Baked Avocado Fries

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I honestly thought I had done everything one person can do with an avocado. Guacamole. Pesto. Salad. Frosting. Hair masks. Face masks. What could possibly be left?

Oh…FRIES? I can make FRIES from an avocado? And I can bake them instead of frying? Come with me to the moment I found this out. Can you see the rays of heavenly light pouring down around me? Can you hear the Hallelujah chorus? Or do you just think I’m a little bit weirder than you did just a few minutes ago?

This starts with fresh, ripe avocado, sliced lengthwise. If you can keep from sprinkling some sea salt on it and eating it just like that, well, more power to you. You’ve got more willpower than me, and you get to move on to the next round, where it’s rolled through seasoned flour, dipped in an egg wash, and then coated with crispy, crunchy panko breadcrumbs.

All aboard! Next stop: awesomeness.

You also get to scare people when you’re done breading and your hands look like this:

Julie Pankohands: the tragically unsuccessful sequel to Edward Scissorhands

You can get people to agree to almost anything if you’re chasing them with hands like this.

A relatively quick high-heat bake finishes these babies off, and while you dance around ecstatically waiting for that twenty minutes to pass, you can think about what dipping sauce is worthy of these. It could be anything. I’m partial to sweet chili sauce myself, but you can go in almost any direction. Ranch, chipotle mayo, wasabi-soy sauce…whatever you dip these in, make sure it’s something you really like. Cooked avocado is tender and buttery but it’s mellow to the extreme – it’s good to have a flavor-packed sauce to go with the to-die-for crunchiness of the panko crust with the soft avocado middle.

Make these. Let me know if you hear the Hallelujah chorus like I did. You don’t need to be embarrassed – it’s not you. These really are that good.

4.6 from 11 reviews
Baked Avocado Fries
 
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Category: Side Dish, Appetizer
Yield: ~20 fries
Ingredients
  • 3 ripe (but not overripe) avocados
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 2 eggs - see Notes for substitute to veganize
  • 1½ cups panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • ½ tsp paprika
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • Cooking spray
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 F. Line a baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on the sheet. Set aside.
  2. Slice avocados lengthwise - for three avocados, you'll get 20-22 fries.
  3. Set up three bowls in an "assembly line" (prepare your best Laverne and Shirley routine). In the first bowl, place the ½ cup of flour and add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper.
  4. Crack the eggs into the middle bowl and beat lightly.
  5. In the last bowl, combine the panko and melted butter and mix with your fingers to coat. Add garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and pepper and stir to combine.
  6. Dredge each avocado slice through the flour, and then the beaten egg. Coat thoroughly with the panko and place on the wire rack. Spray lightly with cooking spray.
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until panko is lightly browned. Cool for about ten minutes and serve with dipping sauce of choice.
Notes
To veganize - instead of the eggs, puree 6 oz silken tofu with 2 Tbsp non-dairy milk, OR for a more flavor-packed option, stir together 2 Tbsp dijon mustard, 2 Tbsp maple syrup, 1 Tbsp soy sauce and 1 Tbsp Vegenaise. If you don't have a wire rack to bake the fries on, it is completely fine to bake them on parchment paper or greased aluminum foil - just turn them halfway through baking.

Source: Adapted from Adventures in Cooking

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78 Responses to Baked Avocado Fries

    • Hi Liz! Couple of options I can think of for replacing the egg wash – you could blend up some silken tofu with a bit of soy/rice/almond milk, but another option that I think would be really good is dijon mustard thinned out with a little agave or maple syrup, water, and Vegenaise. I use something like that to bind breadcrumbs to tofu and it’s fantastic – since the avocado is very mellow, like tofu, I bet the extra flavor would go a long way.

      And I’ve edited the recipe in the post to include veganizing instructions, so thanks for asking that!

  6. These came out absolutely fantastic! My little sister, who is a very picky eater went nuts for them, and we cleaned the entire tray in ten minutes. Thank you for this soon-to-be-favourite recipe 🙂

  8. AWESOME, thank you! Found some whole wheat bread crumbs at whole foods and they came out great using those:)

  9. I just made these, and they are delicious! I added a little chipotle chili pepper to both the flour and the panko, since I wasn’t making a dip. SO yummy, thanks for the recipe! =)

  11. This is great cooked it tonite and didn’t feel guilty after eating loved it. Thanks for the recipe.

  12. When i saw this recipe i was like “ohhhmyyyyhgaaawwdd” i told my boyfriend about it. so we made them last night for the first time, they’re so good! We made a whole bunch! Haha. i love you so much for this recipe. 🙂

  13. After an hour of “what’s for dinner?” I decided to give this recipe a try. Now, I LOVE avocados, but I have never had them like this…. Paired them with a salad of baby greens… Ahhhhhh-mazing!!!! My husband who is kinda “eh” with avocadoes thought they were the BOMB! 🙂

  14. Just a quick note to let you know that this link you put in to Food on Friday: Avocado has been showcased today in my Need Some Inspiration? Series. Cheers

    Ps I have just signed up to follow you – a follow back to Carole’s Chatter would be wonderful!

