Fried Zucchini

I love fried zucchini, but for some reason it's not really an east coast thing. Like salad bars, it's something I mostly have to get when I visit family out west at holiday time.

But this year for Christmas, Jed gave me an Amazon.com giftcard, and I used it to buy a spiral vegetable slicer, which now I can't live without. It cuts zucchini into long, lovely ribbons. Unfortunately, the zucchini frying recipes I've tried in the past  don't really work with long ribbons of veggie, because you dunk them in an egg mixture and then coat with crumbs. So I turned to the cookbook I got for my new stand mixer for answers. It had a short, very fast zucchini frying recipe...involving a lot of beer. Strike two!

Since I don't have any beer on hand, I made up my own recipe. And dang, if it wasn't SO GOOD! So I shall share it with you, dear readers. Now you can make your arteries look like mine. If you don't have a cool spiral slicer like mine, get one! Or cut your zucchini into coins, they work fine too.

Fried Zucchini

3 zucchini or yellow squash

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Mrs. Dash
1 tsp kosher salt


1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup buttermilk

vegetable oil for frying

Pre-heat oven to 200. Peel your zucchini or yellow squash and cut into ribbons or coins. Set aside. Meanwhile, mix dry ingredients together and then add the liquid. Blend together until smooth. You can add more chicken broth as needed to make a medium thick liquid batter (too thin and it won't stick, too thick and it won't coat the veggies).

Pour enough veggie oil into a 4 quart pot to make it about 2 inches deep. Heat oil to about 350. Dunk your zucchini ribbons into the batter until well coated (I used tongs) and place in the hot oil. Fry until golden brown, which takes about three minutes. Don't put too many in the pot at once, or they will stay soggy and too oily.

Transfer the finished fried veggies to a cookie sheet in the oven, to keep warm and crisp. Continue frying until all veggies are gone. Serve with ranch dressing and enjoy!