How To Make Fried Green Tomatoes – Crispy, Tangy, and Perfect

Pull up a chair and join me in my kitchen for a Southern classic—Fried Green Tomatoes! Today, I’ll walk you through every crunchy step, sharing the little tips and stories from my own family table that make this recipe extra special. Whether you’re brand new to breading or you’ve been frying up tomatoes since you were knee-high, this is a dish that just says “home.”

From garden to skillet, we’ll use simple ingredients and easy techniques that anyone can master—no fancy gadgets required. I love seeing your creations, so if you make these fried green tomatoes, let me know in the comments or tag me on social media with #MaryKatherinesTable.

You can find a printable recipe from my website:

Fried Green Tomatoes

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Happy cooking, y’all!

It’s almost the end of tomato season here in the South, but before it’s over, I’m going to show you how to make fried green tomatoes. It’s a southern staple. Jump on in and make it with me. Hi, I’m Mary Catherine and welcome to my table. I’m so glad you’re here today. This one is a special treat. If you’re not from the South, you may not have heard of this or you may never have tasted it, but it is definitely worth a try. Fried green tomatoes is something we love here in Alabama and all over the South. And I think if you give it a try, you might love it, too. So, let me show you how to make it. They’re not hard. Okay, first we’re going to make all of the things that we’ll dip it in. We’re going to have three different bowls that we will put different mixtures in to dip our tomato slices. I’ve already got my tomato all nice and washed and it’s dry. And then I’m going to slice it up, but we’re going to leave the peel on it. We are not going to peel it. So, first let’s put together our three mixtures. I’m going to start with the dry ingredients. And what we’re going to take for this, this is just plain allpurpose flour. And I’m going to get about a/3 of a cup and put in the first bowl. And to that, we’re going to add some salt. You want about a half a teaspoon of salt in this mixture. So, I’ve got my half teaspoon here. And I’m just going to kind of spread that in. Mix it up a little bit so that salt gets in every little part of it. Okay, that’s good. I’m going to go ahead. I’m going to use salt about a half a teaspoon. Whoops. We’re going to have it in this bowl as well at the end. And then we also want a little bit of pepper in this bowl. Not quite as much as salt. That’s maybe a four of a teaspoon. Like that. And this is where we’re going to use a combination of some cornmeal mix and some breadrumbs. Now, you can use regular breadrumbs if you like, just the real fine ones. I’m actually going to use some panko breadrumbs today. So, let’s get that in the bowl with our salt and pepper. And we just need about 1/4 of a cup of each of these. So, I am going to open my bag and measure this out now. Okay, here’s my fourth of a cup. There’s our cornmeal. And then we’re going to do the same with a little bit of panco. About a four of a cup. Okay. I’m just going to mix this up well too. And you can see that pepper kind of spreading through all of it now. So that’s perfect. That means our salt is too. The mixture that we’re going to put in the middle bowl is our liquid mixture. We’re going to use buttermilk. Now, you may have seen some of my other recipes, and I give you a tip. If you do not have buttermilk on hand, you can always just use regular milk and add just a teaspoon or two of vinegar to a half a cup or a cup of milk and it will curdle the milk and you can use it to replace buttermilk. I actually have buttermilk today, so that’s what we’re going to use. I’m just going to do about a four of a cup. And to that we’re going to add one egg. And so now I’m just going to grab a little fork and we’re just going to beat this up a little bit so they get mixed together. Well, now that we have our three mixtures together, I’m going to move them over close to my stove so that they are right next to where we’re going to work with the fried green tomatoes to cook them. And I’m going to set them in the order that we’ll work with them. First is just the flour and salt mixture. Then we’ll do the wet mixture, the buttermilk and egg. And then we’re going to finish with the cornmeal and breadcrumb mixture. And I have already got my skillet heating up because you want your oil to be good and hot before you start frying the tomatoes. And so I have about a cup of oil in my skillet here and it has already gotten hot. I can see it starting to steam. So it should be good and ready. One way to test it though is just take a little bit of your little bit of your cornmeal and if it sizzles when you throw it in, then you know your oil is hot enough. You don’t want to put your tomatoes in if the oil is not hot enough because they just won’t cook right. You need that oil hot to begin with. All right, last thing. Let’s slice up our tomato. We’ll take just a little bit off the end of that one that we won’t use. I’m going to do these in about somewhere between a fourth and a half an inch. You see, we need to use this tomato. It’s about to start turning, so we definitely want to use it while it’s green. the mixtures that we made and put in our three bowls. That’s actually enough to probably do oh three to four small to mediumsized tomatoes. This is a fairly large tomato, so I’m just going to do one for us today. So, we may have a little of those mixtures left. But when you’re frying green tomatoes, just know that those measurements will probably do two or three tomatoes easily. All right, let’s take this over there and start dipping our tomatoes. We’re going to first go in the flour. And because we left the peeling on, it’s not going to stick very well to the edge. So, what I’m going to do is just run it around the middle mixture, just on the edge. And then we’re going to go back over here to the flower. And you see how now it gets on the edge a little bit better. So that’s pretty good. Now we’re going to dip the whole thing in this mixture. And then we’re going to go into our breadcrumb and cornmeal mixture. All right, here we go. All right, let’s do the same thing for the rest of these tomatoes. I go around that middle peel or that peel with that middle mixture just so we get it covered pretty well. And then we’re going to dip this all the way and then into our final cornmeal mixture here. It is a mess. Your hands are going to get yucky. Okay. And you see that fries up pretty quickly. Let’s split this one, too. All right, let’s get a couple more in. Let’s get our last one. M. These are looking good today. Get that one just a touch longer before we flip it. Now, one reason you want your oil hot enough is so that they will cook correctly. If you have to let it sit in the oil too long, your tomatoes are going to get kind of mushy inside, and you really don’t want that texture for this dish. So having it cook pretty quickly is a good thing. Probably just a couple of minutes on each side of the tomato is all that you really need. Just till it gets nice and golden brown. About like these. I’m going to check that first one. Yep, it’s ready to come out. And I’m just going to lay it on a plate here with some paper towels to drain it. All right, I think we are good. M. These really look like they turned out good today. Let’s cut into one and give it a taste test. See, your tomato has stayed nice and firm because we had the oil the right temperature. And that breading outside is just going to bring a level of deliciousness to the tanginess of the tomato. Okay, I’m just going to pick it up and eat it. Let’s have a bite. That’s a good fried green tomato. Don’t skimp on the breading and don’t skimp on the seasoning. That seasoning with the tangy tartness of the green tomato. Oh, it just comes together so well in this dish. M. It’s really good. Thank you so much for joining me today at Mary Catherine’s Table. This is a quick and easy dish. It does make a little bit of a mess, but it is so worth it. So, I hope you’ll give it a try today. I’m really glad you were here. Remember to hit subscribe if you like to see more videos and you’ll get those notifications. If you turn that on when we come out with new ones, you’ll know. Thanks so much for joining me today. And remember to go out today and find someone who needs a little bit of kindness and give them some of yours.