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Corn fritters are a great side dish for any occasion, providing a dense yet still crispy chew and delicious Southern flavor. They are basically the go-to recipe for when you don’t know what side dish to make, so try and always keep a can of corn on hand for when the craving hits.
Why not make some homemade Creamed Corn for this recipe? Or make a Creamy Corn Pudding instead?
Corn Fritters
The real joy of a corn fritter is its almost unexplainable texture. It is both crispy and crunchy while still having a soft and tender internal texture.
It is truly one of those mysteries of cooking science that something made of so few ingredients can have such a varying degree of textures.
Corn Fritters Ingredients
Check out the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts needed here.
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- White sugar
- Cream style corn
- Egg
- Heavy cream
- Vegetable oil
How to Make Corn Fritters
- Whisk together the dry ingredients
- Add in the creamed corn, egg, and cream until the whole mixture is thick
- Line a plate with paper towels
- Coat a large skillet with the vegetable oil and heat it over medium-high heat
- Once hot, scoop the corn batter into the pan, spreading it into flat circles
- Fry one side of the fritter for 2 minutes until well browned, then flip and cook the other side until cooked through
- Transfer the fritters to the towel-lined plate to dry, then garnish with green onions and serve with sour cream.
What’s Better: Pan Frying or Deep Frying?
Aficionados of Southern cooking will likely notice that this recipe for corn fritters doesn’t use deep frying but pan frying instead.
This move might induce some people to angry hysterics – how dare we not deep fry this in a quart of peanut oil?
However, deep frying is such a hassle sometimes; the oil stinks up your entire house, it splashes everywhere, and you then have to deal with a giant pot of hot oil at the end.
Pan frying is a perfectly decent alternative to deep frying when it comes to making something like corn fritters, as long as you understand that there will necessarily be a change in texture.
Deep frying gives you a much crispier and thinner crust around the outside while consequently giving a bit of a softer, almost rawer taste on the inside.
Pan frying, meanwhile, produces a thicker crust that is cracklier rather than crispy and results in a more well done interior. This can actually be beneficial, especially if you are planning on serving this to younger people, as deep frying can sometimes result in undercooking of the center, which can be dangerous thanks to the egg used in the batter.
Ultimately though, you need to make the decision between pan frying or deep frying yourself. They are both valid and make tasty corn fritters, but they are still different, so choose what’s right for you.
Do You Have to Use A Can of Cream Style Corn?
The use of a can of creamed corn in this recipe is definitely the secret technique here, as it results in a much more tender batter than if you just used a can of regular corn.
However, if you can’t find creamed corn, you could certainly use a can of regular corn instead. Just keep in mind that that the liquid content of the recipe will change. Some recipes call for the addition of a little bit of whole milk or buttermilk to replace the missing liquid, which could really help thin it out.
Another option is you could try and pound the corn using a mortar and pestle, which will break the corn pieces up and give you a wetter texture.
Looking for more tasty Side Dishes? Try these out:
Enjoy!
Love,
Karlynn
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Corn Fritters
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 20 minutes
- Course
- appetizers
- Cuisine
- American
- Servings
- 15
- Calories
- 50
- Author
- Karlynn Johnston
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
- one 19 ounce (540 ml can) cream style corn
- 1 large egg well beaten
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
- Mix in the creamed corn, egg and cream until the mixture comes together. The mixture should be thick.
- Line a plate with paper towels.
- Pour a heavy coating of vegetable oil into a large skillet and place it over medium-high heat.
- Once the oil is hot, scoop mounds of the corn batter into the pan, spreading it lightly into flat circles around 1/3 of an inch thick
- Fry the one side of the fritter for 2-3 minutes until well browned on the bottom. then flip Cook another 2-3 minutes until golden brown and cook through completely. There is egg in the mixture so make sure they are cooked through.
- Once cooked, transfer the fritters to the paper towel-lined plate, placing them in single layers on the paper towels., Repeat with the remaining batter until used up.
- Garnish with minced green onions. Serve with sour cream for dipping.
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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LaDonna says
My mom made corn fritters out of pancake batter and canned corn. Was always such a treat because she only made it when dad was out of town. She served them with butter and maple syrup! Yummy. I am so looking forward to making your recipe today. And appreciate the comments. Gives me a lot of great ideas.
Patricia Rourke says
I’ve had corn fritters out in Iowa and Montana but they had corn meal also added.. Think a little could be added as a sub for some of the flour?
Katie says
The best! I have made these a few times and followed the recipe using creamed corn (definitely the best way to go) and white shoepeg corn, crushing it myself in a ziplock bag with a rolling pin. I cook these in my favorite cast iron braiser for the best pan frying, a really good recipe I would recommend. Thanks for sharing.
Ray says
I made this recipe tonight and made one test fritter with the recipe as written (my can of creamed corn was only 15.25 oz instead of the 19 oz, so I was a little short). It was very bland so I added 1/4 tsp of black pepper and the same amount of chili powder as I have seen in other recipes and that did add some zip to it, but not much on the 2nd test fritter. Then I added a generous cup of blended taco-cheese and the flavor got better, but still not there. I made 7 more fritters until the batter was finished (about 2 TBSP of batter per fritter). I think these would be a good base for a scoop of thick chili or similar topping. Definitely needs more flavor than it has on its own, but it’s a start. It is very similar to many other corn fritter recipes that I see so I’m assuming that they are equally as average. I did like that you used creamed corn and heavy cream which made more sense to me. Thanks!
Betty says
I look forward to trying these very soon. My mom used to make deep fried corn fritters but I have no interest in deep frying for several reasons. This sounds like a great way to get the same results w/o the hassle of a deep fryer. I, too live in the prairies (Edmonton) so hope I can find cream of corn still. By the way I love your recipe for How to Cook a Sirloin Roast and have passed it onto my kids. Thank You.
Susan says
Followed the recipe last week, then made it again today, except add a bit of curry powder, just for “different.” Your basic recipe is now my go-to for corn fritters.
Because it is so simple, I can doll it up with spices or fresh herbs and know that these fritters will knock off some socks!
Thanks so much.
Lorrie says
Has any one tried this using an air fryer??