Fried Artichoke Hearts

This is another recipe courtesy of my soon-to-be-famous (if we ever get famous from this blog) sister-in-law, Denise. It's one of those recipes that I remember her making waaay back when when I first met her (I can't even think about how long ago because it's depressing...let's just say that a person could vote if they were as old as how long ago this was). Back when we weren't as health-conscious...or I guess we were health conscious but we could afford to not care about it TOO much because we were in our 20s. Those glorious 20s when I had a metabolism and no stretch marks and everything was, let's say, perkier. I know I'm not one foot in the grave or anything, but man what a difference 18 years can make! :)

So, anyway, these artichoke appetizers are SOOO good that I used to get so excited when I knew she was making them for a get-together.  It's been a while since she's made them but as I was thinking about recipes I'd like to put on our blog, this was one of the first ones that I knew I wanted to use. And when I made them recently, I thought WHY have we not made these in so long?! They're delicious! Hopefully we're getting these babies back into the rotation!

~Leah

Fried Artichoke Hearts

Recipe Type: Appetizer

Author: Leah

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

• 1-2 cans halved artichoke hearts (if you can't find them halved, you can get the whole and cut them in half or get the quarters and they'll just be a little smaller)


• Vegetable or canola oil


• Ranch dressing


• Batter for hearts:


• 2 1/2 cups flour


• 2 eggs


• 2 1/2 cups milk


• 1 Tbsp. garlic powder


• 1 1/2 tsp. fresh parsley, chopped


• 1/2 tsp. salt


• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Drain and rinse artichoke hearts. Squeeze out excess liquid by placing between multiple sheets of paper towels and pressing down with the palm of your hand.


2. Mix all of the ingredients for the batter in a medium to large bowl. Batter should be slightly thick.


3. Coat a frying pan with vegetable or canola oil and heat over medium-high to high heat.


4. Take an artichoke heart, swirl it around in the batter and place in the pan and let the extra batter drip over the heart. Repeat with as many hearts as can fit comfortably in the pan. Flip when golden brown on bottom. Place on paper towel lined plate to drain. Repeat until all the hearts are used. You will likely have to add and heat more oil as you go.


5. Serve immediately with ranch dressing.

Notes

The yield (8-10 servings, 28 appetizers) I provided is based on using 1 can of hearts. You can use two cans if you are serving more people but you don't have to double the batter amount. It should be plenty as it's written. Also, if the method is too hands on for you, feel free to use a table/soup spoon to scoop the hearts out of the batter, drop into the oil, and then drip some more batter on top of the heart. There's no wrong way to do these. :)

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