You don't need to deep fry to make crunchy, cozy hush puppies. Air fryer hush puppies are a snap to make. They're perfect little balls of cornbready goodness!
Long, long ago, I asked folks on Instagram to tell me what air fryer recipes they'd like to see. My friend, Ian, had a few requests, and air fryer hush puppies was among them.
Ian, you probably thought that I forgot about you, but your suggestion has been on my to-do list all this time. And they're finally to-done!
Table of Contents
Recipe notes
This is a super easy, one-bowl recipe, and the resulting hush puppies are crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside perfection.
Start by mixing up your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then, add your wet ingredients, and mix until you have a thick batter.
Now, here's the important part: you need to chill that batter.
To make air fryer hush puppies that are moist but hold their shape, chilling that batter is crucial. Chilling will firm up the batter enough to hold its shape in the air fryer without needing any kind of mold or mini muffin tin.
There is one other critical part of this recipe: line your air fryer basket. To do this, just use scissors to cut a piece of parchment paper so it almost-but-not-quite covers the bottom. Leave a bit of space all around to allow air to flow.
Now, scoop tablespoons of your chilled batter into your air fryer basket, and cook.
You'll likely need to cook these in two batches. Stick the bowl of batter into the fridge while batch one is cooking, so the batter stays nice and cold.
Oven option
No air fryer? No problem! You can definitely bake these.
Scoop the batter onto a lined baking sheet, and bake for 18-20 minutes at 400° F.
Your hush puppies are ready when the tops are golden brown.
How to serve and store
Anything that would be nice with a side of cornbread is lovely with air fryer hush puppies instead. Try these with:
- three-bean chili
- tofu chili
- BBQ tofu and your favorite green veggie
- vegan beef stew
- corn chowder
To store, transfer cooled hush puppies to an airtight container. They'll keep on the countertop for four to five days.
Make sure that they are completely cool before storing. If they're even just warm, they'll cause condensation to collect in the container, and that can cause them to get moldy. No, thanks!
Air fryer hush puppies
Ingredients
- ½ cup cornmeal
- ½ cup white wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup soy milk
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon flax meal
- 1 tablespoon vegan sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl, and mix until you have a thick batter.
- Place the bowl into the freezer for 20 minutes. You will likely have to do two batches to get all of the batter cooked. Place the bowl into the refrigerator in between rounds of cooking.
- Line your air fryer basket with a piece of parchment paper cut to size. Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to scoop up rounded balls of batter. Place them on the parchment paper, leaving about ½" of space between each ball.
- Air fry at 400°F for 10 minutes.
JT
How do you get them to stick together? I tried making these last night and they just don’t stick together. When I did manage to get 3 into the fryer, they cooked, but when I tried to pick them up, they just turn back into cornmeal.
Becky Striepe
So weird! I wonder what's causing this issue for you. If they're that dry, I suggest adding more soymilk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you get a proper dough.