Cornflake Crusted Fried Green Tomatoes with Chipotle Ranch

Son of a Southern Chef

When the weather turns cold and your tomato vines still have unripe tomatoes, it's time to make fried green tomatoes! We had SO MANY this year that this recipe barely put a dent in them, but it was so good that my husband would be perfectly fine if I made this with all of them.

The chipotle ranch is pretty spicy, so if you don't like much spice, you should reduce the chipotle by at least half...or leave it out entirely and make just the original recipe instead, I won't tell.

These are best served directly out of the fryer; leaving mine in the oven on keep warm may have contributed to mine turning out a bit more mushy than they should be. No matter, they're still delicious, just a little more difficult to transfer.

This is a particularly difficult recipe for a home cook to calculate nutrition information. Not all of every ingredient is going to end up in the final dish you eat, like the oil and the breading ingredients. You could make a much more educated guess with very careful measurements, if you really must, but in the end it's a fried vegetable.

The recipe here is not exactly the same, but it seems so similar that it will likely give very similar results: https://spicysouthernkitchen.com/cornflake-crusted-fried-green-tomatoes/

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with Heather today it's the end of the
[00:10]: growing season we've had our first Frost
[00:12]: and I pulled a bunch of green tomatoes
[00:14]: off of the vines which you may have seen
[00:16]: on my Instagram I had a lot of green
[00:19]: tomatoes to deal with
[00:22]: um
[00:22]: and I was shocked to find that the only
[00:25]: recipe I had in books that I've already
[00:26]: been that I've been using for this
[00:28]: channel was from son of a southern Chef
[00:32]: by Lazarus Lynch
[00:34]: um and I was really shocked because
[00:37]: fried green tomatoes are pretty common
[00:39]: here in the South so I kind of expected
[00:41]: at least Deep Run routes to have that
[00:43]: but it didn't so today we're going to be
[00:45]: making corn flake crusted fried green
[00:48]: tomatoes with chipotle ranch
[00:51]: and I have to say I'm not entirely ready
[00:54]: for this recipe
[00:56]: but that's okay because the first step
[00:59]: is kind of a do it and then wait so
[01:02]: in that wait time I'm going to be doing
[01:04]: some other stuff so
[01:06]: first thing we have to do is make a wet
[01:09]: soak for the uh Green Tomatoes
[01:15]: um
[01:16]: I have some buttermilk here and I'll be
[01:18]: honest I had it in the freezer so you
[01:21]: know maybe a little bit separated and I
[01:24]: had to take a little bit out for the
[01:27]: chipotle ranch and so I just kind of
[01:29]: topped it up with
[01:31]: um
[01:32]: with regular milk so that should be fine
[01:35]: and I've got a shallow dish here
[01:38]: I'm using just sort of a smaller baking
[01:41]: dish and I've got one egg in there
[01:44]: already just didn't bother cracking that
[01:47]: on camera I'm gonna put my buttermilk in
[01:51]: here with the egg
[01:55]: and now I'm going to
[01:58]: put in some kosher salt
[02:04]: and I'm not going to measure the pepper
[02:06]: but I'm going to roughly estimate
[02:16]: and then the only other thing you need
[02:18]: to add in here is a is some grated
[02:20]: garlic and so I've peeled the garlic I
[02:23]: left the the time the
[02:25]: stem end on and I'm just gonna use that
[02:29]: to hold on to it a little bit better
[02:32]: and Grate this in here
[02:39]: down to the nub
[02:44]: we go
[02:47]: now my hands will be very garlicky but
[02:50]: that's okay and I'm going to whisk that
[02:52]: together just to get the egg broken up
[02:55]: and everything mixed up
[02:58]: [Music]
[03:00]: I feel like it'd be easier to whisk in a
[03:02]: bowl but that's all right we'll just do
[03:04]: it that's a good whisk I'm going to go
[03:06]: ahead and put this in the sink because I
[03:08]: don't think I'll need this anymore and
[03:11]: I've already gone ahead and cut up my
[03:13]: tomatoes cut up a few more than he said
[03:16]: because mine were a little bit small so
[03:18]: these are larger green tomatoes
[03:21]: supposed to be half inch thick not all
[03:24]: of mine are
[03:26]: super well
[03:28]: cut but that's all right I'm gonna put
[03:31]: um as many in here as will fit into a
[03:34]: layer some of them got a little red I
[03:37]: did put them into the refrigerator as
[03:40]: you know as soon as I
[03:43]: thought I needed to but they may have
[03:45]: started to go a little bit
