Tostones- How to make twice-fried plantainsfeatured

Tostones- these twice-fried green plantains are crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The perfect starchy side or snack paired with dips, guacamole, or ceviche!

Tostones

We eat a lot of Latin food around here. We live in a predominantly Latin neighbourhood in Upper Manhattan, and my husband is Puerto Rican, and therefore so are my kids. I cook them a ton of Egyptian food to connect them to the culture my parents passed to me, in large part through food (I am what I eat, afterall), but their culture doesn’t end at Egyptian. So, I cook Puerto Rican food because they too are what they eat.

We all adore tostones. 

There’s so many delicious ways to eat plantains, sweet fried maduros, porky mofongo, mashed green mangu and the list goes on…

But tostones are just so perfect in their simplicity and are my absolute fav.

They make a perfect side dish with pretty much any Latin or other Caribbean dish, like my Puerto Rican arroz con pollo (rice and chicken) or Puerto Rican chicken stew- Pollo Guisado.

Arroz con pollo – Puerto Rican rice with chicken

Arroz con pollo, chicken and rice cooked together with a fragrant sofrito base, tomato sauce, garlic, warm spices, and briny olives and capers. The perfect, quick one-pot family meal.

Arroz con pollo recipe

Pollo Guisado – Puerto Rican chicken stew

This pollo guisado- or chicken stew- is a Puerto Rican classic. Chicken stewed in a flavorful base of sofrito, onions, garlic, tomato and vegetables of choice until falling off the bone into a richly savory sauce. Simple to make and endlessly customizable, this stew is a family favorite.

Pollo guisado recipe

The mostly commonly found variety of tostones are these ones- made with green plantains.

In Puerto Rico tostones are also made using breadfruit. You can find my recipe for those- tostones de pana- here.

Tostones de pana – Breadfruit tostones

These tostones de pana (breadfruit) are crispy on the outside, with a light and fluffy interior, and mildly sweet and nutty flavor. They make the perfect snack or side dish.

Tostones de pana recipe

How to make tostones

Here’s my recipe.

Ok, its hardly a recipe. It’s four words: fry, smash, fry, salt.

Got it?

Ingredients

All you need for this recipe is three ingredients. Plantains, cooking oil, and salt.

You want to start with very green plantains, platanos verdes in Spanish. No yellow on them. The greener they are the more starchy, and that is what you want here.

However, I have definitely left my platanos to ripen a day or two too long and have made tostones with plananos that are starting to turn yellowish. They are still delicious, but will come out softer and a touch sweet. In our home we call those “tosturos” or “madtones” at home- a cross between tostones and their fried yellow counterpart, maduros.

Prep your plantains

The first step is to prep your platanos for frying.

Start by peeling off their thick, fibrous skin.

Admittedly, peeling green plantains is a bit more difficult than peeling yellow ones or peeling bananas. The peel doesn’t come off particularly easily, and if it does, it means your plantains might be getting too ripe for tostones.

To get that skin off, slice through the skin lengthwise from the top of the plantain to the bottom. Then pull the peel off in chunks.

Once the skin is off and you’ve removed any remaining fibers, chop crosswise into roughly one-inch pieces.

Fry, smash, fry, salt

Fry

Heat enough oil to half cover the pieces over high heat in a pan. Fry, turning occasionally, until cooked through, and remove to a paper towel-lined plate with a slotted spoon.

Smash:

I use a special tool for this called a tostonera, which you can find here, but you can smash your plantain pieces using a flat surface, like the bottom of a small pot or plate.

They shouldn’t offer too much resistance.

If they fall apart when smashed, that means they were not cooked through the first time so put them back to fry a bit longer and try again!

Fry:

Place them back into the hot oil and fry until crisp and golden.

Salt:

Salt.

Enjoy with a squeeze of lime, dipped into garlic mojo, guacamole or salsa, or as your new favourite side dish!

Buen provecho!