others.
Ingredients:
1-2 bunches of bananas
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup water
Optional: cinnamon, other spices
Directions:
Thinly slice the banana into coins. Combine lemon juice and water, and swish the banana slices through the mixture as they are cut. You can also slice the bananas length-wise and make long skinny banana strips that will be more like fruit leather, or a fruit roll up. Lengthwise can be more challenging to get even slices on, due to the curved nature of bananas.
Place the treated banana slices on your dehydrator trays.
Dry at 125F for 8-12 hours for chewy banana chips. Banana chips become crisper if the dehydrator temperature is at 135F, but they need to be monitored at that temperature to prevent the sugars from caramelizing.
Let cool naturally, and peel off the trays. Store in ziploc bags, glass jars, or vacuum sealed bags. If you are concerned about the shelf life, store in the freezer. In my experience, dried bananas have lasted in ziploc bags, in cool storage, for several years without any change in flavor or texture.
Note: Banana chips are one of the few dried fruits that may still be sticky after they are fully dried.
If you don’t like the slightly sour impact of the lemon juice on the outside of the banana piece, you do not need to use lemon juice. You can just dehydrate straight sliced banana pieces, they will just slightly oxidize brown and look less visually appealing. The banana flavor and shelf life is about the same.
Oven Variation:
If you want the crisp crunchy version of banana chips that the stores have, you’ll need to coat the banana pieces in equal parts lemon juice and oil. Then, bake in the oven for 2-3 hours at 200F. This will create a crisper, baked chip, instead of the chewy dehydrator version. Personally, I prefer chewy dried bananas, to the crisp version. You will also have a slightly lower calorie count for the dehydrator version over the oven version.
Notes:
If your bananas are at the banana-bread stage, they may not hold up well to being sliced into coins and dredged in lemon juice. In this case, you can mash the banana with a bit of lemon juice, spread it on a piece of parchment paper or cling wrap, and dry it for fruit leather. Alternatively, half banana puree and half applesauce also makes amazing fruit leather, without the need for lemon juice.
Your Turn:
What is your favorite, easily packed camping food? If you enjoy dried fruits, what other fruit varieties have you used for snacks?
I made these with some almost overripe organic bananas I got
from an discount grocery and they turned out AMAZING !! They were just like banana gummies. I will definitely make again