As we’ve mentioned, we visited Nashville over Thanksgiving. We went for the food, obvi. Even though we didn’t eat hush puppies while we were there we did fall head over heels in love with southern food. There is nothing better than southern food. AmIRight? Since we got back we’ve been trying to recreate southern recipes at home AND we’ve been trying to get our southern fix…at Chicago restaurants.
So our recent fixation on southern food resulted in these glorious hush puppies. And oh my goodness are they glorious. I mean…it’s fried dough for crying out loud…what’s not glorious about that?
Cliff reminisces about Long John Silvers hush puppies every so often but they’re not something Kara and I ate much (maybe a few times). I know that Long John Silvers is about as midwest as it gets but I do remember them being pretty darn delicious. It was definitely time to try homemade hush puppies!
I honestly can’t believe how easy they were to make. Mix a few ingredients in a big bowl, chill for a bit and then fry those little puppies. Then of course pig out!!

Here’s what you’ll need

Combine onions, flour, cornmeal, garlic powder, salt, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl

Mix everything together then cover the bowl and pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes

Time to fry! Don’t crowd the pan no matter how excited you are…

We sprinkled kosher salt right after frying then dipped them in malt vinegar. They were so good!

Hush Puppies
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup onion, finely minced
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 egg
- 1 cup whole milk
- vegetable oil, for frying
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together onions, flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, sugar, and garlic powder.
- In another bowl, whisk together egg and milk.
- Combine the egg mixture and the flour mixture until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Heat 2 inches of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat until a thermometer reads 350 degrees F.
- Working in batches, carefully drop spoonfuls of batter in the oil. Stir occasionally, until golden, about 6-8 minutes per batch.
- Use a slotted spoon to remove the hush puppies from the oil and transfer them to a paper towel-lined plate. Immediately sprinkle with kosher salt.
- Serve alone, or with malt vinegar for dipping.