What Is Mofongo? Puerto Rico’s Garlicky Plantain Mash (and How to Make It)

Mofongo is Puerto Rico’s garlicky plantain mash: fried green plantains pounded with garlic, olive oil and crunchy chicharrón. Shape it into domes and serve with warm broth, a saucy stew or your favorite cooked filling.

Mofongo at a Glance

What Is Mofongo?

Mofongo is a mash of fried green (unripe) plantains seasoned with a lot of garlic. The plantains are cut into chunks, fried until cooked through but not crisp, and pounded while still hot in a pilón with garlic that has been crushed with salt and olive oil.

Crushed chicharrón goes in during pounding. It seasons the mash, adds fat and leaves little crunchy pieces throughout.

The mash is then pressed into the pilón or a small bowl and turned out as a dome. In Puerto Rico that dome usually arrives with something saucy beside it or on top, because mofongo on its own is quite dry. The sauce or broth is part of the dish, not an extra.

You’ll find it everywhere on the island, from roadside kioscos to sit-down restaurants in Old San Juan, and in every Puerto Rican community on the mainland. It’s one of the dishes in our 40 Puerto Rican dishes roundup that visitors ask about most.

What Does Mofongo Taste Like?

The first thing you taste is garlic, and plenty of it, because it goes in raw. Under that is the mild, starchy, slightly nutty flavor of green plantain, which tastes more like a potato than a banana. Green plantains aren’t sweet at all.

The chicharrón makes it salty and porky, and the olive oil makes it rich. The texture is the part people remember: heavier and coarser than mashed potatoes, with soft and crispy bits in every bite.

Good mofongo is moist enough to hold together but never gluey. If it’s dry and crumbly, it needed more broth or fat. If it’s pasty, the plantains were boiled instead of fried, or they cooled down before they were mashed.

What Is Mofongo Made Of?

Traditional Puerto Rican mofongo has five ingredients, plus oil for frying. Each one does a specific job.

Where Is Mofongo From?

Mofongo is Puerto Rican. The idea behind it, pounding a starchy food into a dense mash, came to the Caribbean with enslaved Central and West Africans, whose cooking also gave the region fufu. Puerto Rican cooks combined that technique with Spanish garlic, olive oil and pork, and with the Taíno pilón and local ingredients.

The name points the same way. Linguists trace “mofongo” to the Kikongo word mfwenge-mfwenge, roughly “a great quantity of anything.”

1. 1859Puerto Rico’s first cookbook, El Cocinero Puerto-Riqueño, prints a recipe for “mofongo criollo”: green plantains boiled with meat, mashed with garlic, oregano, ají dulce and lard or bacon, rolled into a ball and eaten with the cooking broth.
2. 1948A Puerto Rican cookbook by Elizabeth B.K. Dooley describes the version that sounds familiar today: fried plantains mashed with garlic, olive oil and chicharrón.
3. Mid-1900sBy now frying has replaced boiling as the standard method in Puerto Rico, and mofongo is becoming a restaurant staple on the island and in New York.
4. 1962Mofongo appears in a Dominican cookbook for the first time, in Amanda Ornes’ Cocina Criolla, made with roasted plantains.
5. TodayStuffed mofongo relleno, trifongo and seafood versions are fixtures of Puerto Rican menus everywhere.

For the bigger picture, our guide to plantain dishes across Latin America shows how the same fruit turned into very different dishes from Mexico to Peru.

Is Mofongo Puerto Rican or Dominican?

Mofongo is Puerto Rican, and it’s also very popular in the Dominican Republic. Dominican food writers generally describe it as a dish their country adopted from Puerto Rico in the 20th century. Dominicans who moved between Santo Domingo, San Juan and New York helped spread it, and today it’s on menus in both countries.

The Dominican Republic’s own plantain mash is mangú. It’s made from boiled plantains mashed smooth with water or butter and served with pickled red onions, usually at breakfast. Mofongo uses fried plantains, raw garlic and pork, and it’s eaten at lunch or dinner.

For the other two classic ways to fry a plantain, see tostones vs. maduros.