  17. I made these as a spur of the moment side dish for dinner. I love them, my roommates loved them & my boyfriend loved them. Even my sister the dietitian asked for the recipe because the photo i took of them looked so good. I would recommend making them when you get a chance! But just as a warning defiantly have a dipping sauce. I didn’t this time, but i will next time! Oh, and make sure you have friends to share them with, too, cause it makes a whole lot!

  18. I didn’t care for these, to be honest. Although you said they had a mellow flavor, I was still disappointed with the lack of flavor. We ate them with a wasabi soy sauce and some pickled ginger, which improved them a lot. I think they’d be good in a sushi roll. Overall though, I didn’t think they were worth the effort.

  19. WOW! Delicious. I made these for the first time tonight. Any ideas on how to store a few slices? Like you Julie, I was alone. I ate all but a few of the slices. I’ll eat the rest in a matter of hours. I didn’t use sauce. Maybe next time.

    I improvised a bunch because I wanted them NOW. i used three types of crackers; and used sage, ginger, curry and turmeric (what I had in my cupboard) punched with crushed red peppers for the panko mixture. I substituted corn meal for flour. My cupboards are empty. But thanks to an amazing recipe my tummy is full. :-)♥:-)♥

    • I love your adaptations! I bet they were great with curry powder.

      It is very rare that I have leftovers of these, but when I do I just throw them in a tupperware in the fridge. Reheating in the oven rather than the microwave seems to help in avoiding sogginess.

  20. Tried these and followed directions to a T, but the avocados came out horrendously bitter! Had to throw out the whole batch. The coating tasted great, but not the avocado itself. I’ve been reading that cooking avocado can make them bitter. To be fair, I used avocados that were on the better side of ripe but definitely not starting to rot (they had no soft, black/brown areas). Any suggestions? Would love to recommend this recipe otherwise!

    • Yikes! I’ve never had this happen with these and I hadn’t heard about cooking them causing bitterness. So sorry that happened to you – such a bummer when you have to scrap a bunch of food. My only suggestion is to try again with new avocadoes (if you aren’t too disheartened by attempt #1).

    • I’m a vegetarian so I haven’t and wouldn’t try this – but anyone who does, feel free to report back with results for those interested.

  22. Thanks Julie, What a neat web page. I can hardly wait to try the avocados….luckily they are in season and soooo reasonable to purchase.

    Thanks again, Pat

  24. How would you suggest making this recipie gluten free? Any possible alternatives to the breadcrumbs or would just trying to buy gluten free breadcrumbs be the best bet?

    • Hi Devin, I haven’t tried this but I bet you could sub almond meal for the breadcrumbs. I haven’t tried so I can’t personally vouch for the results, but it seems like it would work. If you try it, let me know how it works and I’ll add it to the recipe as a GF sub.

    • There are now GF Panko crumbs as well as GF breadcrumbs in the supermarket. If you don’t see them, ask your grocer to get some in for you. Most times they are happy to add something a frequent shopper requests!

  29. OMG I finally made these and they were SO GOOD!!! I’m a sugar free eater, so I used my favorite sugar free Pace Salsa mixed with Gluten Free/Sugar Free Ranch dressing as the dip. I only made 1 avocado but could hardly contain myself from eating them all. Put half in the fridge for tomorrow. Will be making these over and over!! Thank you for a wonderful recipe.

    • Melissa, I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Congrats on having the self-discipline to not eat them all; you’ll have to tell me your secret 🙂

  37. i made this yesterday for my guests and used the recipe from another website.

    Everybody raved about it. I made my own breadcrumbs and seasoned it heavely with, salt, pepper, chillipowder, garlicpowder. Do NOT add butter to it, that will make it a mess and hard to coat the avocado’s with. Made a dipping sauce of mayonaise, greek plain yoghurt, garlic, finely chopped cilantro and lime juice.
    It was absolutely delicious.

  49. My daughter-in-law and I liked the breading, but we didn’t care for the way the avocado tasted funny. We both like avocados, it just wasn’t our thing. I would probably like this with a different veggie, maybe carrots.

  56. I want to try this, but use leftover guacamole that’s frozen into fry-shapes. Does anyone think it would work? I’m terrified they might just turn to mush.