Crispy, tender, salty, flavorful, baked zucchini fries. They’re a perfect little appetizer, side dish for sandwiches, or even a great after school snack. They’re inexpensive, virtually guilt free, and a totally painless way to get your veggies. Try them with you favorite veggie dip, or with our Buttermilk Ranch or Homemade Pizza Sauce!
Ingredient Notes
- Zucchini – Use up that garden zucchini if you have it! Store bought also works well. In general, smaller zucchinis the best flavor and texture. Save those jumbo ones you forgot to pick for baked goods like this Chocolate Zucchini Bread.
- Italian Seasoned Panko Bread Crumbs – Panko bread crumbs are usually found on the baking aisle. If you don’t have or can’t find any Italian-style panko bread crumbs, just add 1/2 tablespoon of Italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt, and 1/4 teaspoon onion powder to 1/2 cup plain panko bread crumbs and you’ll be good to go.
How to Make Baked Zucchini Fries
- The first step is to cut your zucchini into little planks. The easiest way to do this is to cut both ends off, then cut into several strips, then cut each strip into the fry shape. Larger fries will be meatier and taste more like zucchini. Smaller fries will cook faster and tend to be crispier.
2. Once your fries are cut, set up a little dipping station.
Panko crumbs are awesome because they add a lot of crispness and they’re actually lower in calories than traditional bread crumbs. However, they also soak up moisture like a sponge, so if you start dipping the zucchini in the eggs and then rolling the sticks in the entire 1/2 cup of bread crumbs, after a few batches, the bread crumbs won’t stick anymore. So you’ll want to work with a portion of the bread crumb/Parmesan cheese mixture at a time, and you may need to wash your hands frequently during the process.
3. Once you are done you should have them all lined up, not touching each other, on your baking sheet. Then into the oven they go.
All ovens are different, so bake them until they look browned and crisp!
Try them with your favorite veggie dip, or with ranch or marinara.
This is an easy side dish and a fun snack that most kids will actually eat!
Serving Suggestions
Got Zucchinis? Here are some other recipes you might enjoy!
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake
Lemon Herb Zucchini Pasta
Grilled Zucchini Caprese
Zucchini Caprese Frittata
FAQs
- Can I make these ahead of time? These zucchini fries are best made fresh. If you’d like, you could slice your zucchini up ahead of time and store in an airtight container in the fridge until you are ready to dunk. The breadcrumb mixture could also be prepped ahead.
- Can I make these in an air fryer? In theory, these would be great in an air fryer, but I haven’t personally tested them that way yet to advise on cook time or temperature. If you try it, let me know how it goes!
Did You Make This?
I’d love to hear from you! Snap a picture and tag me on Instagram, and then come back and give this recipe a rating!
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Baked Zucchini Fries
Description
Crispy baked zucchini sticks perfect for dipping in your favorite sauce!
Ingredients
About 1 lb. zucchini
1/2 cup Italian-seasoned panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (the crumbly stuff, not shreds)
2 eggs
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil sprayed with non-stick spray, or parchment paper. Set aside.
Combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in a shallow bowl. Set aside.
Whisk 2 eggs together in a shallow pie plate and set aside.
Cut the ends off the zucchini and then cut the zucchini in half so you have two short, stubby pieces. Set one piece on its end and cut it in half lengthwise. Cut that half in half, making 2 planks. Repeat with the remaining halves (so you’ll get 16 planks per zucchini).
Stack 2 planks on top of each other and cut into strips. Thicker strips will yield “meatier” fries with more zucchini flavor while thin strips will be crispy and taste virtually nothing like zucchini. When all the fries are cut, blot the pieces with a paper towel.
Working with a small handful at a time, dip the zucchini sticks in the egg, shake them to remove any excess, and then roll them in about 2-3 tablespoons of bread crumbs at a time, adding more as needed; you just don’t want to work with all the bread crumbs at once because they’ll soak up moisture from the egg and won’t stick to the zucchini. Place the coated strips on the prepared baking sheet and repeat until all the zucchini strips have been coated.
Bake for 10-12 minutes in the prepared oven then remove from oven, flip the fries, and bake for another 10-12 minutes or until the zucchini is not soggy and the coating is crisp and golden brown. If you have convection setting on your oven, that will help get them crispier, faster!
Serve immediately with Pizza Sauce or Buttermilk Ranch Dressing. Serves 6-8 as a side dish.
Questions & Reviews
These were delicious…big hit with my family=) Thank you!!
I tried the zucchini fries last nite – they were FANTASTIC! We both really liked them a lot. We are watching carbs so grilling burger patties (no buns) & wanted something fry like to go with it & these were perfect.
I could only find Lemon & Pepper panko crumbs but it added a nice little punch to the flavor & worked just fine.
Just found this blog & loving it!
My kids loved these. They like zucchini in general but they really like this recipe! Thank you!
Tried these tonight – what a great side dish! Cheese ravioli with marinara, these on the side, and canteloupe for dessert made a great meal!