How to Make Mofongo: The Five Things That Matter

The full recipe is in the card below. These are the steps where mofongo goes right or wrong.

1. Start with green plantains. Peel them (score the skin lengthwise and pry it off) and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Any yellow and the mash turns sweet and sticky.
2. Fry low enough to cook them through. At about 350°F the pieces take 8 to 10 minutes to turn golden and tender all the way to the center. Unlike tostones, they’re fried once and not flattened.
3. Make the garlic mojo first. Pound the garlic with a pinch of salt in the pilón until it’s a paste, then stir in the olive oil. Everything else gets mashed into this.
4. Mash hot, in small batches. Work with one plantain’s worth at a time, straight out of the oil, with a spoonful of chicharrón. Cooled plantains turn hard and won’t come together.
5. Loosen with broth, then shape. Add warm broth a tablespoon at a time until the mash holds together, then press it into the pilón or a small bowl and turn it out.

Why the Pilón Matters

The pilón is the wooden mortar and pestle found in almost every Puerto Rican kitchen. The traditional ones are carved from hardwoods like guayacán. It does three jobs for mofongo: it crushes the garlic into a paste, it pounds the plantains to the right coarse texture, and it works as the mold, so the mofongo comes out shaped like the inside of the bowl.

Many restaurants on the island serve mofongo right in the pilón it was made in. A wooden one picks up the flavor of years of garlic, which is why cooks keep them for decades and never put them in the dishwasher.

Types of Mofongo

Once you know the basic method, you’ll see mofongo in many forms. These are the ones you’ll find on menus in Puerto Rico and the mainland.

How to Eat Mofongo (and What to Serve With It)

Mofongo is eaten with a fork, and it’s meant to soak up whatever comes with it. As a side, it replaces rice or potatoes. As a main, it’s stuffed or topped with something saucy.

• With broth: the old way. Hot chicken broth is poured around the dome, or the mofongo is served in a bowl of it.
• With seafood: shrimp, lobster, octopus or conch in garlic or creole sauce. Mofongo shows up on many of the Puerto Rican seafood dishes on the coast.
• With meat: carne frita, churrasco, pernil or pollo guisado.
• With a salad: sliced avocado and tomato cut the richness.
• Bite-size: mofongo balls and mofongo cups are party food, and stuffed plantain cups like tostones rellenos are a close cousin.

Other good sides for the same meal are on our list of Puerto Rican side dishes. To season the meat or seafood the Puerto Rican way, read adobo vs. sazón.

Mofongo Recipe

This makes three restaurant-size mofongos, one plantain each. It’s the classic version with chicharrón and garlic. Serve it with warm broth or the shrimp, chicken or steak of your choice.

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Puerto Rican Mofongo

Yield: 3 mofongos

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Classic Puerto Rican mofongo: green plantains fried until tender, then pounded in a pilón with raw garlic, olive oil and crushed chicharrón and shaped into domes. Serve it with warm broth, or stuff it with shrimp, chicken or steak.

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Ingredients

For the plantains

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• 3 large green plantains (about 2 pounds), fully green and firm
• Vegetable or canola oil, for frying (about 1½ inches in the pot)
• 1 teaspoon salt, for the soaking water (optional)

For the garlic mojo

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• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

For mashing

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• 1½ cups crushed chicharrones (pork cracklings), about 3 ounces
• ½ cup warm chicken broth, plus more for serving

Instructions

1. Prep the plantains

1. Cut off both ends of each plantain. Score the skin lengthwise in 2 or 3 places, then pry the peel off with your thumb or a spoon.
2. Cut the plantains into 1-inch rounds.
3. Optional: soak the pieces for 10 minutes in 4 cups of water with 1 teaspoon salt. Drain and pat them completely dry.

2. Fry until tender

1. Heat about 1½ inches of oil in a heavy pot or deep skillet to 350°F.
2. Fry the plantains in 2 batches for 8 to 10 minutes, turning, until golden outside and fork-tender all the way through. They should not get dark or crunchy.
3. Drain on paper towels. Keep the oil hot if you want to re-warm a batch before mashing.

