Fried Avocado Is The Crispy Yet Creamy Topping Your Burger Needs

Avocados are fashionable and versatile ingredients that instantly upgrade everything from tacos to sauces, to toasts. Of course, they've long since been a common burger topping, providing a creamy richness that stands up to the umami savoriness of meat while also complementing the crunch of other toppings like lettuce, pickles, and onions. However, fried avocado will add yet another layer of decadence your burger needs.

Despite the ease with which you can mash avocados into guacamole or over toast, they'll hold their shape well as a breaded and fried topping for your burger. The fried breading will further solidify their shape while also imparting a wonderful crispy textural contrast to the creamy, melt-in-your-mouth consistency of avocado pulp. Breading will also provide depth of flavor to the avocado and burger as a whole. You can choose breading ingredients that complement or enhance the type of burger you plan to make.

For example, you could use crushed corn chip breading for fried avocados to pair with Mexican-inspired burgers like this smoky chipotle burger or a spicy beef fajita burger. Panko bread crumbs and Shichimi Togarashi spice blend would be the perfect fried avocado coating to top a seared tuna burger. A creamy, crispy avocado with cornmeal breading would bring a nice sweet, earthy complement to the tangy, aromatic flavors in a ranch burger. Of course, a fried avocado is a vegetarian-friendly ingredient that will add heft and decadence to black bean burgers, falafel burgers, or an umami-rich portobello burger.

A ripe but firm avocado is ideal for frying, and you can follow these tips for picking and buying avocados so they'll be ready for burger night. You can make fried avocados in a frying pan, air fryer, or oven. For a burger topping, you'll want to cut avocados into half-inch wedges. The key to a breaded and fried recipe is to prepare a breading station with the dry and wet ingredients mixed in separate bowls. A dry coating of regular flour or cornstarch will help bind the wet scrambled egg mixture to your avocado wedges, which then get a final coating of bread crumbs.

If you're using the stove-top, deep-frying method, the oil temperature should be between 350 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Avocado wedges should become golden and crispy after two or three minutes in bubbling oil. For baked avocado fries, arrange breaded avocado wedges over a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and throw them in the oven for 12 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. An air-fryer will reduce cooking times by around half; place breaded avocados directly onto the fryer tray to cook at 390 degrees Fahrenheit for seven minutes, flipping halfway through.