[03:47]: ripe that's as many as I'll put in right
[03:49]: now I think
[03:51]: uh when I'm done with these if I have
[03:53]: more breading left I'll probably do the
[03:56]: rest of those because my husband
[03:58]: felt like that was not enough when I
[04:00]: showed him the amount that we were
[04:02]: supposed to have for this recipe so I
[04:05]: went ahead and did some more so there we
[04:07]: go these are supposed to soak for 10
[04:09]: minutes and flip them halfway through so
[04:11]: I'm going to set a five minute timer and
[04:12]: move these out of my way
[04:14]: so now we're going to make our dry
[04:17]: dredge so we have them in the wet dredge
[04:20]: and then we'll put them in the dry
[04:20]: dredge before we
[04:23]: um actually fry them so I've got as the
[04:28]: recipe says
[04:29]: Corn Flakes that I have crushed
[04:32]: not super finely he doesn't say sort of
[04:35]: how fine although the pictures look like
[04:38]: it's super fine because it doesn't look
[04:40]: much bigger than like the breading
[04:43]: doesn't look much bigger than like it
[04:44]: does when it's flour or cornmeal that's
[04:46]: okay
[04:47]: should be fine
[04:50]: um
[04:50]: so I've got some just plain all-purpose
[04:53]: flour here
[04:55]: that's going to be mixed with it
[05:01]: and I've got my spices here
[05:04]: got some garlic powder
[05:07]: some cayenne I hope that's not too much
[05:10]: for my kids but I went with how much the
[05:11]: recipe says and then I've got smoked
[05:14]: paprika
[05:15]: so all that's going in here
[05:19]: [Music]
[05:22]: and then we need to put in some salt and
[05:25]: pepper
[05:32]: I may have put too much salt in the
[05:34]: other part
[05:35]: foreign
[05:37]: [Laughter]
[05:48]: and now I'm just going to mix this up
[05:52]: with my Fork
[05:53]: [Music]
[05:59]: that looks pretty much the same all the
[06:03]: way through
[06:05]: so there we go
[06:07]: so I'm going to set this aside
[06:10]: so the last thing I need to make is the
[06:12]: chipotle ranch sauce now he has a ranch
[06:17]: recipe along with another recipe in the
[06:20]: book with the hot catfish sandwich with
[06:23]: ranch sauce which we haven't made before
[06:25]: I'm not going to make this exactly the
[06:28]: way he does because
[06:30]: he takes the ranch sauce that you make
[06:31]: here and then he Blends it with some
[06:33]: more stuff and so I'm not going to worry
[06:35]: about mincing and chopping all of my
[06:37]: stuff
[06:39]: perfectly for this I'm just going to
[06:42]: throw it all into my a small blender and
[06:45]: do it that way okay
[06:47]: not anywhere near ready for this but my
[06:49]: timer went off so I'm just going to go
[06:50]: ahead and
[06:51]: flip these over
[06:55]: so the other side gets a soak as well
[07:07]: there we go now I'm ready I think
[07:10]: to make this ranch sauce so I have
[07:15]: um
[07:16]: my blender here which is not plugged in
[07:18]: now we're plugged in and this will take
[07:21]: this little
[07:22]: uh small blender thing and it only makes
[07:24]: about a cup of sauce so that's what I'm
[07:27]: going to be doing
[07:28]: um
[07:30]: I need a spoon so I'm going to measure
[07:33]: this on the Fly which is not like me
[07:35]: with this but like I told you I wasn't
[07:37]: entirely ready
[07:40]: been running around all day
[07:42]: getting ingredients and making sure the
[07:45]: family's all
[07:47]: set up for the week
[07:55]: so we have some mayonnaise as you can
[07:58]: see I like Dukes
[08:02]: and then I'm going to use just the same
[08:05]: um
[08:06]: measuring our tomatoes have been soaking
[08:09]: long enough but it will not hurt them to
[08:11]: soak a little bit longer so and until
[08:13]: we're ready for them
[08:15]: they're gonna soak so I'm just gonna use
[08:18]: this to also measure
[08:21]: some sour cream
[08:27]: as well
[08:34]: um
[08:35]: I have some of that buttermilk like I
[08:38]: said I was going to need
[08:42]: from the other bit I need some more
[08:46]: grated garlic
[08:48]: actually why I didn't get rid of this
[08:49]: part
[08:52]: in the first
[08:55]: here we go
[08:57]: um
[08:59]: eat a little bit of hot sauce
[09:02]: I like Frank's so that's what I have in
[09:04]: the house right at the moment but
[09:05]: whatever you like is I'm sure fine
[09:19]: foreign
[09:21]: s
[09:25]: there's no salt and pepper in this which
[09:27]: is kind of interesting I was kind of
[09:30]: surprised about that anyway so
[09:35]: in this recipe he says you can use
[09:39]: flat leaf parsley or chives or a mix and
[09:42]: honestly you're supposed to break them