3. Make the garlic mojo

1. While the first batch fries, pound the garlic with the salt in a pilón (mortar) until it becomes a paste.
2. Stir in the olive oil and scrape the mojo into a small bowl. Wipe out the pilón.

4. Mash one mofongo at a time

1. Put one-third of the hot plantains in the pilón with one-third of the garlic mojo and ½ cup of the chicharrones.
2. Pound with an up-and-down motion until mostly broken down but still a little chunky.
3. Add warm broth 1 tablespoon at a time, usually 2 to 3 tablespoons, until the mash holds together when pressed.

5. Shape and serve

1. Press the mash firmly into the pilón or a small bowl (about 1½ cups), then turn it out onto a plate as a dome.
2. Repeat with the remaining plantains, mojo and chicharrones.
3. Serve right away with warm broth poured around it, or press a well into the top and fill it with shrimp, chicken or carne frita.

Notes

• Green plantains only: any yellow on the skin means the fruit has started to sweeten, and the mash will be soft and sticky.
• No pilón: use a potato masher in a heavy bowl, and shape the mofongo in a small bowl lined with plastic wrap.
• Mash while hot: plantains that cool down turn hard and won't bind. Re-fry a cooled batch for 1 minute first.
• Chicharrón swaps: use 6 slices of crisp crumbled bacon, or leave the pork out and use vegetable broth with an extra tablespoon of olive oil.
• Mofongo relleno: press a deep well into each dome with a spoon and fill it with camarones al ajillo or shrimp in creole sauce.
• Air fryer: toss the plantain pieces with 1 tablespoon oil and cook at 380°F for 12 to 15 minutes, shaking halfway. Add a little extra broth when mashing.
• Make ahead: fry the plantains up to 1 day ahead and refrigerate. Re-fry for 1 to 2 minutes until hot, then mash.
• Nutrition is an estimate per mofongo, without toppings or extra broth.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 3 Serving Size: 1 mofongo
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 620Total Fat: 37gSaturated Fat: 7gSodium: 1050mgCarbohydrates: 60gFiber: 4gProtein: 19g

Storing and Reheating Mofongo

Mofongo is best right after it’s made. As it cools, the plantain starch sets and the mash gets firm.

• Fridge: wrap tightly and keep up to 3 days.
• Reheat: break it up in a skillet with a little oil and a few tablespoons of broth, cover and warm over low heat, then reshape. The microwave works with a splash of broth and a damp paper towel on top.
• Freezer: freeze the fried, unmashed plantain pieces for up to 2 months. Re-fry them briefly from frozen, then mash fresh. It’s much better than freezing finished mofongo.

Is Mofongo Healthy?

Mofongo is an indulgence. A restaurant-size portion made with one plantain, olive oil and chicharrón comes to roughly 550 to 650 calories before any topping, mostly from starch and fat. Plantains do bring fiber and potassium, and the dish is naturally gluten-free.

To lighten it, air-fry or bake the plantain pieces instead of deep-frying them, use less chicharrón (or crisp bacon, which is easier to measure), and serve it with broth and a salad rather than a heavy sauce.

Mofongo FAQ

More Puerto Rican Plantain and Comfort Food

• 40 Puerto Rican DishesThe full roundup of the island’s food
• Tostones vs. MadurosGreen or ripe, and how each is cooked
• Tostones RellenosPlantain cups stuffed with seafood
• Puerto Rican Street FoodWhat to eat at the kioscos
• Puerto Rican Christmas FoodsPernil, pasteles and coquito
• Puerto Rican PastelesThe plantain-masa holiday tamal

Browse everything else on our Puerto Rican foods hub.

Jorge Garcia

Jorge Garcia is the founder of AmigoFoods, where he has spent over 20 years helping readers discover authentic Latin American and Spanish cuisine. Raised in a Cuban-American household, Jorge learned to cook at the hands of his mother and grandmother, carrying forward generations of family recipes. That heritage, backed by his family’s four-generation history in the Latin food industry, inspired him to launch AmigoFoods in 2003. With more than 1,000 published articles on recipes, ingredients, and food culture, Jorge’s mission is simple: make authentic Latin cooking approachable for home cooks everywhere while honoring the traditions behind every dish.

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