Fried Okra Recipe
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Fried Okra is a Southern staple. So simple to make, it makes the perfect side dish. Get this heirloom family fried okra recipe that you’ll love.
Fried okra is one of my favorite foods in all the land – if it’s done right. This is the best fried okra recipe and a family favorite for generations!
And by done right, I mean cooked with the perfect amount of crispy coating on the outside while being smooth and tender on the inside. You’d think that would be easy enough, but when I was first married I wasn’t exactly sure how to make it. I managed to have more burnt crisps of okra because I couldn’t figure out the perfect balance of how to make it just right.
Finally, like every good Southern girl, I called my Mama. She knew just what I was doing wrong and set me straight in my fried okra making ways.
Fried Okra Recipe
I had been trying to get the perfect fried okra on the stove top alone. The secret, as Mama told me, was the combination of the stove top AND the oven! It’s how her Mama taught her and her Mama before her.
Hallelujah! It was if I could hear the angels singing when she told me how to make it.
How to Make
To make this fried okra, start by preheating oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then, mix together the okra, corn meal, flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make sure the okra is well-coated.
In the meantime, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Then add okra to skillet once oil has reached the point where if a drop of water is added to the oil, it will sizzle.
Allow okra to brown on one side, which will take about 3 minutes, before gently stirring. Once both sides of okra have browned, about 3 more minutes, place into preheated oven.
Cook until fork tender, about 10 minutes. Then serve and enjoy!
We love to eat this delicious okra with so many other favorite dishes, such as Easy Mashed Potatoes, Pinto Beans and Southern Cornbread.
Since my Mama shared cooking tip with me, I’ve been making it perfectly for over 20 years.
I’m so thankful for her tips! The world just wouldn’t be the same without good fried okra.
Here’s my family’s Fried Okra recipe. It’s a tradition.
Fried Okra Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds okra, sliced
- 3/4 cup corn meal
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 cup Canola or vegetable oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F.
- Mix together okra, corn meal, flour, and salt in a large mixing bowl, making sure well-coated.
- In the meantime, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Add okra to skillet once oil has reached the point where if a drop of water is added it will sizzle.
- Allow okra to brown on one side, about 3 minutes, before gently stirring. Once both sides of okra have browned, about 3 more minutes, place into preheated oven. Cook until fork tender, about 10 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
Funny that I’m several generations southern (since the 1600s) and we always floured our okra before frying. I never ate any that way (dredged in cornmeal) and tend to think it would be gritty.
I tried this and followed to the T. Wasn’t great but wasn’t bad. I think deep frying works better. I learned to cook it from a Gullah woman back in the 70s. It WAS good, but not the best.
Mixing tomatoes with the okra makes it an entirely different dish.
This recipe is just fried okra.
Nothing else.
I LOVE fried okra, squash, green tomatoes, well heck fire my family has been in NC & SC since the early 1700’s so I grew up learning to fry everything but water, lol! My great, great, great grandma’s trick, and it her day it was tough to do, but if you freeze your veggies for about an hour before hittin’ the grease, the breading will stay put and will brown just slow enough to get the vegetable good and done 🙂
Sorry sold have added freeze them AFTER you bread them…
I pick the okra fresh right of the plant. No large okra. Just tinder small to med. I do not wash the okra because it makes ir stick to the pan.The ones i pick are perfectly clean anyway. Cut in half inch pieces and sterfry in a little olive oil until done. perfect..
I never will forget the first time I fried okra for my husband. He did not eat many vegetables. He said “OMG they should bag this stuff and sell it for
snack food!” He still gets excited when okra is in season. I will try your recipe.
Everyone has different tastes and methods…so i suggest you try different recipes or experiment with it and make your own. Here’s mine…(Mamaw made okra like this)..
2 lbs. Okra cut
2 green tomatoes chopped
1/2 cup s.r. cornmeal
1/2 cup s.r. flour
1/2 cup crisco or bacon grease
1/2 cup wesson oil
salt/pepper
IRON SKILLET…Stovetop..med high 7-8..put crisco/oil in skillet and heat…
salt/pepper your okra/tomatoes mixture, salt makes it sweat and it’s easier to coat with meal/flour mixture….Mix okra mix with mesl mix…pour into hot oil mix and fry..turn as needed. If needed add extra oil by pushing okra to side and pouring on skillet bottom..let it heat up then toss the okra over it…it’s fried green tomatoes snd okra mixed..delish!! (This recipe is not one that has each piece of okra coated and deep fried. It is a different and tasty recipe for okra lovers everywhere. Try it, you might like it too.) Any ?’s gladly answered.
