Pisang Goreng - Indonesian Fried Bananas

My favorite 4 o’clock tea time snack is piping hot deep fried bananas or plantains, served with hot jasmine tea.

This tasty morsel is called pisang goreng in Indonesian, and along with bakwan, is a very popular street food.

It is more appropriate to prepare pisang goreng with cooking banana such as plantains or saba bananas, but I have always get a good result using regular (cavendish) bananas.

Be sure to choose the ones that are still firm. Even better if the skin is not 100% yellow but not 100% green, or avoid the ones with dark spots if the skin has turned yellow.

Rice Flour and Panko For Extra Crunch

What make the batter crispy is the use of rice flour, so please don’t omit this.

For rice flour, I always use Erawan brand rice flour since this is the closest to the rice flour widely available in Indonesia.

Original street seller version of pisang goreng is usually not coated with panko (Japanese bread crumb). Although it is actually more authentic without, I am addicted to the extra crunch I get from panko and I can no longer go back to non-panko-coated ones.

Pisang goreng is traditionally served as snack, but you can definitely serve this as dessert as well.

How to Cook Pisang Goreng (Indonesian Fried Bananas)

Cut each banana into 2, then cut each half into third and slightly spread into a fan shape.

Make the batter by mixing all purpose flour, rice flour, salt, vanilla extract, and milk.

Set up a breading station consists of banana, batter, and panko.

Heat oil to 170 Celsius (340 Fahrenheit) for deep frying.

Coat banana in batter and panko, then deep fry until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes. Serve hot.