[09:45]: up and chop them up but I am going to be
[09:47]: really lazy about this and just
[09:49]: guesstimate the amount
[09:51]: and uh stick them in here because for
[09:55]: this recipe we have to blend it
[09:58]: so I'm just gonna
[10:00]: Wing It On
[10:02]: these
[10:06]: just trying to get them dry
[10:08]: there we go seems like a lot when you
[10:11]: chop those they do not end up being a
[10:14]: lot and
[10:17]: so that's it for the original ranch
[10:20]: sauce recipe but
[10:26]: we are making chipotle ranch so
[10:30]: um I have a canned chipotle
[10:34]: in Adobo sauce so I when I got a can
[10:38]: since I don't use it all that much
[10:40]: it seems like it okay I just I froze
[10:43]: them with the sauce in like a um
[10:48]: small ice cube tray and so now I have
[10:51]: them whenever I need them in the fridge
[10:54]: and now we're supposed to just blend it
[10:58]: until it's smooth
[11:00]: so hopefully that goes well now we're
[11:03]: okay
[11:08]: the herbs and stuff definitely got
[11:10]: Blended but it looks like I have some
[11:11]: mayo
[11:13]: sitting there at the bottom
[11:16]: not blending up
[11:18]: so what I'm gonna do
[11:21]: is just give that a good stir
[11:25]: a little spicy I don't think my kids
[11:26]: will eat this part but hopefully Fried
[11:29]: Green Tomatoes themselves will be fine
[11:34]: foreign
[11:39]: [Music]
[11:41]: I'm gonna give it one
[11:44]: little more more up in here
[11:48]: and then I'm going to stick it in the
[11:50]: refrigerator just upside down like this
[11:52]: and um
[11:54]: let it chill until we're ready for it uh
[11:57]: so
[11:58]: I think from here on out we need to be
[11:60]: over the stove so I'll see you guys as
[12:03]: soon as we get everything set up over
[12:05]: there
[12:06]: so we're all set up to do our frying
[12:09]: here at the stove
[12:11]: he says to use a cast iron skillet I've
[12:14]: got my largest one here so I can fry as
[12:16]: many of the time as I want
[12:18]: um I've got my tomatoes and my dredge
[12:23]: here
[12:24]: all ready to go
[12:27]: and I have in my oven
[12:30]: a baking sheet with a rack on it and
[12:33]: underneath that I have some
[12:36]: um
[12:37]: paper towels although he says to use
[12:39]: aluminum foil paper towels will be fine
[12:41]: I've got my oven on warm and hold so I
[12:44]: can do as many as I want and they'll all
[12:46]: stay warm
[12:47]: so
[12:49]: now we're just waiting for our oil to be
[12:51]: come up to he says
[12:53]: shimmering which we're almost there
[12:56]: honestly
[12:58]: but I'm gonna try to get to at least
[12:60]: about 350 medium-high heat that should
[13:04]: happen pretty quickly here
[13:07]: um we're almost to 300 so I'm going to
[13:10]: go ahead and
[13:12]: get some of a couple of mine ready to go
[13:15]: in when it's done so I've got
[13:18]: these ones that have been you know
[13:20]: sitting here for quite a while
[13:22]: you let you uh
[13:24]: try try to keep one dry hand one wet
[13:27]: hand obviously as usual
[13:31]: um try and get
[13:34]: uh
[13:36]: stuff to stick on there as much as
[13:39]: possible then I'm just going to leave
[13:41]: that one over there while I work on
[13:43]: another one and keep an eye on my oil
[13:45]: almost I think we're about to be ready
[13:48]: to start
[13:49]: it's looking a little bit shimmery so
[13:52]: we're going to go ahead and put in
[13:54]: this first one
[14:01]: pretty good
[14:03]: he says these only take one to two
[14:05]: minutes per side oh that was hot
[14:11]: my fingers there
[14:19]: and then get some more ready
[14:22]: [Music]
[14:26]: he says to use two inches of oil I
[14:29]: didn't have
[14:30]: I had a bottle that was almost empty so
[14:32]: but it gave me a good inch and I think
[14:34]: that's plenty here
[14:38]: but you know maybe keep an eye on them
[14:41]: we want them just basically golden brown
[14:54]: not bad there I'm going to go ahead and
[14:56]: put these in there
[15:01]: let's see if they can get a good soap
[15:06]: I might have to turn my foil down a bit
[15:10]: but
[15:11]: in order to not burn it while I wait for
[15:15]: those to finish soaking
[15:17]: but
[15:19]: [Music]
[15:23]: I think I like the color on that side of
[15:26]: this one here so we're gonna
[15:28]: aim for that everywhere I think with my
[15:32]: plan
[15:32]: [Music]
[15:39]: in the oven
[15:47]: because some of these done
[15:51]: this one that seems to be falling apart
[15:53]: a little bit
[15:56]: um
[15:58]: [Music]
[16:00]: I think the ones that are a little bit
[16:03]: uh
[16:05]: a little bit add a little bit of rice on
[16:08]: them
[16:09]: kind of
