Hushpuppies are an easy last minute appetizer

Crunchy hushpuppies filled with dill and green onions are about the most fun thing you can make from my homemade cornbread mix.

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My hometown of Omaha is right on the Missouri River, so we always had little fish frying shacks where we could get hushpuppies growing up. Cornbread is good on its own, but fry it up, and it’s so much better. It helps that hushpuppies are one of my husband’s favorites, him having grown up eating them at fish shacks at Myrtle Beach. He prefers them plain with a dedicated cup of butter.

While I can’t get behind plain hushpuppies, it is true that these little poppable fried treats are a great last minute appetizer. If you already have a batch of homemade cornbread mix on hand, even better–you can mix these up as your fat gets hot.

Chop some green onions, you won’t want to miss a round of homemade hushpuppies.

Homemade Hushpuppies

What even are hushpuppies?

Hushpuppies are small fritters made from usually a cornbread based batter. Fried up into crunchy little balls, they taste great as an appetizer or as a side dipped in ketchup or your favorite sauce. They’re amazing with homemade hot honey!

As the legend goes, some dogs were getting anxious for their dinner and an innovative Southern cook fried some cornbread in hot oil and told the dogs, “Hush, puppies.” Likely this is a myth, but it’s a fun story nonetheless. The real origin likely has more to do with people in the American South eating cornbread and fried fish. At some point doing to the cornbread what you did to the fish made sense and people, of course loved it because fried food is delicious as we all know.

Why you’ll love making hushpuppies yourself at home

1. Super easy: It will actually take longer to heat up your fat for frying than it will to make the batter. This is a no sweat EASY appetizer that’s almost as easy as cheese straws. Shoot, make hushpuppies AND cheese straws if you have a really big crowd for Turkey Day.
2. Make ahead or alongside: Unlike bigger frying recipes like my apple fritters, you can keep this recipe to one pot on the stove with a little tray for draining. As such, you can make them while you’re doing other things. Or, you can make them ahead and just reheat them. This kind of flexibility makes these things a prime candidate for Holiday cooking in my mind.
3. Fun appetizer: There’s not too many fried appetizers that are worth your time. These ones are, and I challenge you to find a party where they wouldn’t be welcome. From New Year’s to Superbowl to Thanksgiving to 4th of July and everything in between, a plate of hushpuppies will bring a crowd into the kitchen.

Equipment you need to fry hushpuppies

1. Candy thermometer: Clip it to your pot. It’s the easiest, safest, and best way to monitor the temperature of your fat at all times. You can use an instant read thermometer in a pinch, but it’s not my first choice–see below in my tips section.
2. Cookie scoop: A small cookie scoop is the simplest way to get the batter into the fat. I used my Vollrath black scoop (1 oz), though a smaller 1/2 ounce scoop is a better size for frying. My 1 ounce balls of batter took a full 5 minutes to fry.
3. Strainer scoop: Use a little strainer or a mesh stainless steel spider to fish out the finished hushpuppies from the pot.
4. 2-3 qt pot: You do not need a giant setup. A reasonable sized pot you’d make soup in is perfect for frying in.

Tips for making the best hushpuppies

1. Mind your temperature: Hushpuppies fry the best in the 350 F range. Watch your fat–if it gets too hot, lower the temperature. If it drops below 340, turn the heat back up. This is the only aspect of babysitting you’ll need to do for this recipe.
2. Have a draining station: Set a small tray up with a pad of paper towels. As you finish the hushpuppies, move them to the tray to absorb any grease.
3. Make a test: Do not depend on color for the doneness of the fritters. It’s likely that the outside will be done long before the inside. To avoid raw middles, make a couple fritters as a test, timing them for doneness. As I said, my 1 oz balls take a full 5 minutes to fry. I know this because I did just what I told you to do! If you don’t have a 1 oz cookie scoop, you’ll have to adjust.
4. Reheat them for guests: You can avoid frying while guests are in your home by just making them ahead and reheating them. The coolest thing about hushpuppies is that they taste way better leftover than any other fried food you’ve had.

How to reheat hushpuppies

I’ve found that hushpuppies aren’t as fragile as other fried goods. When they’re no longer “fresh from the fryer”, they still taste like cornbread, which isn’t bad.

To bring back that fresh from the fryer taste, warm hushpuppies in a 350 F oven for about 5-6 minutes until they’re crispy again.

Absolutely use this trick if you want to make these ahead as an appetizer!

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