If you love the popular Cracker Barrel side dish you'll love this easy recipe!
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❤️ Why you'll love it
- Tangy apples and sweet, caramelized brown sugar are a perfect match
- Tastes like your childhood favorite from Cracker Barrel—but better
- Good way to cook an abundance of apples after a day in the orchard
There is nothing tastier than buttery, cinnamon apples fried up in the classic Southern way. Serve them with hot buttermilk biscuits at breakfast, as a side to pork chops for dinner, and over a big scoop of vanilla ice cream in the evening—a pure delight for any apple lover.
🧾 Ingredients
This is an overview of the ingredients. You'll find the full measurements and instructions in the green recipe card (printable) at the bottom of the page.
🔪 Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. Full instructions are in the green recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Peel, cut, and core your apples.
- Melt butter and sugar in a large skillet.
- Stir in the apple slices.
- Simmer over low heat until the apples are tender, and prepare for the delicious, warm spice aroma to fill the entire house.
🥫 Storage
You'll be glad to have leftover fried apples to spoon over your French toast tomorrow morning!
Place cooled leftovers into an airtight container or plastic bag and refrigerate for four to five days. You can reheat large amounts in a skillet, or simply microwave them!
Since this is such an easy recipe to scale and I don't always have fresh apples available, I'll double the batch and freeze leftovers for another time.
Store them the same way you would in the refrigerator, but place them in the freezer, instead. Let the apples thaw in the fridge before warming them up. I like to store the Southern fried apples in smaller portions so that they thaw more quickly and I can pull out just a little bit at a time.
📖 Variations
The best fruits to use in this sweet Southern fried apple recipe are large, tart apples, like Granny Smith. Just like when making the perfect filling for apple pie, a more firm apple holds up better than one that will instantly turn into applesauce. You can also use other firmer apple varieties, like:
- Pink Lady
- Braeburn
- Honey Gold
- Jonagold
However, you really can cook with any kind of apples that you like to eat—it is a free country, after all.
- Softer apples, like McIntosh or Honeycrisp, will take less time to cook.
- When using really sweet apples, like Gala, Fuji, or Honeycrisp, you may want to add a tiny pinch of salt or splash of lemon juice for balance.
- I'm not trying to start a riot or anything, but, instead of apples, some people like to fry pear slices. If you have some, give it a try!
- Instead of cinnamon, use apple pie spice for a festive twist on fried apples. Or, try a dash of nutmeg!
💭 Things to know
Expert Tip: Use a combination of apple varieties for the very best flavor.
- For best results, try to cut the apples as evenly as possible so that they all cook at the same rate. It helps to use a very sharp knife or an apple slicer.
- Let the apples come to room temperature (if they were cold) so that they don't reduce the temperature of the simmering, sticky caramel sauce too drastically.
- Watch the butter, sugar, and apple mixtures carefully throughout the cooking process so that they don't burn. As trusty as an old cast iron skillet is, it can get too hot as soon as you turn your back!
- If your caramel sauce becomes too thick (especially after reheating) you can loosen it up with a splash of apple juice or apple cider.
👩🍳 FAQs
Well, I can't make you do anything. However, traditional Southern fried apples don't include the skins. They don't soften as quickly as the apples do and can taste hard and rough, ruining a tender bite of fried apples.
Usually, you can't tell the difference, so use whatever you have on hand!
First answer: get one—quick! Second answer: use any heavy-bottomed pan that you own.
This delicious recipe is so versatile. Spoon the sauteed apples over homemade biscuits, pancakes, waffles, or toast. Serve it as a tasty side dish to your favorite homestyle meal, like a roasted pork tenderloin or big turkey dinner. Or, eat 'em with pie crust scraps or shortbread cookies for dessert!
📚 Related recipes
- Delicious Crockpot Caramel Apple Cake needs just 3 ingredients, pretty much no baking experience, and you don't even have to use the oven!
- The perfect accompaniment for a hearty meat dinner, or great with a tea-time salad, Old-Fashioned Cinnamon Apple Rings taste just as good now as they did when you were a kid!
- Bourbon Apple Tarts with Bacon Streusel—it sounds like a list of the tastiest ingredients in the world. It's actually your new favorite dessert.
🍽️ Serve with...
📞 The last word
Fried apples are an easy side dish that also works as a dessert or a topping for ice cream.
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
Fried Apples
Print Pin Recipe SaveEquipment Needed
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 3 pounds apples, about 6 apples
Instructions
- Peel, core, and slice apples.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Whisk in the sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon until smooth and well blended.
- Turn heat down to low and add in the apples.
- Cook over low heat stirring often until apples are softened, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Simmer a little longer to thicken up the syrup but don't overcook the apples.
Notes
- Use a combination of apple varieties for the very best flavor.
- For best results, try to cut the apples as evenly as possible so that they all cook at the same rate. It helps to use a very sharp knife or an apple slicer.
- Let the apples come to room temperature (if they were cold) so that they don't reduce the temperature of the simmering, sticky caramel sauce too drastically.
- Watch the butter, sugar, and apple mixtures carefully throughout the cooking process so that they don't burn. As trusty as an old cast iron skillet is, it can get too hot as soon as you turn your back!
- If your caramel sauce becomes too thick (especially after reheating) you can loosen it up with a splash of apple juice or apple cider.
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