Deep frying is notoriously not the healthiest cooking method, that is why more and more people are looking for alternatives to deep frying. Deep fried food is OK to eat from time to time, and some doctors say that, if consumed once or twice a month, fried food even helps us keep our stomach and intestine active.
Deep fried food tastes great. Everybody enjoys crispy and crunchy fries, chicken wings, or onion rings. Do you think it is impossible to cook those dishes without deep frying? It is actually possible, there are good alternatives to deep frying that will make your chicken nuggets taste as good as deep fried. Today, at OneHowTo we will teach you a few easy deep frying alternatives.
Choosing the oil: The first thing to learn, if you want to eat healthy, is that you need to learn how to choose your cooking oil. You can cook healthy, but if you then add an unhealthy fat to your food, your effort is useless. For example, you can consider using olive oil or ghee.
Even if you decide to only deep fry from time to time, choosing the right kind of oil and frying at an appropriate temperature is of foremost importance.
Let's get started with our delicious deep frying alternatives...
Oven baking + stir frying: one of the best alternatives to deep frying is baking food and then stir frying it briefly to make it crispier. Here is how you have to proceed:
- Prepare a oven tray by placing some parchment paper on it. Then spray the parchment paper with the oil of your choice. It is very important that you place the oil in a sprayer and spreay it on the food as it will allow you to only use a little oil and spread it well. This is fundamental in order not to make your deep frying alternative become soggy.
- Place the food on the tray, be careful not to overcrowd it.
- Spray some more oil on your food.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees F.
- After baking, place a wide pan on high heat, add just a little bit of oil
- When the pan is very hot (careful not to burn the oil), you can start adding your baked food to it. Only add a few pieces at a time because otherwise you risk making the temperature of the pan drop, which will make your food become soggy.
Tip: this method will work best if your food is flat, cutlets are perfect for example.
Oven frying: Excellent and quick deep frying alternative. Oven frying means baking food at a very high temperature. It is much healthier than deep frying because you only use little oil.
- Prepare a oven tray by placing some parchment paper on it. Then spray the parchment paper with the oil of your choice.
- Place the food on the tray being careful not to overcrowd it.
- Spray some more oil on the food.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees F.
Tip: you can cook food this way without oil if you like, you can then add oil at the end. This cooking method gives great results with fish fingers. You will get incredibly crispy food that tastes as if it was deep fried, only lighter!
Oven roasting: Oven roasting means caramelizing food in the oven. This is a good alternative to deep frying because the caramelization gives food a deep fried crispiness on the outside.
- Prepare a oven tray by placing some parchment paper on it. Then spray the parchment paper with the oil of your choice.
- Toss your food in a little bit of oil
- Place the food on the tray, be careful not to overcrowd it.
- Roast in the oven at 400 degrees F until it becomes crispy on the outside
Tip: this cooking method works best with veggies and potatoes
Oven baking + deep frying: one of the reasons why deep frying is not healthy is because food needs a few minutes to cook in boiling oil, thus absorbing some of the oil, which could oxidize after such a long time. If you cook food in the oven first, and deep fry at the end, just for a few seconds to make your food crispier, you will get a healthy and amazingly crunchy meal, without the health hazards of deep frying.
- Prepare a oven tray by placing some parchment paper on it. Then spray the parchment paper with the oil of your choice.
- Place the food on the tray.
- Spray some more oil on the food.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees F.
- After baking, place a small deep pan on high heat, add abundant oil
- When the oil is very hot (careful not to burn the oil), you can start adding your baked food to it. Only add a few pieces at a time because otherwise you risk making the oil temperature drop, which will make your food soggy.
- Remove after a few seconds.
Tip: this preparation works particularly well with meat dishes such as chicken nuggets.
Healthy batter: you might be wondering how to get a perfect battered fish without deep frying. Here is our healthy alternative to batter frying.
- Dry pat the fish or any other food you want to batter fry so that they are completely dry.
- Toss your food in a bowl with a bit of olive oil.
- Toss it in another bowl with a little flour and spices. It has to be a small quantity of flour if you want it to be crunchy: use less flour compared to when you deep fry.
- Bake in the oven at 450 degrees F for 15-20 minutes.
Tip: for a seriously healthy batter, you could even skip tossing in oil, and only use flour, adding the oil at the end.
Very important tip: for a perfect alternative to deep fried food, you should only add salt at the end, after your deep frying alternative has cooked completely. That way you will keep your food as crispy as a good deep frying alternative should be!
If you want to read similar articles to Alternatives to Deep Frying, we recommend you visit our Food & drink category.