Perfectly Crispy Homemade Tostones Recipe

3.67 from 3 votes

Perfectly Crispy Homemade Tostones Recipe

Tostones are twice-fried plantains that are soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Vaguely reminiscent of a thick potato chip, they are best enjoyed with salt. Here's how to make your own tostones at home!

Course Appetizer, sides, snacks

Cuisine columbian, Puerto rican

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 15

Total Time 20

Servings servings

Calories 219kcal

Author Alexandria Drzazgowski

Equipment

Ingredients

3 plantains green
Vegetable oil for frying
½ cup water warm
2 tbsp Table salt
Kosher salt for topping

Instructions

Cut the stems off of each end of the plantains. Use a small knife and cut a vertical line from tip to tip of the plantain, cutting through the skin but not through the plantain. Turn the plantain over, and cut the same line down the back. Peel the skin off of the plantain. It should come off in two halves.
Cut the plantain into about 1-1 ½ inch pieces.
In a cast iron skillet, heat about ½-¾ inch of oil, enough to cook about half of the plantain at once. Your oil should be heated on low-medium heat, so that your plantain can cook without burning. It should be hot enough that when you drop your plantain in, it starts to bubble in about 5 seconds.
Place the plantains in the oil, cooking for about 5 minutes or until the surface starts to brown. Use tongs to flip the plantains over and cook on the other side. Remove to a paper towel lined plate.
Grease the bottom of a glass with nonstick spray and use the glass to smash the plantains, reapplying nonstick spray when necessary.
In a small bowl, combine ½ cup warm water with 2 tbsp salt. Stir until salt dissolves.
Quickly dip each smashed plantain in the salt water and leave to dry on paper towel-lined plate again.
Once dried, add the plantains back into the hot oil, and fry for another 3-5 minutes. Remove and place on paper towel lined plates. Sprinkle with salt. Enjoy!

Notes

Recipe copyright The Foreign Fork. For educational or personal use only.

1. Plantains: Plantains look like a banana but taste more like a potato.. Which means that they’re perfect for frying up in this method! Plantains range from green (unripe) to yellow with black spots (very ripe) just like a banana does! For this recipe, we will need green plantains. Be careful peeling your plantains as they can be dangerous. For best practices, view the video at the bottom of this post.
2. Salt: I often use two different kinds of salt for this recipe. When dissolving the salt in the water, I will use typical table salt. When my tostones are finished cooking and are ready to eat, I use flaky sea salt as a final touch!
3. Vegetable Oil: I enjoy using vegetable oil for frying, but another good alternative is sunflower oil. Both types of oil have very similar smoke points, so they can be used interchangeably and will cook your tostones the same way!
4. Be Careful: when adding your plantains in for their second round of frying. Water does not mix well with oil, and adding wet tostones into the oil will cause the oil to pop and possibly burn you. Make sure that your plantains have dried fully before adding them back into the oil again.

Nutrition