These gluten free Hush Puppies are just as tasty and satisfying as the ones I fell in love with when I was a teenager. Perfectly crispy outside with a soft crumb inside. Lightly seasoned with onion, just salty enough and plenty of sweet corn flavor. They taste just like I remember.
The Backstory
The summer before I started college, I was a waitress at a restaurant called PoFolks. They were known for their country style fried food and iced tea served in mason jars. Hush Puppies were served on the side of most dishes, like French fries are served in other places. There were always plenty of them ready to go, all warm and crispy. I had absolutely no will power against them and I would snack on them through my shifts.
If I had extra time to kill, I would slather a little butter on them and a drizzle of honey. It was that salty, sweet, crunchy and soft combination of flavors and textures that sucked me in. Two bites and they disappeared, which made them a great snack to hold me over between meals. Not so fantastic on my waistline, but delicious none-the-less!
Fast forward to after being diagnosed with celiac and it is very hard to find gluten free Hush Puppies! Not because the ingredients are so difficult to adapt, but because you also need to fry them in oil that hasn’t been used to fry anything with gluten in it. However, on vacation in Boulder, Colorado, we came across a place called Yellowbelly. At the time, they made gluten free fried chicken and hush puppies (they’ve since taken the hush puppies off the menu… bummer). It was all really, really good. And my excitement to develop recipes for gluten free Southern Fried Chicken Strips and Hush Puppies began…. It has been a delicious journey!
Super Simple
What’s also fantastic is how easy gluten free Hush Puppies are to make. There aren’t any exotic ingredients in this recipe, they are all easy to find in most grocery stores. The dry ingredients go in one bowl, the wet ingredients go in another bowl, then they are mixed together. Simple and straightforward.
Frying Tips
Place a candy thermometer into a saucepan with at least 2 inches of vegetable oil in it. Heat the oil to 360 degrees before beginning to fry the Hush Puppies. As you add the batter to the oil and later remove the cooked hush puppies, the temperature will fluctuate. You will need to adjust the heat on the stove through the cooking process to keep the oil between 350-360 degrees.
I use a mechanical cookie dough scoop to keep the size and cook time consistent. The scoop also lends to a round shaped result and makes it safe and easy to transfer the batter into the hot oil. A scoop that holds approximately a tablespoon of batter will make standard sized hush puppies.
Begin by frying one or two pieces to test the oil temp and timing. Set a timer for 2 and a half minutes at first. If the tester is well-browned when the timer goes off and cooked through, then you know how to proceed. The oil may be too hot if it is well-browned, but not cooked in the middle. To adjust for this, lower the heat 5-10 degrees and try again. A hush puppy that is soggy with oil and doesn't brown well needs hotter oil. Try turning the heat up by 5-10 degrees. Once you get the heat and timing figured out, continue cooking in batches until all of the dough is cooked.
Like Gluten Free Bread & Butter
Serve with honey & butter or mix room temp butter with honey to make a yummy dip. Or try using the Cane Butter Dip for my Cornbread Madeleines. It is scrummy! There’s nothing like Southern Fried Chicken Strips to go alongside these Hush Puppies, all drizzled with warm honey and briny dill pickle chips on the side. Yum!!!
More Gluten Free Crave Worthy Recipes
- Smothered BBQ Chicken
- Oven Pulled Pork with Apple Slaw
- Cajun Spiced Cod with Peach Salsa
- Cornbread Muffins
Hush Puppies
Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten free flour blend - I use Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour
- ¾ cup regular cornmeal - also called medium ground cornmeal
- ½ cup corn flour or finely ground cornmeal - Not cornstarch
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- canola oil for frying
Instructions
- Place a candy thermometer in a saucepan or deep fryer with at least 2 inches of vegetable oil and heat to 360 degrees. Adjust the heat while cooking to keep the oil temp between 350-360 degrees. Expect that the temp will fluctuate as you place & remove hush puppies from the oil.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and the wet ingredients in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir well to combine.
- Working in batches, use a mechanical cookie or ice cream scoop (that holds a heaping tablespoon of dough) to carefully drop dough into the hot oil. Allow to fry for 2-3 minutes, until they are well-browned and cooked through.
- I recommend frying a one or two hush puppies at first to check the temp & timing before frying a whole batch. If the exterior is well-browned but the interior isn’t cooked through, then lower the temp about 5-10 degrees and try again. If they soak up a lot of oil and take more than 3 minutes to become well browned, the temp is too low.
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