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What Are the Best Tips for Making Fried Peanuts?
Making fried peanuts is easy to do and requires only raw peanuts and oil. Peanuts can be shelled before frying or can be fried while inside the shells, in which case the shells can be eaten or removed just before the peanut is eaten. To make seasoned fried peanuts, salt, chili powder, or another other dried seasoning can be added after the peanuts have been removed from the oil.
One of the most important things to do when making fried peanuts is to choose high-quality, raw peanuts. Though it is possible to refry peanuts that have already been boiled, baked or fried, starting with raw peanuts allows the cook to control all parts of the process. Raw peanuts can be grown in a home garden, purchased from a local farm, or picked up at the grocery store, though locally grown peanuts often have better flavor because they are fresher.
Using a high quality oil will also help make fried peanuts taste better. Vegetable, soy, or canola oil can be used for a clean flavor that does not interfere with the taste of the peanuts. It is also possible to fry peanuts in peanut oil, which can make them more flavorful. Flavored oils, such as chili oil or garlic oil can also be used.
In order to cook peanuts in oil, a pan should be filled with about an inch of oil, though a deep fryer may be used. The oil should be heated to a temperature of about 300 degrees Fahrenheit (149 degrees Celsius) before the peanuts are placed in the oil. It is not necessary to use a thermometer to determine exactly how hot the oil is. A peanut can be dropped into the oil as a test. If it sizzles, the oil is hot enough to make fried peanuts.
Once the oil is hot, the peanuts can be placed in it and fried. The oil should be kept hot but not allowed to burn while the peanuts are cooking. Fried peanuts are fully cooked when they are golden brown, a process that generally takes between 5 and 10 minutes.
After the peanuts are cooked, the excess oil can be removed by placing the peanuts on a paper towel to drain. At this point, salt or other spices can be sprinkled on top of the peanuts to give them more flavor. Any additional flavorings should be added to the cook's taste.
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![High quality, raw peanuts should be chosen when using a deep fryer.]()
By: Bombaert PatrickHigh quality, raw peanuts should be chosen when using a deep fryer. -
![It's best to use high-quality raw peanuts when making fried peanuts.]()
By: pilotl39It's best to use high-quality raw peanuts when making fried peanuts.
Discussion Comments
@fBoyle-- You can make pan fried peanuts, I think they're just as good as deep fried ones. I usually use Georgia peanuts, which are naturally a little small, but I think regular peanuts will be fine as well.
To make fried peanuts at home, you just need to heat up oil in a pain and stir fry the peanuts until they're golden brown. Add seasonings like chili last because you don't want the seasonings to burn from the oil. I usually add spices a few minutes before I take the peanuts out of the pan. Burned chili creates a bad fume and it's not healthy.
Also, for those who don't want excessively oily peanuts, fry the peanuts with the skin on. Some people even fry them with the outer hard skin but the spices won't be infused into the peanut that way.
There is a great snack mix that's sold at Southeast Asian groceries. It's basically fried peanuts mixed with puffed rice, fried peas and some kind of wheat sticks. It's very spicy and I'm hooked on it. I wonder if I could make this at home. I don't have a deep fryer though and I'm sure that fried peanuts would be best in a deep fryer.
Also, the peanuts used in this snack mix are tiny! They're much smaller than typical peanuts. I would have to find this type I think. They're much better suited for snacking.
I make fried peanuts at home, but I don't like to use a lot of oil with it. Peanuts are already oily nuts, so when they're fried with a lot of oil, they absorb more oil which is overwhelming. So I use little oil and I prefer peanut oil because it makes the peanuts taste even better.
One plant generally produces 25 to 50 nuts. Based on how many you want to have at any given time, that should be a good rule of thumb to start planting.
However, it is important to keep in mind that all of the nuts on a plant do not ripen at the same time, so you may want to plant one or two plants more than you think you would need to account for this.
If I decide to grow my own peanuts, how do I know how many plants I will need?
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