Air Fried Green Tomatoes Recipe

If you love Fried Green Tomatoes but don’t like that they are deep-fried in vegetable oil, then you have to try this Air Fried Green Tomatoes recipe!

They are much better, not to mention, much healthier than traditionally made fried green tomatoes.

Although the breading process is the same, the tomatoes are not fried. Instead, the heat and circulation of the air fryer cooks them until the coating becomes golden brown.

Take one bite and you will see that they are nice and crispy on the outside, but soft and tender on the inside.

Also, when cooked this way, you no longer have the fear of taking a bite and a hot pocket of grease splattering in your mouth.

Instead, Air Fried Green Tomatoes can be eaten as soon as they come out of the air fryer.

How To Make Air Fried Green Tomatoes

So how do you make Fried Green Tomatoes in the air fryer?

It all starts with picking out the best tomatoes. Of course, we are talking green tomatoes.

Fully ripened red tomatoes do not stand up well to the cooking process. In fact, if you have ever tried to fry a sliced red tomato, it literally falls apart.

On the other hand, green tomatoes are firm and can withstand the heat when cooked.

But you want to pick the green tomatoes when they have almost fully developed in size. Smaller, underdeveloped green tomatoes are more bitter and don’t taste as good.

And just like with any recipe, you want to use tomatoes that have no damage on the skin, such as bruises or blemishes.

The Dredging Process

There are all sorts of ways that you make breading for your air fried green tomatoes.

However, we prefer to make ours with a Southern style breading. Which, of course, must include corn meal!

When we lived down south, a friend taught me how to make her mother’s Fried Green Tomatoes recipe.

She pulled out 3 shallow bowls that she used to set up her dredging station.

She filled the first bowl with flour. And then she seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Next she whipped together eggs and buttermilk for the wet ingredients.

And finally, in the third shallow bowl, she combined cornmeal and Panko breadcrumbs.

Then using her left hand, she picked up a sliced green tomato and coated it in the flour.

Using her right hand she dipped the flour coated slice into the second bowl that held the wet ingredients.

And finally, switching back to her left hand, she placed the slice into the cornmeal and breadcrumb mixture.

Next she placed each slice on a baking rack over a foiled lined baking sheet to rest until each slice had gone through the same process.

Now it was time to make the Fried Green Tomatoes. Of course, she deep-fried them instead of making them in the air fryer.

However, the next time that we made them together, I brought my Ninja Foodi with me to show her how to make them a little healthier.

And she absolutely LOVED them!

Air Fryer Instructions

That is what is absolutely wonderful about owning an Air Fryer. You can still enjoy the deep-fried foods that you love without consuming massive amounts of oil and grease.

See: 5 Reasons To Own An Air Fryer

We use the air crisp function on our Ninja Foodi to make French Fries, Onion Rings, and even Chicken Fingers.

So when my friend showed me how to make Fried Green Tomatoes, I thought I would return the favor and show her how to Air Fry them.

After all the slices have been coated, preheat your Air Fryer to get it nice and hot.

Each air fryer has different preheating instructions. However, I have found that 3 minutes of preheating at the recipe instructed cooking temperature works best for most recipes.

So for this Air Fried Green Tomatoes recipe, I preheated the Ninja Foodi at 400 degrees F for 3 minutes.

Then place the breaded tomato slices in a single layer in the basket of the air fryer and spritz the top with olive oil.

After 5 minutes, flip them over, spritz the tops with a little more olive oil and cook an additional 3-5 minutes or until golden brown in color.

Repeat the process until all of the tomatoes have been cooked!

Enjoy!

Mary and Jim

Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.

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