Homemade Banana Chips Recipe

Homemade Banana Chips are inexpensive, easy, and healthy snack the entire family will love. Fresh bananas are sliced and dried in a dehydrator, oven, microwave or air fryer!

This banana chips recipe is a great way to use overripe bananas when you don’t feel like making banana bread or chocolate chip banana bars. They are also a healthy snack the kiddos will love! Eat them on their own or dip into chocolate, salsa, hummus, or even guacamole!

How to Make Banana Chips

The basic premise of making banana chips is to slowly dry out the bananas until they are crisp like a chip. You can do this in the oven, in a dehydrator, air fryer, or even the microwave!

Air Fryer

I’m always looking for new air fryer recipes so this is my favorite way to make banana chips!

With the air fryer I recommend using barely ripe bananas that are firm. Peel and slice the banana thinly and soak the slices in lemon water for five minutes.

Meanwhile preheat the air fryer to 360 degrees. Spray the inside of the air fryer basket with nonstick cooking spray to make sure the chips don’t stick. Layer the chips in a single layer in the air fryer and air fry for 12 minutes.

Tip: Work in batches if you need to so that they are in a single layer not touching each other.

Check and if not yet crisp fry an additional 3 minutes.

Dehydrator

To make these chips in the dehydrator, prepare a bowl with 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup lemon juice. Slice bananas evenly and add to bowl. Allow to soak for 5 minutes before adding to dehydrator tray.

Dehydrate at 135 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 hours. After 10 hours flip the chips and dehydrate another 2 hours or until dry.

Oven

In the oven we prepare the bananas the same as the dehydrator, letting them soak in the lemon water five minutes before placing in a single layer on a foil lined baking sheet.

Heat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 2 hours or until dry, flipping after 30 minutes.

Microwave

Again prepare the banana chips as above, soaking in the lemon juice. Place in a single layer on a microwave safe plate and microwave for 1 minute. Flip chips and season if desired, then microwave 1 minute wait 30 seconds and microwave one additional minute.

If bananas are not fully dry add 30 second intervals until they are the desired crispness.

Regardless of which method you use, chips will crisp more as they cool.

Seasoning ideas & flavor variations

You certainly don’t need to season the bananas before drying but there are a lot of fun flavors to experiment with if you choose to change up the taste!

• soak in lime juice instead of lemon juice
• sprinkle with cinnamon
• add salt to enhance the sweetness
• 2 parts garam masala & 1 part chili powder sprinkled over chips
• sprinkle with brown sugar
• sprinkle with powdered peanut butter
• soak in water with salt & turmeric instead of lemon water
• season with pepper
• sprinkle with savory spices like garlic powder or paprika

The possibilities are endless!

Tips for best results

• Slice the bananas thinly and evenly, a mandoline slicer is helpful for this (link below in the tools section)
• the harder the banana, the easier it is to make the chips

FAQs about this Banana Chips Recipe

Helpful tools

These are tools I use to make banana chips: (affiliate links)

• mandoline slicer
• air fryer

You might also like these Chocolate Chip Banana Bars, Strawberry Banana “Ice Cream,” and this Banana Pudding recipe.

If you’ve tried this recipe please comment and rate it below, I love hearing from you!

Print

This recipe was originally shared in February 2018 and updated with additional information and new photos July 2020.