These are what I consider to be the best deep-fryer recipes. I love deep-fried food. Maybe a little too much! But that’s ok, I consider them a treat so I make sure to always use my deep-fryer for something special! These are my favorite deep-fryer dishes to make at home.
I don’t fire up the deep-fryer every night. In fact, that’s part of what makes it so fun. When I do bring it out, it feels like a little celebration in the kitchen. The noise, the golden brown color, that incredible smell that fills the whole house. It instantly turns a regular evening into something worth remembering.
Good Equipment Makes Good Food
Make sure you have a good deep-fryer. One that can reach the desired temperature and maintain it. When you add cold food to a fryer the temperature drops. The quicker is can recover from that, the better your results will be.
If you’re going to do a lot of deep-frying for a lot of people, get a big deep-fryer. One with a built-in oil filter is nice to have. I’m a big fan of filtering my oil after every deep-fry, unless my last cook didn’t have a batter. Something like potatoes for French fries are ok deep-frying a few times without filtering the oil. Fried chicken or fish? I’m going to filter it after every cook.
For smaller batches, or just when cooking for myself, I use my Fry Daddy. I am on my second one now. Not because the first broke but because I used it so much it got covered in cooked… stuff… that I couldn’t get off.
I usually use canola oil for frying. Mostly because I’m cheap.
For me, it is all about balance. I eat pretty light most days, so when I do indulge, I really enjoy it. These dishes are my way of making the moment special.
Let’s get it….
The List
1
Copycat Long John Silver’s Fish-and-Chips
Now I can make my own copycat Long John Silver’s fish and chips. And if I want extra crunchies I just add a few drops of batter to the oil and in seconds… extra crunchies!
When I came across this idea for making egg rolls packed with turkey and stuffing there was no way that I was going to wait until I had Thanksgiving leftovers to make them.
There’s good and then there’s great. Nothing beats Nashville hot chicken when it comes to great fried chicken. The best, light, crunchy coating that you can imagine. Tender, moist chicken. And of course, heat. Plenty of heat. I could make and eat Nashville hot chicken any day of the week.
I’m addicted to onion rings. And I’m picky about them. I’m picking about the coating. It has to be light and crunchy and it has to stick to every inch of the onion. And I’m picky about the onion. Each bite has to be ‘clean’.
Fried in the same great crunchy batter as the fish planks, chicken planks were just as addicting as the fish. And oddly (for me as a kid), just as good with malt vinegar sprinkled on them.
Oh, all those years spent eating (and enjoying!) onion rings made from white or sweet onions. Not wasted years, but years of missed opportunities of eating spicy red onion rings.
Along came these spicy Texan onion rings and every last bit of self-control I might have had was gone in an instant. I seriously do not remember what else we had for dinner the night I made these. Could’ve been filet mignon. Doesn’t matter. The rings were the star.
I’m a big fan of battered fried fish. Add in some fries, a side of tartar sauce, and give me a bottle of malt vinegar and I’m one happy guy. This copycat of Captain D’s batter dipped fish checks all my boxes.
I’ve never had wings or shrimp that I didn’t absolutely love. Like these Cajun fried shrimp. Lightly crunchy. Stick-to-the-shrimp batter. A little heat. Perfectly cooked.
“I’ll have the beer battered shrimp and fries and… a side salad.” No. No one has ever said that. This isn’t a salad-on-the-side kind of dish. It’s seriously battered, deep-fried decadence, from start to finish.
