Classic Fried Green Tomatoes
Classic Fried Green Tomatoes: Save those last tomatoes of the season for this delicious and classic appetizer. One of my absolute favorites!
Classic Fried Green Tomatoes
Jump to RecipeIf you subscribe to the Macheesmo weekly newsletter, you’ll know that I’ve had some success, finally, with growing tomatoes this year. I’ve tried a few years running now and not had much luck. Due to poor sun or poor soil, I’ve just never been able to get them to take off.
But this year! Ohh… this year. I moved my beds to a sunny spot and spent some time working on the soil and BOOM! I was able to grow two really huge tomato plants.
Last week though we had an early season snow storm that brought some freezing temperatures with it. So, I decided to call it a season and picked ALL my tomatoes that were still on the plants.
That meant one thing and one thing only: FRIED GREEN TOMATOES.
Looking for a main dish for your tomatoes? Check out this Heirloom Tomato Tart!
- Need another fall fried appetizer? Try my fried squash blossoms!
Classic Fried Green Tomatoes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 large green tomatoes about 2 pounds
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 2 cups oil for frying
- Ranch for serving
Instructions
- Slice stems off green tomatoes and cut into about 1/4-inch slices.
- In different bowls, stir together flour with all the spices, whisk together eggs and milk, and stir together breadcrumbs and cornmeal.
- Working with a few tomato slices at a time, dust in the flour, then move to the egg, and finally coat in the breadcrumb and cornmeal mixture.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat until hot (a small amount of breadcrumbs dropped in should sizzle immediately).
- Fry breaded green tomatoes for about 3 minutes per side until they are golden brown and crispy.
- Remove tomatoes and let drain on a few paper towels. Season immediately with a little extra kosher salt. Repeat with all tomato slices.
- Serve fried green tomatoes with ranch dressing.
Nutrition
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Classic Fried Green Tomatoes
I had at least 10 pounds of green tomatoes after the freeze. Might have been closer to 15 pounds. We ate fried green tomatoes more than once! Ha!
I keep my fried green tomatoes really simple. The only slight change up I make is I like a mix of cornmeal and breadcrumbs for the breading. This gives the tomatoes a nice coating with some crunch, but not overly crunchy.
This time around I used blue cornmeal, but any will work.
Slice off the stems of the tomatoes and cut them into 1/4-inch slices. Then dust them in flour mixed with spices. Then in an egg wash mixture.
Finally they get some of the breadcrumbs and cornmeal topping. These are about perfect. The breading shouldn’t be super thick on them.
Then fry them up! You don’t need (and shouldn’t use) a deep fryer for these. They fry fine in about two cups of oil and you can just flip them halfway through. They cook really quickly.
When they come out of the fry, let them drain on some paper towels and season them immediately with a pinch of salt. Resist the urge to bite into one right away because it’s like molten tomato in there.
These are so good though. I could eat my weight in them!
To be honest, these classic fried green tomatoes are good on their own, but I like to serve them with some ranch dressing also.
Leave a comment if you love fried green tomatoes. Especially leave a comment if you are lucky enough to have a bucket of them like I did!
When I fixed them , I used flour and cornmeal. My mother used to fry them and hold them in the oven with it on warm until she had fried all of the tomatoes.I love them too.
Making these….
I can see the green tomatoes still on the vine outside, and there are many dozens of pounds out there I was hoping would ripen. Guess I’m getting my fry on soon!
Green Tomato salsa is also a great way to use up all those beautiful green tomato gems :)
Never heard of that such balls but never seen green tomatoes either :) As a vegetarian, this looks absolutely delicious to me. Will have to find the green tomatoes now becaus I really wanna try it.
Sounds like a delicious recipe!I’ll be sure to try it next time the tomatoes in my garden decide to stay green – up to now I never had a good recipe to use them for. Thank you!