A few months back, I got criticized for using the word “y’all”. And I’d like to thank all of you out there who jumped to my defense, but I’m okay with criticism. Perhaps I do use “y’all” too much. But short of using “you all” how else would I address all the folks that stop by to check out the blog at one time? I think using “you” wouldn’t do a good enough job addressing the Southern Bite family like “y’all” does. I’m not talking to one person, I’m talking to all of you. You know, I’ve also started to hear the word y’all in places that I’ve never noticed before — an episode of Glee and a commercial featuring Guliana Rancic all used the word “y’all”!
And I don’t agree with the delusion that using the word “y’all” makes you look less intelligent. I graduated high school at the top of my class with a 4.12 GPA, and finished college Magna Cum Laude — if that make y’all feel better with me using the word “y’all”.
So, y’all, I’m sorry I use “y’all” too much, but I just don’t think there’s a better word to address y’all than “y’all”. Sorry…
________________________
Fried Green Tomatoes are one of those things that define Southern cuisine. They’re right up there with grits, okra, and collard greens. And though most folks are intimidated by the thought of whipping up some fried green tomatoes, they’re really easy with this recipe using Zatarain’s Season Shrimp-Fri (and it’s great to use for fried pickles too).
Ingredients
- 4 medium size green tomatoes
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 -12oz box of Zatarain’s Seasoned Shrimp-Fri
Directions
- Wash and slice tomatoes.
- Dunk in buttermilk.
- Coat in Shrimp-Fri. (You may have to press a little to get it caked on there enough.)
- Fry until golden brown. – I used my deep fryer set on about 365 degrees, but you can also pan fry these in about 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. (Cooking time depends on the method you use.) Drain on paper towels.
- Top with remoulade sauce (click for recipe)! YUM!
Recipe Card
Easy Fried Green Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 4 medium-size green tomatoes
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 (12-ounce) box of Zatarain’s Seasoned Shrimp-Fri
- vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Wash and slice tomatoes.
- Dunk in buttermilk.
- Coat in Shrimp-Fri. (You may have to press a little to get it caked on there enough.)
- Fry until golden brown. – I used my deep fryer set on about 365°F, but you can also pan fry these in about 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. (Cooking time depends on the method you use.) Drain on paper towels.
- Top with remoulade sauce! YUM!
* If nutritional values are provided, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands used. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, I recommend grabbing your favorite brands and plugging those ingredients into an online nutritional calculator.
Cassidy Christensen
I have some zatarains fish fry southern style. Will that work for this recipe?
The flavor will be a bit different, but it will certainly work. Enjoy!
Barbara Miller
I love how easy using the Zatarans is. I’m out of it today but I do have some House of Autry Hush Puppy mix so I’jj be using that. I love your cookbook. TY for all you do. I hope all is well at Chinaberry. I keep you and your family in my prayers. Love ya.
Thanks for the kind words about the cookbook; it means a lot to me. Things are going well at Chinaberry, and I appreciate your prayers. Love ya back!
Cindy
Truth be told, I haven’t made any of your recipes just yet. I discovered you yesterday and have not done a single thing since!
I love you to pieces and we just met! 🥰
Then to boot…every recipe I’ve looked at is almost identical to how I cook! Classic Southern Old School Style, right down to the fried corn and squash with onions! I need to go now. I got some potatoes to use up!
Welcome, Cindy! Thank you so much for your kind words. Please let me know if I can help with anything!
Julie Hook
In Kentucky we say “Yall” and don’t care if you don’t like it.
So all Yall have a happy day!! 🙂
🙂
Cathy
Thanks Stacey and all Y’all!
Can’t wait to try your fried green tomato recipe! Sounds awesome.
From a true Alabama Southern Girl.
Thanks, Cathy!!
John
Gotta be careful of the PC police y’all! They ain’t from ’round here!
Keep up the good work y’all!
🙂 Thanks, John!
