Fried Green Beans

Fried green beans have the same appearance as fries and you can enjoy them in the same way. However, they are a more nutritious form of vegetable than starchy potato fries. Like fried zucchini, onion rings, or any other popular fried vegetable, fried green beans are a tasty and fun way for even the worst veggie skeptic. These fried green beans might not look pretty, but they sure are tasty.

Eating greens is important. It isn’t always the easiest thing to incorporate vegetables into your diet. Even though they do taste great and they help to round out a healthy meal, they are often neglected, or when you do add vegetables, it is almost always seen as an alternative or some kind of compromise.

How many restaurants have you been to that offer you a choice of fries or a side salad, when the salad didn’t even seem like a real option? That’s why I’m glad for veggie dishes like these fried green beans because they are flavorful and they don’t feel like compromise.

How To Blanch Green Beans

Blanching green beans prior to frying them in batter is best. To blanch green beans, place trimmed green beans into a large pot of boiling salt water and let cook for 2-3 minutes. Immediately drain and place in a large bowl filled with water and ice for about 5 minutes. This is called an ice bath. What this process does is stop the green beans from cooking, brightens their vibrant color and locks in the flavor.

How to Fry Green Beans

It seems simple, but frying green beans is not exactly the same thing as making French Fries or chicken. Green beans have air pockets in them so they float. when you submerged them in the oil, only the bottom half remains covered. In that way, they resemble donuts. If you have ever fried up your own donuts, you know you have to watch them and flip them at the right time so that both sides can be equally golden brown and crispy delicious.

Since green beans are slender and they float, they can be a little bit challenging to fry. Be careful about trying to fry too many green beans at once. The more you overcrowd the pan, the harder you put the oil to work. Fewer green beans mean they cook faster in the oil. However, since you will need a lot of green beans and you don’t want to fry too many separate batches, you should find a moderate number of green beans so you aren’t waiting too long on a single batch, but you also aren’t having to make too many extra batches. Try to keep it to 2 or three cycles.

To submerge the green beans after coating them in batter, lower them gently into the oil, one by one and flip them over halfway through cooking in the order you placed them. Use a round flat slotted spoon to nicely cradle and catch green beans as you dip and retrieve them. To flip the green beans, use tongs.

What Oil Should You Use for Frying?

When it comes to deep-frying anything, the oil makes up a big part of the process. One of the biggest factors you typically hear about from food experts is the smoke point. Smoke point is how hot the oil can get before it starts smoking. That’s important to know, but it’s only relevant when you are dealing with particularly high heats.

What is more important than smoke point is flavor. Whatever oil you use is going to saturate the food you cook in it with its own essence. Chick-Fil-A uses peanut oil, and In-N-Out uses Sunflower seed oil in their fries.

All kinds of oils impart different characteristics besides the smoke point. You have avocado oil, coconut oil, and of course olive oil. Most people just use plain old vegetable oil or canola oil when they fry food at home. That’s the most common and economical way to go about it.

Your choice of oil for fried green beans is a personal one. It may be driven by cost, or flavor, or whatever the healthiest option may be. After all, they are green beans. If you don’t have a peanut allergy, I recommend using peanut oil for flavor, or sunflower oil if you want a more heart-healthy option.

What’s the Best Batter for Fried Food?

The key to great fried green beans isn’t just the oil, it’s what you coat them with before they go in the oil. The batter is the part that gets fried and crispy, so the wrong batter can be disastrous for your final result. As the key element in this delicious side dish, making the right batter becomes a make or break moment that you have to contend with.

Whereas many fried food recipes call for a dip in a wet mixture followed by a dry mixture coating and then perhaps repeating the wet mixture again. This recipe is about a single batter to dip the beans in. First, combine the wet ingredients and then stir in the dry ingredients to make a batter-like you would a corn dog. The batter for these fried green beans includes buttermilk, egg, breadcrumbs, and special seasonings such as my favorite Cajun seasoning, Slap Ya Mama®. This well-seasoned batter adds some bite to the crispiness of the green beans. The additional spice makes you keep grabbing for more.

How to Best Enjoy Fried Green Beans

Fried green beans make a terrific side or a hearty enhancement superior to onion straws. Either make fried green beans as an appetizer for a multi-course meal or a delicious crunchy vegetable component to another dish. You can eat fried green beans with a fork or with your fingers, and you can choose to use dipping sauce such as mustard or ranch. Because these green beans are a little spicier, take that into account as you assemble your plate.

Can You Buy Fried Green Beans Frozen?

So far, there are no frozen fried green bean options available, so if you want to have fried green beans, the only way to get them is to order them somewhere or make your own. You can buy green beans frozen, which is an okay alternative to buying fresh green beans, although fresh is definitely better. Canned green beans are not a suitable option. They are a completely different product from fresh green beans. Even when drained and towel-dried they will not come out the way they should.

Ingredients Needed for Fried Green Beans

• Fresh green beans
• Buttermilk
• Bread crumbs
• Flour
• Slap Ya Mama
• Garlic powder
• Salt
• Pepper
• Egg
• Oil
• Ice

(Actual measurements in the recipe card below.)

How to Make Fried Green Beans

• Using a large pot, bring water and salt to a rolling boil.
• Add trimmed green beans and cook for 2-3 minutes until they are bright green.
• Remove green beans from pot and place in a bowl filled with water and ice for about 5 minutes. This stops them from cooking.
• Place green beans on paper towels and pat dry until ready for batter.
• In a large bowl, whisk buttermilk and egg together.
• Whisk flour, breadcrumbs, and seasonings together.
• Slowly add flour mixture to buttermilk mixture, stirring vigorously until combined.
• Pat dry green beans. Add green beans to batter and stir to coat.
• Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
• Slowly add green beans one at a time into hot oil and cook until golden brown, turn during cooking.
• Remove and place on a plate lined with paper towels.
• Serve with your favorite dipping sauce, like ranch dressing.

Try This Delicious Appetizer Today

Here are a few more delicious recipes that can found on the blog:

Here are a few pics that are the perfect size for pinning to Pinterest.

Enjoy, Terri

Copyright © Great Grub, Delicious Treats. All content and images are copyright protected. Do not use any images without prior permission.
If you want to republish this recipe, make sure to re-write the recipe in your own words and only list ingredients making sure to link back to this post for the original recipe and directions.