Zucchini Fries

Air Fryer Zucchini Fries are a lighter and lower carb option than regular French fries. Only a small amount of oil is needed for crispy fries.

Featured In My CookbookAir Fry Everything Jump to Recipe (or scroll for photos and riveting information...)
Advertisement - Continue Below

Best Zucchini Fries

The very best zucchini fries should have a few important qualities. They should be crispy and brown on the outside, but moist and tender on the inside. They should have the perfect seasonings that compliment but don’t overwhelm the flavor of the zucchini.  Perfect zucchini fries  should leave you feeling satisfied but craving just one more bite, and with NO need to lick your greasy fingers. These zucchini fries out of the air fryer are exactly what they should be – crispy, light and delicious.

Zucchini fries in a paper-lined wire basket with a dipping sauce.

Air Fryer Zucchini

A lot of the credit for perfect zucchini fries goes to the air fryer. By cooking the breaded zucchini with hot dry air, we’re able to use a lot less oil… and I mean A LOT less. You will need to spritz the zucchini with oil so that it’s evenly and completely coated, but that’s way easier than deep-frying. The hot dry air of the air fryer also cooks the zucchini quickly so that it doesn’t dry out. 

Zucchini Fries on a paper-lined wire basket with a dipping sauce.

How to Make Air-Fried Zucchini Fries

The trick to getting as many fries as you would like cooked at the same time is to build a little stack of fries in the air fryer basket, with the second layer of fries facing the opposite direction to the first layer. Be sure to leave some room between the fries so that the air can circulate and remember to rotate them halfway through the cooking time. I know that’s a lot to remember and might seem a lot of work, but it’s worth it!

Fingers dipping a zucchini fry into roasted garlic aioli.

 

Dip for Zucchini Fries

I guess you could always resort to dipping zucchini fries in ketchup, but I think they are much better suited to a mayonnaise-style dip. This recipe includes a super quick and easy roasted garlic aïoli that you can just stir together. How to roast the garlic? Why, in the air fryer, of course! Simply slice off the top of a head of garlic to expose the tops of the garlic cloves. Drizzle a little olive oil on top and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and air-fry at 380ºF for about 15 minutes. Let the head of garlic cool and squeeze out the roasted cloves. Save any extra roasted garlic in your refrigerator for another recipe.

 

Featured Recipe Techniques

More about the skills used in this recipe.

Cooking School
Air Frying 101

An introduction into Air Frying so that you can feel comfortable and confident making the recipes you find on my...View Technique

Air Fryer Cooking Charts

Complete list of air frying cooking times and temperatures are listed in this chart. All times and temperatures assume that...View Technique

General Tips for Air Frying

It is important to keep your air fyer in tip-top shape. Use the items below as guidance to continue making...View Technique

Advertisement - Continue Below

Zucchini Fries

  • Prep Time: 25 m
  • Cook Time: 12 m
  • Resting Time: 10 m
  • Total Time: 37 m
  • Servings:
    4

Ingredients

Roasted Garlic Aïoli
  • 1 teaspoon roasted garlic
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • juice of ½ lemon
  • salt and pepper
Zucchini Fries
  • ½ cup flour
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 large zucchini, cut into ½-inch sticks
  • olive oil in a spray bottle can or mister

Instructions

  1. To make the aioli, combine the roasted garlic, mayonnaise, olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl and whisk well. Season the aïoli with salt and pepper to taste.

  2. Prepare the zucchini fries. Create a dredging station with three shallow dishes. Place the flour in the first shallow dish and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put the beaten eggs in the second shallow dish. In the third shallow dish, combine the breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Dredge the zucchini sticks, coating with flour first, then dipping them into the eggs to coat, and finally tossing in breadcrumbs. Shake the dish with the breadcrumbs and pat the crumbs onto the zucchini sticks gently with your hands so they stick evenly.
  3. Place the zucchini fries on a flat surface and let them sit at least 10 minutes before frying to let them dry out a little. Pre-heat the air fryer to 400ºF.
  4. Spray the zucchini sticks with olive oil, and place them into the air-fryer basket in two layers, placing the second layer in the opposite direction to the first. Air-fry for 12 minutes turning and rotating the fries halfway through the cooking time. Spray with additional oil when you turn them over.
  5. Serve zucchini fries warm with the roasted garlic aïoli.
Advertisement - Continue Below
Advertisement - Continue Below
Advertisement - Continue Below

