This recipe is taken directly from GrillGirl.com, the site run by cookbook author Robyn Lindars — the Bananas Foster Grilled with Myer’s Rum Sauce recipe published on grillgirl.com. Lindars has appeared on The Today Show, the Cooking Channel and the Travel Channel, and competes with the Shed BBQ Competition Team, so her grill-safe method for building the rum caramel sauce right on the cooking grate is a solid baseline before you start adjusting it to your own taste.
Classic bananas foster is normally built in a skillet on the stovetop. This version moves the whole process outside: the caramel sauce reduces in a saucepan set on the indirect side of the grill while the bananas themselves char, skin-on, over direct heat a few inches away. The result is a dessert that picks up a bit of smoke alongside the usual butter, brown sugar and rum flavors.
Ingredients
For the bananas
- 2 bananas, sliced lengthwise with the skin left on
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
For the rum caramel sauce
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- Dash of salt
- 1/3 cup dark rum (the recipe specifies Myer’s Rum)
To serve
- Vanilla ice cream
- 1/4 cup candied pecans or pralines (optional)
Method
- Prepare a grill for medium heat at 350°F (177°C), creating a direct zone and an indirect zone.
- In a grill-safe saucepan set on the indirect side, melt the butter, then add the brown sugar, allspice, nutmeg and salt, stirring to combine.
- Add the rum and let the sauce reduce while you work on the bananas.
- Grill the bananas exposed-side down over direct heat until char marks form, then flip and repeat on the skin-on side — leaving the skin on helps keep the bananas intact as they cook.
- Remove the bananas from the grill and sprinkle with the cinnamon.
- Scoop ice cream into a bowl. Remove each banana from its skin and set it on top of the ice cream, then drizzle the rum sauce generously over the banana and ice cream. Finish with candied pecans or pralines if you like.
Why the Skin Stays On
The one detail worth calling out is the instruction to slice the bananas lengthwise without peeling them first. Grilling fruit without its skin usually means it falls apart on the grate as it softens; the peel here acts as a shell that holds the banana together through both sides of direct heat, so you get clean char marks on the cut side and a fully cooked, intact piece of fruit to plate rather than banana pulp stuck to the grates. You only peel it away once it’s off the heat and ready to serve.
A Few Practical Notes
Because the sauce is built in a saucepan rather than flambéed tableside like the original New Orleans version, there’s no open-flame moment to manage — the alcohol cooks off gradually as the rum reduces on the indirect side rather than being ignited. That makes this a more forgiving way to get the same flavor profile without the theatrics, though it does mean you should budget a few extra minutes for the sauce to thicken before the bananas come off the grill.
If you don’t want to buy a bottle of dark rum for one dessert, the recipe itself notes a preference for Myer’s specifically, so it’s worth checking whether you already have a similar dark or spiced rum on hand rather than picking up something unfamiliar. The sauce, cinnamon and pecans are what carry most of the flavor here, so small substitutions in the rum shouldn’t throw off the result.
Serve this one immediately — the whole point is the contrast between the warm, charred banana and rum sauce against cold vanilla ice cream, and that contrast disappears fast once the ice cream starts to melt into the sauce.
Keep reading
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- Grilled Pound Cake with Berries: Taste of Home’s Recipe