You may remember my Chicken and Rice post from a few weeks ago. Well, one of my favorite sides to make with that Chicken and Rice are these baked plantains, ‘cause I like carbs with my carbs. They’re sticky and slightly sweet and it’s almost like I’m eating dessert with my dinner, so I’m all about it.

They’re super easy to make, just think of it like baking a potato, nothing intimidating here. The only recommendation l’ll make make is to be sure that you’re using super ripe plantains. You can totally eat them when they are less ripe, they’ll just have more starch than sugar. I prefer them sweeter, but it’s all up to you. You want a plantain that is almost entirely black and spotted, if it was a banana you would think it was rotten. You’ll buy them in the store either green or yellow, and then you’ll need to let ‘em sit for about a week, maybe more, to ripen up. Ry got these from work, and if I remember correctly, I let them sit out on our countertop for about two weeks, and as you can see from the pics, one of theme isn’t quite ripe yet, or at least as ripe as I would prefer.

To cook these all I did for this was peel them, slice them, add some salt and butter then bake. To finish up I topped with some garlic butter, ‘cause mo butter, mo bettah, and added some cilantro. Easy peasy!