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If your kids love French fries, but you’re looking for a healthier option, you need to know how to make zucchini fries in the air fryer! These crispy parmesan zucchini fries are so simple to make yet taste absolutely amazing with their cheesy panko breadcrumb crust!
How to Make Zucchini Fries in Air Fryer
These crunchy air fryer zucchini fries are coated in a seasoned mixture of panko breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese, which gives each one a crispy, flavorful crust.
They’re such a fun side dish and a great way to get your kids to eat more fibre and nutrient-rich veggies!
AIR FRYER ZUCCHINI FRIES
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Why We Love These Homemade Air Fryer Zucchini Fries
- Healthy: Unlike traditional French fries, which are deep-fried, these homemade air fryer zucchini sticks are air-fried for a more heart healthy option. They’re the perfect side dish!
- Easy: After breading your zucchini slices, pop them in the air fryer basket and cook them until they’re golden brown. Although breading has a few steps, it’s the secret to making the best zucchini fries, and your kids will have fun helping to dip each stick in the egg wash and breadcrumbs, too!
- Tasty: These homemade zucchini fries are made with parmesan cheese and spices in the breadcrumb mixture, adding lots of flavor to every bite.
Ingredient Notes
- Zucchini: To make this air fryer zucchini recipe, you need to cut the fresh zucchini into thick match sticks.
- Flour: For the coating, you’ll need flour to dredge the strips of zucchini. You can use white whole wheat, whole wheat, or all purpose flour.
- Eggs: Help the coating adhere to the zucchini sticks.
- Panko breadcrumbs: The panko bread crumbs add a great crispy texture to offset the tender texture of the fresh garden zucchini.
- Grated Parmesan cheese: As the Parmesan melts with the bread crumbs in the air fryer, it creates this salty, savory shell around the zucchini that has an irresistible flavor.
- Spices: It’s important to season your flour mixture with garlic powder, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper for lots of flavor since zucchini can be quite bland on its own.
How to Cut Zucchini Fries
- Cut ends off zucchini.
- Cut zucchini in half lengthwise.
- Placing the flat sides down, cut each half in half again lengthwise.
- Cut the 8 long zucchini strips in half again widthwise. You should have 16 fries per zucchini.
How to Make Zucchini Fries in Air Fryer
- Add flour to a medium shallow bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs. In a third bowl, mix together the panko, parmesan, salt and pepper.
- Working in batches, dredge each piece of zucchini in flour, then eggs (letting the excess drip off), then panko mixture. Transfer to a baking sheet.
- Place zucchini fries in a single layer in the air-fryer basket. Spray lightly with olive oil. Cook at 400 degrees F until fries are golden and crispy, about 9-11 minutes. Serve warm with your favorite dipping sauce.
Keep scrolling to the recipe card below for the full printable recipe!
TIPS FOR THE BEST ZUCCHINI FRIES
- For extra crispy fries: If you have extra time, it can be helpful to wrap the zucchini strips in a kitchen towel to absorb the excess moisture.
- Adapt seasonings to taste: Feel free to play with different seasonings in the breadcrumb mixture! Italian seasoning is great if you’re serving these like cheese sticks.
- For more even coating: Use the two hand method to coat the zucchini fries in the flour, egg and breadcrumbs. One hand should be used to handle the dry ingredients and the other hand for the egg. If you get too much egg in the breadcrumb mixture, it will start to clump and won’t properly adhere to the zucchini.
Recipe FAQs
Since zucchini fries are cut to such a small size, they cook really quickly when air frying. You only need to bake them for approximately 9-11 minutes, and they’re best served warm. These zucchini fries were tested in the Ninja Foodi, so you may need to adjust the cooking time depending on the type of air fryer you have.
The secret to crispy zucchini fries is coating the fries in a three-step breading process. Since zucchini is naturally high in moisture, this is the best way to ensure a crispy texture every time. First, dredge zucchini in flour, then coat them in eggs, then toss them in the panko mixture. The flour layer will absorb moisture from the zucchini while the eggs and panko create a delicious crust.
Absolutely! Yellow squash and zucchini are essentially the same plant, so they’re interchangeable. The only thing to note is that zucchini often grows straighter and larger than yellow squash, which tends to be smaller and often has a curved neck. Just take your time slicing the vegetables to make sure you get even pieces.
Storage Guidelines
- Refrigerator: You can store leftover zucchini fries in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. These air fryer zucchini fries taste best served warm straight from the air fryer, so you’ll want to reheat them in the air fryer to firm up that crispy shell before serving again.
- I do not recommend freezing them, as the zucchini will become soggy.
- To reheat: Place the zucchini fries in the air fryer and reheat at 400 degrees F for 2-3 minutes.
What to Dip Zucchini Fries In
These homemade zucchini fries are the perfect vehicle for dipping into dressings or sauces! I recommend making a sauce that has extra vegetables to entice your kids to eat even more veggies.
- Low sodium pizza sauce
- Marinara sauce
- Tzatziki sauce
- Ranch dressing
- Ketchup
What to Serve with Zucchini Fries
These air fryer zucchini fries are fun on their own, but they’re the perfect side dish to serve with pasta, pizza, roasted meats, and more!
- Meatloaf Recipe without Eggs
- Turkey Burger Sliders
- Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets
- Air Fryer Mini Pizzas
- Salmon Cakes with Leftover Salmon
- Chicken Pastina Soup
- 5 Ingredient Mac and Cheese
- Carrot Pasta
Recipe Variations
- Dairy-free: Instead of parmesan, use nutritional yeast in the breadcrumb mixture for a nutty, cheesy flavor! You might want to add a little bit of oil to bring it all together.
- Zucchini tots: Cut the zucchini into bite-sized pieces for a fun take on tater tots.
- Use almond flour: If you don’t have panko bread crumbs on hand, almond flour is a great replacement.
More Veggie-Loaded Recipes
- Zucchini Fritters with Cheese
- Chickpea Veggie Patties
- Healthy Corn Fritters Recipe
- Mashed Sweet Potato Fritters
- Homemade Pizza Rolls In Air Fryer
- Sweet Potato Crackers
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How to Make Zucchini Fries in Air Fryer
Ingredients
- 2 medium zucchini ends trimmed and cut into thick match sticks
- 1/4 cup flour (white whole wheat, whole wheat or all-purpose)
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
- Freshly ground pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Cut ends off zucchini. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Cut each half in half again lengthwise. Cut the 8 long zucchini strips in half again widthwise. You should have 16 fries per zucchini.
- Add flour to a medium shallow bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs. In a third bowl, mix together the panko, parmesan, salt and pepper.
- Working in batches, dredge each piece of zucchini in flour, then eggs (letting the excess drip off), then panko mixture. Transfer to a baking sheet.
- Working in batches, place zucchini fries in a single layer in the air-fryer basket. Spray lightly with olive oil. Cook at 400 degrees F until fries are golden and crispy, about 9-11 minutes. Serve warm with your favorite dipping sauce.
Notes
- For extra crispy fries: If you have extra time, it can be helpful to wrap the zucchini strips in a kitchen towel to absorb the excess moisture.
- Adapt seasonings to taste: Feel free to play with different seasonings in the breadcrumb mixture! Italian seasoning is great if you’re serving these like cheese sticks.
- For more even coating: Use the two hand method to coat the zucchini fries in the flour, egg and breadcrumbs. One hand should be used to handle the dry ingredients and the other hand for the egg. If you get too much egg in the breadcrumb mixture, it will start to clump and won’t properly adhere to the zucchini.