[16:12]: falling apart more
[16:15]: there we go
[16:18]: so I'm just waiting for this one
[16:21]: to be done
[16:23]: and for these to soak and I'm just going
[16:26]: to keep frying these just like I fried
[16:27]: those
[16:29]: um that was basically the amount that
[16:32]: the recipe is supposed to make but there
[16:34]: is a lot more dredge here so you could
[16:37]: make
[16:38]: way more with the dredge and the soap as
[16:43]: long as you do it in batches
[16:45]: I think it would be absolutely fine
[16:47]: because it's way more than it says so if
[16:49]: you're feeding the crowd
[16:52]: um
[16:53]: we doubled the amount of tomatoes
[16:55]: and I think that would be absolutely
[16:57]: fine
[17:03]: now that this one I think is done
[17:07]: yeah this one's done so I'm gonna call
[17:10]: this a day for this batch I'm gonna turn
[17:13]: my heat down just a little bit so it
[17:15]: doesn't burn and I'm gonna
[17:20]: plate some up
[17:22]: show you some pictures and we'll let you
[17:25]: know what we think in just a minute
[17:27]: [Music]
[17:35]: on this episode of cooking the books
[17:37]: with Heather you watched me make corn
[17:38]: flake crusted fried green tomatoes with
[17:41]: chipotle ranch from Lazarus Lynch's son
[17:44]: of a southern Chef cookbook
[17:48]: this was the only fried green tomato
[17:49]: recipe I could find in the cookbooks
[17:51]: that we've been using but then I found
[17:53]: another one uh
[17:55]: in Deep Run Roots but it also requires
[17:60]: making like a chutney with peaches and
[18:03]: it's not peach season and I'm not sure
[18:05]: if I can do that right now so this was
[18:07]: the best one for us to do at the end of
[18:10]: the growing season which is where we are
[18:14]: um
[18:16]: I enjoyed them
[18:19]: but I do have a couple of caveats here
[18:24]: first the ranch was very spicy so if you
[18:29]: don't like spicy I would cut the the
[18:32]: amount of Chipotle and Adobo sauce down
[18:35]: probably at least half there's no way my
[18:38]: kids could eat it I ate it I liked it
[18:40]: but it was a little it was toward the
[18:42]: top edge of the spice level but I
[18:44]: personally can handle
[18:45]: I think my husband was absolutely fine
[18:47]: with it and enjoyed it and it does make
[18:50]: a lot the recipe makes a lot of chipotle
[18:52]: ranch we didn't use it all but
[18:54]: I'm sure we will have no problem using
[18:56]: it up
[18:58]: the other problem that I had with this
[18:60]: is that mine the tomatoes got
[19:03]: very done and very soft and that might
[19:06]: be
[19:07]: I cook them probably
[19:10]: longer I think he says only one to two
[19:12]: minutes per side until they're golden
[19:14]: brown I cooked mine a little bit longer
[19:16]: than that and so I think with this one
[19:18]: you probably really need to
[19:20]: uh try to cook these relatively fast and
[19:24]: hot to keep them
[19:26]: you know
[19:28]: together so definitely cook these
[19:31]: fast as little as possible otherwise
[19:34]: they'll get kind of floppy still tastes
[19:36]: delicious
[19:37]: but just a little a little harder to
[19:39]: handle with that
[19:42]: um
[19:43]: one other thing is that it made an awful
[19:46]: lot of the Corn Flake breader and what I
[19:49]: would have done if I'd realized that it
[19:51]: was going to be
[19:52]: way more than we could use for even I
[19:55]: think we made double the amount of
[19:56]: tomatoes
[19:57]: that he said here uh in the recipe we
[20:02]: were able to use the same
[20:05]: soak and the same amount of the same
[20:08]: corn flake crust and there was still an
[20:12]: awful lot left so what I would do is
[20:13]: maybe make that uh that amount as is and
[20:18]: then put a small amount in a bowl to
[20:22]: dredge them in
[20:24]: so you don't end up with a lot that's
[20:26]: been contaminated with the raw egg
[20:28]: that's in the soak
[20:31]: so you can reuse it for something else
[20:33]: because it would be just as good in
[20:36]: on anything else on like a chicken like
[20:39]: chicken tenders with this would be
[20:41]: delicious so
[20:43]: all in all the the recipe was relatively
[20:46]: easy it is frying which is not my
[20:48]: favorite thing but uh and I really
[20:51]: enjoyed the results
[20:54]: um but
[20:56]: let me know what you think if you decide
[20:58]: to try this recipe it is
[21:01]: Green Tomato season
[21:03]: as we're filming this so
[21:05]: um if you enjoyed watching me make this
[21:08]: give me a thumbs up hit the Subscribe
[21:10]: button and come back and watch me make
[21:12]: something else next week
[21:13]: [Music]