Comments (26)Post a Reply

  1. 5 stars
    I made this recipe today and it was so delicious! It’ll be on my ‘go to’ list from now on when I have too many zucchini. I used lite Ranch for dipping. So yummy! I did them in a single layer, so had to do two batches. Nice and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Next time I’ll try the double layer method.
    Thanks for the recipe and tips.

  2. 5 stars
    These were fantastic. I added a bit of Parmesan cheese to my breadcrumbs. Your dipping sauce was too delicious for words. Again and again, thanks Merideth for the great recipes. Plan on trying the others too !!

  3. I made these in my air fryer, and they were absolutely yummy. I dipped my zuchinni fries into ranch dressing. (Which I love). Soooooo good. Going to buy more zuchinni and make some more. Thank you for this quick, easy, delicious recipe.

  4. 5 stars
    So good!! I made these, adding Parmesan to the breadcrumbs, and ate the entire basket in one sitting!! You can’t eat just one!,

  5. 5 stars
    Do you think this would work with avocado? I recently had “avocado fries” in a Mexican restaurant and they were really good.

  6. These look so yummy! Do you think it would work if I pre-breaded all of the fries and then froze them? If i then air fried them frozen do you think it would turn out the same?

    1. Yes – you can absolutely freeze the breaded fries. The texture of the zucchini might be a little different, but they will still be good!

  7. These were so awesome!! Just bought an air fryer two weeks ago, tried mushrooms first and then these and loved both. Thanks!

  8. 5 stars
    Thanks for the recipe! Instead of bread crumbs, I used panko, and boy were the fries crunchy! I love it. I was lazy to make the sauce, so used ketchup and taziki sauce lol

  9. I’m new to air frying. ( I just bought the Instant pot air fryer lid). Can you tell me what temp I should put the fryer on. Thank you !

    1. Hi Patty. You could bake them in the oven at 425°F for about 20-25 minutes – doing so on a rack sitting in a baking sheet would be best. I would turn them over halfway through the cooking time.

  10. 5 stars
    Hi Meredith…I just made the zucchini fries tonight in our air fryer. They were just Awesome! We had found crispy green beans in our frozen section at our grocery store. These were so much better as they were fresh. Thank You for the recipe.

  11. I made these today and added Parmesan cheese to the breading and they were delicious. I used a horseradish cream for dipping. I will definitely make them again.

  12. I made this it’s very good . But I added dill weed to the zucchini and to the dip I put dill weed on just about everything I eat .. I also made this zucchini and had it with my egg wrap very very good

  13. 5 stars
    My husband doesn’t ask for French fries after I made these! These are so good and crispy on the outside. I add Parmesan cheese to my bread crumbs. This is a go-to recipe as long as I can find zucchini!!

    1. The eggs are used as a binder. You could try olive oil or avocado oil to moisten the sticks. Or if you eat mayonnaise, whisk some milk with a little mayo, for a thicker liquid that will help the breadcrumbs adhere to the zucchini sticks.

    1. Sure. Drizzling will work. Spraying is better for even coating, but drizzling will work. Try to get as much of the coating covered if you can.

  14. 4 stars
    I made these tonight. They turned out great and well worth the effort of dredging each stick. I did spray with olive oil which definitely added to the flavour and crunch. I used Italian bread crumbs.
    I think I’ll wrap the garlic bulb next time. The outer layer was burning and not soft in the middle.
    Thank you for sharing your recipes.

  15. Hi I made these tonight not sure if I was doing something wrong but found it hard to get the breadcrumbs to stick
    I used flour then the egg then the Panko breadcrumbs
    Just didn’t even to coat evenly
    The ones I made were good and tasty def needs seasoning and mayo sauce
    Not giving up work in progress

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *