Crispy parmesan zucchini fries baked in the air fryer. These low carb and keto diet friendly zucchini fries (aka chips) are light, crispy, and packed full of flavor at only 3 net carbs per serving in under 15 minutes!
If you’re on the keto diet or are simply looking for a new way to use your air-fryer than I’ve got just the recipe for you. Today we’re making crispy zucchini fries in our air-fryer in under 15 minutes!
Zucchini fries are a delicious nutritious low-carb alternative to potato fries and are great for EVERYONE. They’re a godsend if you’re on a low carb or keto diet because a cup of zucchini is only 3g net carbs. That leaves plenty of room for enjoying zucchini fries guilt-free and in no time thanks to an air fryer.
How to Make Crispy Zucchini Fries in Air Fryer
Breading: For low-carb and keto diets, we love using a mixture of almond flour and freshly grated parmesan cheese. The mixture is perfect and makes super crispy zucchini fries. For non-keto diets, panko bread crumbs work wonders. They are super light and crispy and are a must try.
Cooking: To get perfectly crispy zucchini fries all around, be sure not to over-crowd your air fryer. Place as many zucchini fries as you can into the air-fryer without overlapping.
Seasoning: These breadcrumbs are delicious on their own with just a pinch of salt and pepper but if you’d like to make them extra special, we highly suggest spicing things up! Adding a teaspoon or two of your favorite spice blend (Italian, taco, ranch, Cajun) to the breading mixture will take these fries to the next level!
How to make zucchini fries in the oven
These zucchini fries are delicious and quick in the air fryer but they can also be baked in the oven. To bake in the oven, simply place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes at 425F or until the zucchini fries are crispy and golden. Check out the full recipe for the oven baked version here!
Dipping sauces to serve with zucchini fries
These zucchini fries will go with just about any dipping sauce you have on hand or even ketchup or ranch. We served them with a creamy sriracha sauce. We’ve gathered our favorite dipping sauces that can be quickly whipped up in under 5 minutes while the fries are baking!
Creamy Sriracha: 1/4 cup mayo, sour cream, Greek yogurt or ranch dressing, 1 teaspoon sriracha, 1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice.
Avocado Cilantro: 1/2 avocado, 1/4 cup sour cream or Greek Yogurt, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup cilantro leaves, 1 clove garlic, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, a pinch of salt. Place in food processor and blend until smooth.
Creamy Chipotle: ½ cup mayo, sour cream or Greek yogurt, 2 teaspoons lime juice, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder (or 1 teaspoon canned adobo sauce), 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, a pinch of salt. Whisk to combine.
Garlic Aioli: 1/4 cup mayo, 1 clove crushed garlic, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, a pinch of cayenne and salt. Whisk to combine.
Fry Sauce: 1/4 cup mayo, 2 tablespoons ketchup, 1 teaspoon pickle juice, lime juice or vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder. Whisk to combine.
Air Fryer Zucchini Fries (Low Carb Keto)
Ingredients
- 2 medium zucchini
- 1 large egg, beaten
- ½ cup almond flour, or panko/Italian breadcrumbs
- ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, or seasoning of choice
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder, optional
- Pinch of salt and pepper
- Oil for spraying, olive or oil of choice
Instructions
- Cut the zucchini in half and into sticks (aka fries) about 1/2 inch thick and 3-4 inches long.
- In a shallow bowl, combine the almond flour (or bread crumbs), grated parmesan, spices and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix to combine.
- Dredge zucchini in egg and then in the almond flour mixture and place on a plate or baking sheet. Generously spray zucchini with cooking spray.
- Working in batches, place the zucchini fries in a single layer in the air fryer. and Cook for 10 minutes at 400F, or until crispy.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hello! I am vegan so I tweaked these a little bit. Sprayed with avocado oil. Salted. Dipped into half and mixture of non gmo almond flour and ground flax seed that I had mixed with herbamare, celery seeds, ground dried shallot and black pepper. No cheese. Cooked in a breville smart over air fryer for 12 min on 400°. They came out perfectly thank you for the wonderful recipe and inspiration.
Made these tonight.. followed the recipe exactly and used the reviewers suggestions of adding flour to them before adding them to the egg and I used one hand for Dredging in the egg and One for costing with them flour and I didn’t have any issues with my coating not sticking to the zuchini. Alone these are bland; I’ll add more spices next time but dipped in the homemade sauce these were awesome! Nice and crispy and tasted great! I made the garlic sauce and the sriracha sauce and was amazed at how easy it was to whip those together and how good they tasted. Thank you for adding those!
What do you set the air fryer to????
It says 400° in the recipe
I have not tried these yet so I cannot give stars. Just wondering if I can use egg beaters instead of the egg to reduce the cholesterol. Someone mentioned egg whites did not work well.
These were awesome! I’m not a huge zucchini fan but doing them this way made the texture perfect and seasoning was really nice. Thanks for a great recipe.
Tried these tonight. Used bread crumbs instead of almond flour. They were delicious! Will make them again for sure. Even tried the garlic aioli dipping sauce. Thumbs up.
So the trick is in the technique… one hand for wet, the other for dry. I made the almond flour/parm/spices version. You dredge with one hand, put in dry mix. Use dry hand to sprinkle more on top, then use tongs to put on tray. Spray then place in fryer. Do not cried them or they will steam, rather than crisp. They were really good. My picky husband and 15 yr old liked them so that is saying a lot!
Made it without flour or bread crumbs and it came out great!
So just the cheese?
I like the idea, but I had a terrible time getting the coating to stick and 10 minutes about burned them. I should have read the other reviews first.
I tried my best last night to make these in my new Foodie Max Fryer/Oven. Trying new recipes to break in my new toy. The coating was on every finger, not the zucchini? Not sure what I did wrong? I thought about using a paper towel prior to the egg dip. The zucchini wasn’t wet? Help! My husband was kind and said he liked the concept and taste. I threw out a lot of the coating as I could barely get half to stick. Had to wash my hands well to remove the coating. The only think I noticed was I used grated parm versus shredded? The pics & vid show shredded.
Try wetting the zucchini with water then tossing them in some grated parmesan or maybe even coconut flour before dipping in the egg. Helps to get it to stick. Traditionally we’d use flour but can’t do that on keto.
What kind of dipping sauce was that and how do you make it.
The dipping sauce recipe is included in the blog post.
These were a good addition to our higher carb meal. I took the advice of another person and did salt the zucchini to allow it to sweat out some of the moisture. Glad I did.
I made these this evening and I just want to note a few things. The recipe calls for salt AND Parmesan cheese, but I would only recommend the cheese or the salt. The combination of the two makes the fries way too salty. I actually omitted the cheese on the last batch and found that the taste and texture was more enjoyable. Secondly, 10 minutes in many air fryers is way too long to put these in for. I tried 400 degrees for ten minutes on my first batch and they just about burnt. I found that 375 for 8 minutes was much better. Were these the best zucchini fries I’ve ever eaten? No. Were they good? With a little bit of tweaking, sure.
Kick ass. For us ketonians, this is great. I reccommend ranch dressing mixed with chili sauce. Dee-lish!!!
Yum, sounds delicious!
I just made these…AMAZING. I didnt leave them in as long though, maybe 6-7 min. But with some marinara on the side these were phenomenal.
We are trying to eat less carbs so I use hot and spicy pork rinds instead of bread crumbs. You wouldn’t know they are pork rinds. They taste amazing.
Interesting!! 😄
Made them as directed. On my air fryer 10 minutes was way too long, the last batch took only 5 minutes. Still a hit with all just be aware the time may not be accurate.
I used yellow squash instead of zucchini and LOVED them! Super crispy and flavorful. Thank you!!
Followed the recipe exactly and the panko stuck to the zuccini perfectly. They are super crisp and tasty. I made them in advance and keeping them warm in the oven…….hoping they hold up, If not, it’s my fault for making in advance.; 🙂 Thank you for this recipe!
Thanks for the feedback!
I made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious! I made sure to extra spray them with the olive oil and I cooked them a little longer than recommended. Perfect flavor and crispness!
First recipe I tried in my brand new air fryer. So good!! Will definitely be making these again!!
So I won’t give a rating because I didn’t follow the recipe exactly because I thought I had almond flour but didn’t so I used coconut flour. They’re okay but I’m not crazy about them. I notice when coming out of the air fryer, not all sides are cooked. Is there a better way to do this? Also a way to crisp the zucchini more? I know there’s a ton of water in them but they’re still pretty soft.
Coconut flour works differently which is why your texture was not on point. Perhaps try it with almond flour next time and let us know how they turn out?
Made these tonight, absolutely delicious. I used some Tony’s creole seasoning in the crumb and it was perfect
My husband and I really enjoyed these! They were easy to make, crisped up nicely and were tasty. I left out the cheese and garlic due to allergies, added some paprika and made sure to really get the bread crumbs on every part of the zucchini. We will for sure make them again.
I will try this for dinner tomorrow with a couple of tweaks. I will dip the zucchini in melted butter instead of the egg (to get more fats in) then use crushed pork rinds instead of the almond flour (to lower the carb count). That’s what I do with my chicken cutlets and they turn out great every time!
I will try this next time!
I’m going to use the pork rinds today also but will use egg Thinking o definitely need a good dipping sauce. For main meal well hv salmon. I think it’ll be a great combination. Good luck on yours.
I made these tonight and followed the recipe exactly. Not bad tasting, but I could not get the breading (almond flour and cheese) to stay on. It was a complete disaster…..so disappointed! Probably will not attempt to make again. My last batch I did something different, i seasoned, sprayed with oil (without the breading), air fryed for 9 minutes, sprinkled with parmesan cheese and closed the basket to the air fryer to slightly melt the cheese…..the last batch was perfect!
I used Panko and cheese with a bit of added AP flour. Also I dredged one plain flour, then egg, then cheese mixture.
Can’t wait to try this recipe. Wondering if I can use buttermilk instead of eggs? Trying to ration those as my state is in lockdown currently. Thanks!
We haven’t tried them with buttermilk but it should work!
I made these with buttermilk and they worked quite well! Not as well as with the eggs, but with a little more care in the handling of them I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell a difference! (I have an epileptic disorder that causes me to twitch a lot involuntarily, so everything I cook ends up being a bit beaten up haha)
These taste great! The only problem is that they came out way to soft can’t even dip them with our them. Will make again also going to try this recipe with mushrooms.
Awesome ! Delicious! Fast! Easy! Thank you.
We loved them. I used half freshly grated Parmesan and half Kraft grated Parmesan. It was the first thing I made in my new fryer
Sooo happy one of my recipes was the first to be featured in your air-fryer, Pat! <3
thank you for this recipe! it is delicious! i like it served with marinara too. thank you for including the instructions for the oven, for those of us who don’t have an air fryer!
I had a question about the Carb count. in the description, it says it is 3 gm cho per serving. The recipe says it serves four, but the nutritional content is for 1 1/4 the recipe. The CHO is 6 gm with 2 gm fiber. Is the nutritional content supposed to be for 1/4 the recipe instead of 1 1/4? And if i subtract 6-4=2 gm. I am confused. please clarify for me! thank you!
The nutritional content is for 1/4th the recipe not 1 & 1/4th. I hope that helps! 🙂
Not bad tasting, but the batter did stay on with the panko.
No matter what I did, I could not Get the Panko to stick to the zucchini sticks. I blotted them on a paper towel before I dipped them in Egg (also tried egg white) – the panko fell off no matter how hard i pressed it was a disaster.
ZUCCHINI should be vut into fries and placed on paper towels to dry. Its very importAnt to spray Before air Frying snd of course season well. They were grEat but drying them gurst is crucial!
I cut them in very thin disk…went by the recipe as far as ingredients. The first batch I cooked in my air fryer. They were good but in my small airfryer would take forever to make them. So the next batch I lined a baking sheet with foilr..sprayed it with non stick spray. Dipped each piece into egg…then almond flour mixture. Then onto baking pan. I again sprayed a light spray of non stiCk over them. Baked at 400* for about 20 minutes and they were delicious.
Tasted great! I USED SALT, PEPPER, GARLIC POWDER & PAPRIKA TO SEASON. ONLY PROBLEM, AND THE REASON WHY I DOCKED A STAR, WAS THAT THEY DON’T STICK WELL BC THE ZUCCHINI HAS TOO MUCH MOISTURE. tHE COATING WOULD SLIDE OFF. i’D RECOMMEND SALTING THEM FIRST TO DRY THEM OUT, AND THEN DOING THE EGG COATING & CRUMBS. oTHERWISE, THEY TASTED GREAT! THANKS!
I was really hopeful for these to work out. They were…gnarly. never crisped and they tasted horrible. Sorry.