Patti K
I love these and the only time I get to have them is at our State Fair every summer. But these seem easy enough, I just may give them a try. But seriously… As I said in a post on your Facebook this past week, I just need to move in to your house to have someone cook for me all the time! And I am serious, y’all!! Yep, gonna pack a bag and move right in with y’all… And we can say y’all all the time, if y’all want to!
LOL! Come on! The house across the street is for sale. I’ll send all my test recipes right over. 🙂
Jen
Don’t you dare let these damn yankees criticize you for using the word “y’all “. Are you kidding me?!?! This really hit a nerve with me! If they don’t like it then go check out their yankee food blogs….oh I forgot…..they like our food but don’t like us. You are a good southern gentleman and you keep on using “y’all “. You don’t have a thing to be ashamed of. Y’all is my favorite word, y’all!! Thank you for being an inspiration to us all!
LOL! Thanks Jen! 🙂
Ari Desarro
I was born in the south and am proud of all the y’all”s and any other southern phrase that may come out of my mouth. My problem is that I have moved to Ireland and I am southern staple deprived!! I can not get a lot of the ingredients that I did when I lived in Texas and Alabama. What can I substitute for the Shrimp Fry mix?
🙂 You can use some seasoned corn meal. It won’t have the same flavor, but will still be delicious!
Elaine
Never apologize for saying y’all!! Be proud! I use it all the time here in Arkansas and love it. Also love your site and all the scrumptious recipes. Thanks!!!!!
Thanks, Elaine!
Julia Dawn Mason
I grew up eating fried green tomatoes. My grandmother and mother always made them when the tomatoes were big enough but not turning red yet.I use the y’all also since I am a Southerner by my parent’s choice. I was not born here in the south , but have lived here since before I turned 2 years old. I am a grandmother to 2 grandsons, one lives here in FL but is not allowed to visit us due to a comment he made in front of a Dr that was counseling him. The other grandson is in VA. where his father is in the US Navy and stationed at Norfolk. My youngest son is his father. My daughter is the mother of the the oldest grandson. The oldest son is on dialysis due to rejecting his transplanted kidney he received in Sept. 2000. .A child coughed in his face at work and gave him an upper respiratory infection that set off the rejection of the kidney. He was so sick he went to the hospital and I almost lost him, he went into cardiac arrest and was revived. That is the second time he has cheated death. The first time was when he was in renal failure before the transplant.
Debbie Deal
How rude…..if someone comes by YOUR page to browse through YOUR recipes and they are allowed to run them off for their use no charge, maybe they should just move along to another site if they would like to take issue with your use of the word “ya’ll.” I am thinking they must be from UP NAWTH, or perhaps in the mid-west (although I’ve heard Pioneer Woman use “ya’ll” every week on her televised show) or perhaps they are from the Pacific Northwest. Wherever they are from, they would do best to either collect the recipe with a little gratitude and move on, or if they can’t control their negativity, to go to a recipe site indigenous to where they make their abode. Now, moving on with good old home-cooked recipes from the South, I would like to wish ya’ll a great day!
Preach!! 🙂
Jeanne
Hey! I just got here and not everybody in the Pacific NW talks funny. Also I thought y’all was singular and all y’all is plural. Anyway, happy cookin’ and keep smilin’, y’all 😉
🙂
Sherry
I’m glad I’m not the only one who spells “y’all” with the apostrophe after the y. LOL I know so many people who insist it is ya’ll and when I try to explain, they still just don’t get it but…. I know I’m right. LOL Great website by the way! Am loving the recipes, they remind me so much of home!
Thanks, Sherry!
Melanie
I am trying to cook fried green tomatoes for my husband for the first time today. (He’s from Carolina, I’m from Washington state.) I’ve never cooked them before and I’m terrified I’m going to screw them up. He will eat them no matter how they turn out but I’d really like him to love them. I have a box of Cajun Fish fry in the pantry, would this work the same way as the shrimp fry? Maybe a silly question and with anything else I’d probably just go for it, but… when it comes to his southern fare I’d rather do it right.
