I received an email from Glenn asking “how to coat fried breaded zucchini better”.

He asked,

“My father just asked how to make the breading on fried zucchini  stick (better)? He just made some but the bread crumbs didn’t stick to the zucchini very well.  He dipped zucchini slices into egg and then bread crumbs. The bread crumbs ended up kinda burned, oiley and fell off, but the zucchini was fine.  Thanks for any tips you can give.”

Breading Vegetables For Frying

When breading veggies (or anything) the rule is:  dry sticks to wet and wet sticks to dry.  Wet and wet doesn’t work; dry and dry doesn’t work.

In order to get your breading to stick on your zucchini (eggplant, green tomatoes), first pat the veggies dry as much as possible.  Then dredge them in a bit of seasoned flour (cornstarch or rice flour to make a crispier end product).

Next dredge the vegetables in your wet batter - either an egg wash or egg-buttermilk combination or you can try a tempura batter consisting of 1 cup ice water, 1 egg and 1 cup flour.

Finish with a dunk in some panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) or other dried, seasoned fine bread crumbs.

I recommend deep frying for fried veggies since the outer coating will have a tendency to burn if they’re sitting in a hot pan.  If you are going to pan fry, use about 1/2 inch oil, keep your heat moderate and be very gentle when turning them.

If you have a favorite technique or recipe for fried vegetables, please post in the comments section below.