I’m a little sad, although not surprised that my kids wouldn’t eat many. They’re so odd: they’ll eat any vegetable as long as it is recognizable, but try to disguise or dress it up and they’re out. And they won’t touch ranch! Like I said, odd. 😉
These little suckers are so good, The only thing I will do differently next time is make more!
Made these last night..they were awesome! Had mine with ketchup and had as a solo snack. Thanks for recommending.
Next time I pay have to decrease the cook time…I cut mine pretty thin.
Yummo! I linked to this in my Friday Favorites!
http://www.laniejandco.com/2011/02/friday-favorites-2411.html
Thanks for the great recipe! My super picky 11 year old loved them! He even said "you know it's good when I eat my vegetables before the main course!!" So thank you, thank you, thank you!!
I found a recipe to make a lower calorie version of Alfredo that uses Zucchini in it as well and it's pretty yummy!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/fettucini-alfredo-with-zucchini-ribbons-recipe/index.html
she also has a really yummy mac and cheese recipe that uses winter squash in it.
This looks great. As soon as I started reading this post, I instanly thought "Green Bean Fries!" Thanks for the great idea.
oh..my..these look delicious! im definitely saving this!
Brilliant!!! I didn't have any panko and refused to make a trip to the store…instead, I confess that I used wheat thins pulverized in the magic bullet. Not at all as good as the panko will be when I make them again, but good enough that both my kids ATE ZUCCHINI! Next time I will peel the zucchini – my five year old was munching happily until he figured out what it was…the dark green skin was a dead giveaway.
We tried these for dinner tonight and they were DELICIOUS! I even got my picky kids to eat a few, and they've NEVER eaten zucchini on purpose.
This recipe is kind of time consuming for a side dish, but it will be a great recipe for when I'm making a quick main dish.
Thank you!
I would love to see more side dishes on the blog. Like you, I can pull a main dish together, but the sides are always harder. Any help would be appreciated!
I just love zucchini fries… Your version looks lovely! I have to add these to the menu next week!
They were very easy to make and very were very good! My husband really liked them as well as my sisters.
Asia- no, if you bake the plain zucchini they'll just be soft. Sorry!
cnk2cav – points plus.
Just to make sure, are the points values points, or points plus?
Any idea on a way to make these crispy without the panko? Or will they just end up soggy baked sticks of zucchini? I am on a low carb diet and I have such a hard time finding recipes. Thanks.
Pretty late, but replacing breadcrumbs with parmesan cheese works wonders.
My daughter ate these. That's all I have to say. 🙂
I love that these are baked not fried! I may just try them for superbowl sunday this year!
Just finished eating these about 5 minutes ago, and they were great! I undid all the good of them being "healthy" by dipping them in ranch dressing, but better than if they would have been fried, right? 🙂
I already had loads of zucchini (Trader Joe's only sells it in packs of 5 or so), and we have Italian bread crumbs (not Panko though) that are about to expire, so it was perfect!
I was happy the clean up was easy – a bowl (egg) and plate (crumbs) that could go in the dishwasher, a baking stone that just gets rinsed clean… makes me a happy camper!
Thanks for an easy and tasty treat!
I'm terrible at side dishes, too. I can't wait to try these though, and bonus – another zucchini recipe for when the garden explodes with it this summer. 🙂
My kids, husband and our friends go crazy for this method with eggplant (I peel it). I can't wait to try it with zucchini. Thanks!
I made these last night and they were awesome! I should have cooked them a little longer on the first side, but they turned out good. Our store didn't have the italian crumbs, just lemon pepper. So I used those and just added a little italian seasoning. I love zucchini and even though these were time consuming I will make them again!
Definitely putting these on my list of things to make {daily} when everyone gifts me zucchini in the summer! I've made fried zucchini rounds but I have a feeling I'll like these ones better.
Great timing! I had planned to make grilled zucchini for dinner tonight, then when I saw this, I changed my mind. These were really really good! Both kids ate them(although they both like zucchini). I have a hard time with sides also. My husband likes zucchini certain ways, and I think he might like this.
Now, the coating on mine got crispy, but not really any of the actual zucchini… Was that how it was supposed to be? I didn't do a superb job on the blotting, but the egg and coating stuck to it just fine,…. did my lack of blotting skillz contribute to this? I mean, it tasted great, I was just anticipating more crunch.
We made these tonight for dinner, and even my 3 and 5 year old grandsons loved them! A great way to get kids to eat veggies.
Coating each one was a little time consuming, but we felt it was well worth the effort.
I was eating these like crazy for a while! Haven't made them in a couple of months…thanks for the reminder! So glad you and your family are enjoying them! 🙂 Good use of WW points too!
(ps, thanks for the link love!!)
I usually do fresh veggies at every meal.. Everyone in my family loves them (celery, cucumbers, carrots, salad, etc). This does sound tasty though. I think my family would really enjoy this. I know I would… so guess what, I'm making them. 🙂 Power of the cook 😉