Hi Melanie! Good for you! Yep, I think that Cajun fish fry should work just fine. The flavors might be just a touch different, but I bet he’s going to love them. And no matter how they end up, they’re gonna have love in them and that’s the best ingredient. Good luck and please let me know how they turn out!
Mary Anderson
I agree. Look y’all keep on cooking up those delicious recipes and y’all keep eating and being happy. Happy New Year to all Y’LL
🙂
Sandy Erwin
Stacey, thanks for all the amazing recipes. I have been going pin crazy from your site. I’m not from the South but so many of these recipes remind me of my childhood. Being from a family of ten kids, my mom and grandmas cooked foods like these for us and we just loved them. I will be visiting your board often I’m sure. YUM!
Thanks, Sandy! Welcome to the site! I’m just thrilled my recipes remind you of your childhood.
Carole Anne
I say y’all at home in SC and when I go visit my friends in NY NY. I think it’s hospitable to bring a little ‘y’all’ wherever we go. People will always find things they like or don’t like about someone. We might as well enjoy being our fried green tomato selves.
CF
Note.
There used to be a guy who owned the Hillbilly Mall on HY331Soutn (half way between Highland Home, Alabama and Luvern, Alabama. He grew tomatoes around the store in half barrels. If you came at the right time, you’d find him frying green tomatoes to eat right there at the entrance.
If you didn’t know what they tasted like (and you were nice), he’d give you one to taste.
Now the best ones are served about 10 miles north at It Don’t Matter restaurant (Highway 331 South) in Highland Home.
.
CF
.
“Yawl” is good with me. So is sweet tea.
Can’t wait to try this receipe. Wonder if this receipe might work with tomatillos?
Jessica
Hm- never thought about shrimp batter before! My Mawmaw always just coated them with flour seasoned with some salt a pepper. They were always a slightly soggy DIVINE mess of amazingness. I was born in the South, raised in the South, sill live in the South, and some of my family has such a thick hick Southern accent you can’t understand them unless you speak fluent Red Neck. Having said that- I turn the love of the word “ya’ll” on and off at random. The older I get- the more I use it freely, and the less I care about what other people may or may not think about my intellect! I know I’m late to the party with this one- but I say bring on the “ya”ll”, and we’ll just have to teach everyone who criticises us to love it too!
I love the way you think, Jessica!
Cajunville
We just made fried green tomatoes using cornmeal and Cajun seasoning. Holy Cow wish we had thought about fish fry! We are definitely going to try your recipe soon.
So simple and tasty! Let me know what you think.
Sandy
I grew up in the north until I was 20. I always used the phrase “you guys” NOT “yous guys” until I moved to the south about 24 years ago. Y’all is perfectly natural to me now..think it is part of the dialect that is picked up very naturally. We are all products of our environment! Either way is fine…
This recipe sounds wonderful and very easy…will be trying it “real soon!”
Joyce Pinson @friendsdriftinn
I think y’all is perfectly fine. We’re still weeks away from our garden harvest of tomatoes…but you sure make me crave fried green tomatoes RIGHT NOW. Oh wait, I did freeze a bunch at the end of the season. HI HO! I’m off to raid the freezer Y’ALL. Giggles
Paula
Ack..what are you going to do? Sound like a yankee and say “you guys??””” Oh no.. Y’all is just fine 🙂
elle
I agree.. a SOUTHERN ACCENT, IS COMPLETELY LIKE A ENGLISH ACCENT FROM EUROPE… WE HAVE BASTARDIZE OUR AMERICAN LANGUAGE TO THE POINT WHERE IT’S MORE PLEASANT TO HEAR THE SOUTHERN ACCENT, THAN THE NORTHERN ACCENT…
Karen
Well, I don’t have a college degree but I’m not the dumbest tool in the shed. I speak my southern English proudly and with no regrets, including “y’all.” I have worked for the same employer over 22 years, raised 4 children and enjoy a complete life without the magic piece of paper. I admire those who had the self discipline to complete their education but I don’t feel inferior. I do tend to avoid the few folks who are educated beyond the limits of their intelligence 😉
Thanks for sharing the great recipes!
