How to make Crispy Garlic, and get bonus Garlic Oil too! Learn to make this delicious, savory addition to anything from grilled steaks and chops to Chinese fried rice. You’ll find plenty of places to add its pleasantly pungent flavour.
How to make Crispy Garlic.
Let’s be completely upfront here. I am a certified garlic fiend! I might be its biggest fan.
Long time readers of this almost 20 yr old blog will know that for a fact. Many of the savory recipes you’ll find here, most really, have garlic in the ingredients list.
While not a popular opinion in many quarters, I actually prefer garlic to onions. If I had to give one up, garlic would certainly win out.
Can you ever get enough garlic?
I think it comes for my distaste for strongly flavoured yellow onions. They were the onions of choice in all Newfoundland cooking when I was growing up in the 70’s and 80’s.
In fact back then in some places, that would have been all that was sold in many stores. I hated them!
Sliced garlic ready to be fried.
Back in those days, kids like me were often labelled picky eaters, and I think, often unfairly. Sometimes there’s just one thing they intensely dislike. For me it was yellow onions, and it was in EVERYTHING!
We are not all built the same.
I’ve since come to embrace the concept of “supertasters”. Not everything tastes the same to everyone.
I attribute the great clinantro debate to this. Or the great liver divide! There has to be a deeper genetic reason in my mind, that one person can love a certain flavour and others despise it.
Keep the garlic oil from frying for later use.
The many years since, and the thousands of recipes I’ve developed, plus my deep love of the food of other cultures proves definitively in my mind that I was never a picky eater.
In fact, I have come to enjoy many other types if onions since, even raw red onion in salads. I use many sweet onions, green onions, chives, vidalia onions and more. BUT I still hate yellow onions!
Crispy garlic, the road to my many garlic uses.
When I started using garlic, in the early days of my cooking adventures, it was an easy substitute for those awful onions.
It gave pungency and punch to the dish I made. Many times my family did not even seem to notice that I had forgone onions altogether in many of them.
I also love it’s versatility. It can be used raw, finely minced or crushed in salad dressings, guacamole and the like.
Sautéed garlic is the starting point in many great sauces, particularly in Italian cuisine.
Roasting garlic can bring out milder, sweeter flavour.
Roasting can bring out its hidden natural sweetness, which I love in our Roasted Garlic Caesar Dressing.
Roasted Garlic Caesar Salad Dressing
It is essential at Sunday dinner with our much loved English Style Roasted Potatoes.
A bite of those potatoes with a small dollop of sour cream and a litte roasted garlic, is one if my favourite mouthfuls ever.
On to the Crispy Garlic.
Many of you will know that I am a dedicated steak lover as well. Steak and garlic are naturally complementary, and I pair them in several ways.
I can add a couple if cloves to the pan when pan searing and butter basting a steak. A garlic butter addition to finish the steak is something I often do as well.
Sometimes, more recently, I will slowly poach thick sliced or whole garlic cloves in butter to serve atop a grilled steak. This brings out more of their natural sweetness, similar to roasting garlic.
Poached Garlic on Pan Seared Prime Rib Steak.
Some time ago, in Chinese restaurant in New york, I ordered their Garlic Fried Rice. It promised to come with garlic 2 ways. That sounded like a bit of me!
They had obviously used plenty of garlic when making the fried rice but it also came with a garnish of little crispy slices of tasty garlic!
I loved them! Today, I still use them in fried rice, and they make a tasty addition to top steaks too.
I also use them like crispy onions, on burgers and in salads too. You’ll find plenty of places I’m sure to insert their pungent flavour and crispy crunch into your dishes too!
Like this Crispy Garlic recipe?
You’ll find hundreds of other great ideas in our Quick & Easy Dinners Category and even more in our Asian Inspired Recipes Category.
It’s easy to keep up with the latest home style cooking & baking ideas from Rock Recipes. Be sure to follow Rock Recipes Facebook Page and follow us on Instagram.
Plus you’ll see daily recipe suggestions from decadent desserts to quick delicious weekday meals too.
You can also sign up for our FREE newsletter to know immediately when we add new recipes. You’ll also get weekly suggestions for great family friendly meals and desserts too!
Rock Recipes a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Our product recommendations are almost exclusively for those we currently use or have used in the past.
How to make Crispy Garlic
Ingredients
- 2 large heads garlic
- 2 tsp canola oil
Instructions
- Before starting to fry the garlic slices, be sure to have a metal sieve and a heat proof bowl set up on the counter, directly next to the burner. When these come off the stove, they will need to come off quickly to avoid burning them.
- Peel 2 large heads if garlic and slice the bulbs into 6-8 even slices each. They should not ve too thin, or they will burn. Even slices are important for consistant cooking time
Add the oil to a small saucepan and add the sliced garlic to the cold oil.
Turn the burner to about medium heat.
Allow th e oil to heat up to thte point that the garlic slices begin to fry slowly.
At this point, you will have to use a wooden spoon to gently keet the garlic slices moving around in th eoil. A gentle stirring motion is all that is required. This helps the slices to brown evenly.
When the slices begin to brown a little, turn the heat down to low.
Continue to stir gently, keeping the cloves moving in the oil. Be very observant at this point, the slices can start to brown more quickly now.- A light golden brown colour is what you are looking for at the end.
As soon as that colour is achieved, IMMEDIATELY strain the garlic slices off the oil.- Let the garlic cloves strain for only a minute.
Spread the garlic slices onto paper towels to cool and drain off the excess oil.
You will notice that in many or most of the garlic slices, the centres if the slices tend to pop out while cooking. This is a good thing. The center core of garlic is more bitter and browns quicker. I light to lightly toss the cooled slices around in the paper towels to loosen any that may pop out.- The oil from frying is a bonus to making crispy garlic. Keep it in a jar in the fridge for up to 2-3 weeks to use in other cooking.
- When fully cooled, store your crispy garlic in another clean mason jar or airtight container to preserve their crunch. They can be kept for several weeks as well.
Nutrition Information
Yield
8Serving Size
2 tbspAmount Per Serving Calories 27Total Fat 3gSaturated Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gSodium 0mgCarbohydrates 1gFiber 0gSugar 0gProtein 0g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.