We visited Panama last week and had an amazing time, but one thing that really caught our attention was the patacones, double fried unripe plantains that are a favorite snack and side in Central America and the Caribbean.

The best part about this is that Patacones are incredibly easy to make, so easy that I even hesitate to call this a ‘recipe’.

You will generally get four patacones from each plantain, so when you are making these, use this as a guide for how many unripe plantains you need. By unripe plantain, you are looking for plantains that are still green.

They key to creating your own perfect patacones is experimentation.  People cook these very much to taste, so the thickness of the plantain chunks and the length of the first and second fry can have a  huge effect on the crispness, the chunkiness and the flavor.