When cooked properly, fried calamari is the perfect appetizer: crisp and tender, perfect for popping into your mouth all on its own, with a spritz of lemon, or dipped into marinara sauce. On the other hand, fried calamari can easily become sad and soggy, chewy to the point of being rubbery, or—worst-case scenario—both of the above.
What’s the Best Oil for Frying Calamari?
Any high-smoke-point oil—like vegetable, canola, or peanut oil—will work for frying calamari. I recommend an oil with a very mild flavor so that the delicate calamari flavor shines through.How Do You Make Sure Fried Calamari Is Not Chewy?
In addition to soaking the calamari in buttermilk before frying, avoid frying the calamari for too long. Pull the calamari out of the oil when it’s light golden-brown.More Tips for Frying Calamari
Keep the oil temperature steady. Calamari fries up super quick, so keep the oil at a steady 375 degrees F and make sure it comes back up to that temperature for each batch.Don’t overcrowd. It might not seem like a lot, but just batter and fry a small handful at a time. You want to be able to easily separate the pieces in the flour mixture, and more than a handful clumps up the flour and makes it gummy and difficult to work with. Fry in a Dutch oven, which gives the calamari plenty of room to spread out.
Recruit a friend! If you can find someone to help you during frying, the whole process is much more pleasant, as each batch fries up so quickly. Designate one person to do the dredging and the second person fries.
Fried Calamari
Serves 4- 1 pound cleaned squid or calamari (see Recipe Notes if buying whole squid)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 6 cups vegetable or canola oil, for deep frying
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white rice flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt or 3/4 teaspoon fine salt, plus more for seasoning
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder or granules
- 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
- Lemon wedges and tartar sauce, for serving
Heat the vegetable oil in a Dutch oven or large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat until 375 degrees F. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 200 degrees F. Fit a wire rack onto a baking sheet. Place the all-purpose flour, white rice flour, salt, garlic powder, and ground white pepper in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
Drain the calamari in a colander and agitate the calamari with your hands to remove as much liquid as possible.
Bread and fry the calamari in 4 to 5 batches: Drop a handful of calamari (about 1/2 cup) into the flour mixture and toss until well coated, separating the pieces with your hands. Transfer to a fine-mesh strainer and shake over the bowl to remove the excess flour.
Transfer to the hot oil, stir immediately to separate the pieces, and fry until just cooked through and light golden brown, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Transfer to the rack with a slotted spoon or spider and season lightly with salt. Place the baking sheet in the oven to keep warm. Bread the next batch while the oil is coming back up to 375 degrees F. Serve with lemon wedges and tartar sauce.
