(light upbeat music)
- We are making zucchini crisps.
This is one of my favorite ways to use up summer zucchini,
and you're gonna love this dip.
Check this out.
Hey everybody, it's Natasha of natashaskitchen.com.
Seriously, though, this recipe is so easy.
The kids love it.
And the texture, that crispy on the outside
and just juicy on the inside, they are irresistible.
You can serve these with marinara,
but you gotta try the sauce and it is the easiest thing.
Just stay tuned.
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plus we're playing a game.
Let me know if you can find Sharky in today's video.
We've got him hidden pretty well.
Let me know in the comments where you see him and,
I'm totally craving zucchini bites.
So let's get started.
(wood thuds)
We're gonna create our assembly line.
In the first bowl, combine half a cup of flour
with one teaspoon of salt
and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper
stir that together and set it aside.
In a second bowl, we're gonna beat together two large eggs.
Using a fork, vigorously beat those together
until well blended.
The third bowl will be our breading station,
which is just one and a half cups of Panko bread crumbs.
You'll need one and a half pounds of zucchini,
which is about two medium large zucchini.
You can also use yellow squash for this recipe.
Slice those into half inch thick rounds.
Go ahead and discard the ends.
And once your zucchini's all sliced up,
we're ready to start breading.
To make the workflow faster, I like to have these set up
in the order that I'll be dipping,
starting with the flour bowl, then the eggs,
then the breadcrumbs.
And this process is very easy.
Start by dredging the zucchini pieces
in flour and tapping off the excess.
Then dip in your beaten egg,
letting any excess egg drip back into the bowl
and finally into the breadcrumbs,
making sure you get an even coating of crispy breadcrumbs.
If you wanna be even speedier,
you can dip a couple zucchini at a time.
For a quick recap, dredge in flour,
then dip in the beaten egg,
and transfer it to the breadcrumbs,
turning to coat evenly.
As you finish these up, transfer them
to a baking sheet or platter.
Because these cook fairly quickly,
I do like to have all of my zucchini breaded and ready to go
before firing up the stove.
You'll need a large heavy skillet like this cast iron one
and it's one of my favorite skillets.
I will link to it in the notes.
It's also very inexpensive.
Place that over medium heat
and add about a quarter inch of oil,
or enough oil to generously coat the bottom of the pan.
You want the oil to get nice and hot
before adding the zucchini.
You can test this by adding a breadcrumb
and it should sizzle,
or you can check the temperature with a thermometer.
It should get to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cook the zucchini in batches,
keeping them in a single layer and saute
for about two minutes per side
or until their golden brown and crispy.
It's important to make sure the oil is nice and hot
when you add those zucchini to the skillet,
otherwise they'll absorb too much oil
and end up kind of soggy.
Once they're beautifully golden brown,
it's time to take them off the heat.
And I do like to place them over a rack
to keep them super crispy.
I have the rack set in a baking sheet
lined with paper towels to contain the mess.
Here's a great tip that takes fried foods to the next level.
As soon as they're done cooking, sprinkle with kosher salt.
If you do wanna go the healthier route
and bake your zucchini crisps,
be sure to spray both sides with cooking spray,
then bake in the center of the oven
at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about 18 to 20 minutes,
flipping them halfway.
You can also air fry these, just spray both sides
with cooking spray the same way and air fry
at 370 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 to 13 minutes
and there's no need to flip.
Ooh, hot and ready and so crispy.
No matter how you cook these,
whether it's on the stove in the oven, the air fryer,
you do not wanna skip the sauce.
Okay.
I mean, I guess it's easy enough.
If you need a shortcut to use like a marinara sauce,
and we have a great recipe for that too,
but this garlic aioli is, muah!
All right, it's basically just mayo.
And then you wanna grate in some fresh garlic.
(metal clanks)
Half a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
and make sure you're using fresh.
None of that concentrate junk.
'Cause this will make it taste so fresh and wonderful.
This cuts through that mayo very nicely.
Okay, boom.
Then a quarter teaspoon of salt, boop.
Or to taste, and some black pepper.
I told you, easy.
Stir it together and you're done.
Okay, and if you're serving a bigger crowd,
you'll wanna double this sauce
because it's going to disappear fast
and then you're gonna be sad.
Okay?
Okay, I'm gonna put it in here so we can hurry up
and get to this taste test because I am so hungry for these.
They smell so good and I know how good they are.
And you do wanna eat them pretty fresh
while they're super crisp.
All right.
Look at that.
Okay, we're gonna taste a little bit of everything here.
We've got the baked and air fried ones
and we've got the stove sauteed ones.
Here we go, I'm hungry.
Dunk.
Oh yeah.
Lots of sauce.
Mm.
Seriously.
Mm.
My head is swimming.
It's so good. (chuckles)
I don't know if you can hear that crunch crunch crunch.
It is so crisp.
I gotta say, the stove top method
probably makes them the crispiest,
but you can make them a little healthier and bake
or air fry.
And we're gonna go ahead and taste this.
Taste test one of those too.
Again, dunk.
Seriously, you guys, this sauce.
Garlicky, lemony, so smooth.
Okay, here we go.
The crunch is still there. (giggles)
They are so tender on the inside.
Super irresistibly crispy on the outside.
Wow.
I cannot wait to eat all of these.
Also, I wanna know how you guys love to cook your zucchini.
We have so much zucchini in the summer.
It's nuts.
And I would love to know what you guys do with yours.
Let me know in the comments.
And I'm just gonna go and enjoy this because, mm.
We'll see you on our next episode of Natasha's kitchen.