Fried Banana Recipe – Sweet, cinnamony, golden brown, and extraordinarily flavorful, these fried bananas are pure magic! They’re super easy to whip up for an incredible dessert, especially when stacked around a hearty scoop of ice cream. Get ready to make your new favorite treat. ✨
If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you know I adore plantains in all forms and fashions. But a question I often get is: Can you fry bananas like plantains? So it’s time to clarify the matter. Yes, you absolutely can, and what’s more, I highly recommend it.
When I said this recipe was easy, I meant it. All you need is a few basic ingredients and about 15 minutes to make the most flavorful banana dessert you’ve ever tasted. No fancy cooking techniques or special equipment required. 😅
Ways to Use Fried Bananas
Fried banana recipes work great for dessert, breakfast, or brunch. These guys are a decadent dessert in their own right, but they also make a tasty garnish. If ice cream is the star of the show, add fried bananas on the side. Or use them to complement tropical desserts like mango fool or key lime pie.
If you’re opting to serve them for breakfast, pile these fried beauties over pancakes and waffles, serve them with a chocolate beignet, or top a bowl of maple oatmeal with a few. One of the best things about bananas, in general, is how well they go with other textures and flavors. Talk about versatile! 🤩
Recipe Ingredients
- Bananas – Three medium or two large bananas will do the trick for this recipe.
- Frying Fat – Coconut oil or butter are both perfect for this recipe. Take your pick based on your dietary requirements or your taste preferences.
- Spices – Cinnamon and nutmeg are my choice for perfectly fried bananas. However, ground ginger and cardamom are also fantabulous.
- Optional Ingredients – Rum (or bourbon) and toasted coconut flakes are optional for this recipe, but 12/10 would recommend you use them. 😉
How to Fry Bananas
- Prep Bananas – Start by peeling firm, ripe bananas and cutting them into about ½-inch thick slices or desired shapes.
- Melt Butter – Heat up a skillet over medium heat. Add butter, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and let the butter melt.
- Add Banana Slices – As soon as the butter melts, add the bananas in a single layer.
- Cook for about 1-2 minutes or until golden brown. Then flip, cooking for about one more minute.
- Add Rum – Remove the pan from the heat before adding the rum. Be careful because it might flare.
- Simmer – Put the pan back on the heat and cook for another minute. Remove from heat and serve immediately with caramel sauce, ice cream, and/or coconut flakes.
- Serve – Dig in and enjoy!
Recipe Variations
- Fresh out of rum? Use bourbon instead. It’s equally delicious and works precisely the same in this recipe.
- Want to make a slightly healthier version of this recipe? Replace the sugar with honey. Not only is it a little better for you than refined sugar, but it also adds another layer of flavor to this already gorgeous dessert.
- Get creative with the spices if you dare. I think bananas and cinnamon are heavenly, but you could try other warm spices. Pumpkin pie spice, for example, would go really well here.
Tips and Tricks
- If at any point your skillet is drying out a little too much and you are worried about burning the bananas, simply add 1-2 tablespoons of water to the pan.
- A key to getting the texture right in this recipe is to use perfectly ripe bananas. Green bananas won’t give you good flavor, and overripe ones will fall apart. So choose just ripe bananas or bananas that have just a tinge of green left to them.
Make-Ahead Instructions
You can make these fried bananas a day or two ahead if you don’t mind serving them chilled because they don’t reheat well. Honestly, though, they taste best warm and fresh out of the frying pan. And since they only take 10-15 minutes to make, you may not need to make them ahead of time anyway!
Serving and Storage Instructions
Serve fried bananas fresh out of the frying pan for best results. Top them with toasted coconut and caramel sauce, then serve with ice cream or any other sweet treat you desire.
Store leftover fried bananas in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-5 days. Leftover fried bananas taste best chilled instead of reheated since they tend to get overly mushy when heated multiple times. But hey, chilled fried bananas still taste amazing with ice cream!
FAQs
You can! Crispy, battered, fried bananas are popular in Asia and beyond. Usually, the batter includes regular flour and rice flour, salt, sugar, butter or oil, and cold water. You coat the pieces of banana and then deep fry them. It’s a little more work, but it’s totally delicious!
Pan frying, a dry heat cooking method, doesn’t affect the potassium in bananas as much as boiling them. This dessert may be sugary, but at least you’re still getting some nutrients out of the deal. 😜
They may look similar, but fried bananas and plantains cook up and taste totally different. Fried green plantains are savory, while ripe plantains are more like bananas when fried. That said, fried ripe plantains are even sweeter than bananas and darker in color when cooked.
What Goes With Fried Bananas
My two favorite ice cream options to serve with fried bananas are vanilla ice cream drizzled with homemade caramel sauce and whipped cream or homemade rum raisin pineapple ice cream. Both options are heavenly with bananas. 😇
You could also serve these on a breakfast charcuterie board or a stack of fluffy pumpkin pancakes. I also like them with chocolate chip pancakes because chocolate and banana taste amazing together.
More Drool-Worthy Banana Recipes to Try
- Banana Foster
- Homemade Banana Pudding
- Banana Fritters
- No Bake Banana Split Pie
- Banana Cream Pie
- Moist Banana Cake
Conclusion
There’s so much to love about this recipe: economical, easy, and extremely delicious! Have you tried fried bananas? I’d love to see your comments on how you customize them. 😍
Watch How to Make It
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Fried Banana Recipe
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Ingredients
- 3 medium bananas (or 2 large) ripe but firm
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅙ teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
- 2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon rum (optional)
- Toasted coconut flakes (optional)
Instructions
- Start by peeling firm ripe bananas and cut them into about ½-inch thick slices or desired shapes.
- Heat up the skillet over medium heat. Add butter, sugar, and cinnamon, and let the butter melt.
- As soon as the butter melts, add bananas in a single layer. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown. Then flip and cook for about another minute.
- Remove the pan from the heat before adding the rum. Be careful because it might flare.
- Put the pan back on the heat and cook for another minute.
- Remove from heat and serve immediately with caramel sauce, ice cream, and/or coconut flakes.
Tips & Notes:
- You can replace sugar with honey for a healthier take on these fried bananas.
- Use bourbon instead of rum.
- Please remember that the nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used in the recipe.
Tahir says
Yummy and delicious recipe I like it
Imma says
Wonderful! Thank you so much for the feedback 🙂