So glad I saw this. Have made it several times, however, no matter how I cook it, my batter falls off! I will try this. If it doesn’t work, I will just buy the frozen battered okra & make it!
If you are using a batter then you should deep fry it. Otherwise, follow the recipe and you will have perfect okra.
I’d like to add, I am an Alabama girl. I’ve eaten fried okra all of my life. I even put leftovers on a salad the next day as if they were croutons. (Okay, I actually put some aside and hide it so I can have it the next day! Never okra left over!). The additions, while fine if its your thing, are not Fried Okra. Not the real stuff, anyway. And the one who puts all kinds of vegetables in her “fried okra” isn’t making Fried Okra. hahahaha No offense but it is what it is.
I must try your way. It looks like my grannies okra. I never have been able to get it right. Reading the comments has been interesting. The ones who tell you that you are doing it all wrong crack me up. I’m trying to figure out how someone can say anyones recipe is wrong. It may be different than yours but it doesn’t make yours wrong. Just my opinion.
I was cracking up at all the “wrong” comments as well.
My mom and Granny were multi-tasking in the kitchen. The pinto beans were started in the morning. Green beans are an hour before everything else in a covered pot (unless it was a pressure cooker) Dinner prep started with peeled and cubed russet potatoes in an iron skillet over medium heat with crisco oil. Salt only right before taking out of pan into colander (All beans had bacon in um, unless ham bone was handy)
The fried chicken goes next. Don’t forget to stir potatoes. Flip the chicken. Start the okra. Just few tablespoons self rising flour and cornmeal. Stir the potatoes. Flip the chicken and check the beans. Flip the okra. Stir the potatoes flip chicken. And somehow a pan if biscuits always came out of the oven at the exact time every thing else was ready for the table. Holy crap! There was always gravy too! Where and WHEN did gravy happen?
Granny liked thick slices of raw tomatoes and raw onion.
Needless to say, I am not that good. Gravy always too thick. And some okra and half the potatoes burnt.
So I do it all different.
Red potatoes, peel on cubed, tossed in ziplock bag with smoked paprika, onion & garlic powder and a tablespoon olive oil (no salt) tossed in air fryer. Frozen okra tossed in cornmeal with self rising flour already mixed in it. As the okra thaws, the cornmeal sticks. I cut chicken breast in cubes and mix with egg&milk, drain slightly with fork and toss in ziplock from potato prep with cornflake crumbs, Italian seasoning & a tablespoon sugar. I cook that in peanut oil in iron skillet. Another iron skillet comes out of the oven pre heated. Couple tablespoons salted butter in skillet with frozen biscuits goes back in oven. I never mastered the magic spell for all the way from scratch biscuits. Okra goes in iron skillet with 1/8 inch peanut oil (add more as needed)
I have to use corn oil if my kids are here. One allergic to peanuts, the other allergic to soybeans in vegetable oil.
Always make too many biscuits so they get split open, slathered in butter and toasted next day.
With Love,
From the Peach State
P.S. To All Ya’ll sayin “You’re Doing it all wrong” I already know I don’t do it like Mom and Granny. But ya’ll best not say anything about them not doin’ it your way.
I’m from Texas and this is completely wrong. First if your not going to do a milk wash or egg wash before you batter your okra at least do a last prewash in cold water allowing it to remain slightly wet so your flour coats it well but not wet enough to be gooey once you batter it. Put your flour in a 1 gallon size ziplock. Then add okra and shake till thoroughly battered. Next prep a calinder in the sink or on a plate/cutting board to catch the excess flour when you empty your ziplock of battered okra. Then freeze it for about 20 mins. This will help the batter stay coated when flash frying on the stove top. Finally when your ready to fry your pan should have about a 1/2 inch of oil heated on medium high heat. If your stove has a 1 through 10 setting with 10 being “high” you’ll want to have it set somewhere between 7 & 8. Try to not over fill your pan with to much okra so it doesn’t clump together. DO NOT STIR!!! Stirring freshly battered foods causes a lot of batter loss like in the picture here. Once your okra does start to brown then you want gently flip…”gently” being the key word here. Your okra should come out crisply battered unlike the photo this recipe shows. This is the correct way of frying okra. I’ve never heard of an oven step. To me it doesn’t make much sense to add an unneeded step to frying okra…unless you just like it cooked like the picture here. Hope I helped…enjoy!!!
Also, the only differences between deep frying and pan frying okra are that you use a lot less oil and you will gently flip it unlike gently stirring with deep frying. The reason people have made it like in the picture here is because of too much stirring and possibly too low of heat. So you may just like it the way your “Mom” made it…
Joel,your way is not the southern way to fry okra! The picture on this post looks perfect to me,looks just like my grandmothers and believe me her way was perfect southern!