Ruth Dickinson
Say what you please. If they don’t like hearing ‘ya’ll’ they can read another web page. One where they say ‘yous guys’ 😉
Nanee G
Guess those folks wouldn’t wanting you to use “you’uns” either would they?
My guess would be no! LOL!
Elizabeth
Some people don’t have anything going in their life but to nick pick on others that are happy. I say to those who don’t like to hear the word ‘y’all’ then maybe ‘y’all’ should get a life and get over it. Ha.Ha. You just keep saying ‘y-all’ Stacey I love it. How about this recipe ‘y’all, can’t wait to try it myself.
LOL! Hope y’all enjoy it!
Glenda
i use yall a lot so because to me it is better then you all…..and i love the green tomatoes
I agree — much better than you all and you guys.
Judy
Y’all I grew up in the south and also educated. It is a southern thing and if someone is offended maybe they need to spend more time in the south. It has nothing to do with education. The fried green tomatoes are my favorite, been makin them for 50 yrs.
Thanks for the support, Judy!
Melody
Ahhhh, fried green tomatoes. I was grown before I knew you could use any kind of sauce with them. ‘Course I was grown before I knew okra could be cooked at home any way but scrambled. I always thought of the pieces as “store okra.”
As to the y’all issue, I believe there could be a small group of people who have “inclusion envy.” In the south we have no problem including people with y’all, the more the merrier. If there were more “y’alls” and less “thems” there would be less fights around.
(I tested out pretty high too, but like you I try not to let it ruin my life. 🙂 )
Love it! Inclusion envy! LOL!
Sabrina
At least you’re not saying “you’s guys”! Haha! Love ya’ll!!
Ha! You won’t catch me saying that one! 🙂
Angela Lewis
Yall is perfectly fine. I’m from the south and glad to be.
Anybody think that’s not intelligent sounding just don’t know.
No they don’t! It’s like part of our heritage.
Laura
Y’all is the only way I know….;0
Exactly! You won’t catch me using “you guys”!
Kristy
Well the fried green tomato recipe looks good but I have to agrre w/ the yall topic. Born & bred louisianian. never have known any other way to get peoples attention. & a fuuny. I just got through reading a Charlene harris book. She got so popular that she makes her Louisiana characters say “You-all” ??? i wonder if she thinks she is too good noe to say yall?
Joyce
from one Louisianian to another y’all sound fine to me –
How else can you talk to everyone and get their attention
Exactly my point! 🙂 Thanks for your support!
She needs to embrace her inner “y’all-ness”!
Cl
If y’all was good enough for Mama ‘nem, then it’s good enough for me!!! (For all of y’all who seem to have a problem with it, all I can say is bless y’all lil’ hearts for not having more important things to ponder over, sugah!
Tammy
YUMMY y’all, is all I can say!!!!! lol
Hope y’all like ’em, y’all!
Danielle D.
I love fried green tomatoes. My grandma “Scrambles” her up in the skillet when she cooks them now. I’m not sure why but they are still delicious and there is never any left!
I don’t think you can use ya’ll too much! I don’t think it makes you seem less educated or intelligent either. Power to the “ya’ll” users! hehe.
We’re like the “Y’all Mafia”! Be proud of your “y’all”!
Carolyn
Well, I don’t know is wrong with “you’all”. That is what we were raise with and I don’t go above my raisins’. I am a Appalachian American ! In other words, in case you don’t know what that is, I am from W. Va., and proud of my heritage. I love the recipe you posted. Have not eaten them like that. But,willing to try. I understand they are deep fried. I use corn meal and flour. Anyway I can get them, I take. Love ’em. !!
Belinda
Yummmmm