Southern Fried Apples are a simple side dish or light dessert, and they're ready in 15 minutes! Cinnamon, sugar and butter turn the fresh fruit into a delicious, down-home treat!
Southern Fried Apples are a simple side dish or light dessert, and they’re ready in 15 minutes! Cinnamon, sugar and butter turn the fresh fruit into a delicious, down-home treat!
September and October are the HEIGHT of apple season here in Central Virginia, so the fruit makes an appearance at almost every meal of the day. I’ll take any excuse that I can get to enjoy some sweet Southern Fried Apples, so I treat them as a side dish alongside my 4-Ingredient Pork Loin Roast or with a Dump-and-Bake Sausage and Cabbage Dinner.
But you know what? They’re equally good at breakfast with Dump-and-Bake Buttermilk Pancakes, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce for dessert. Again…apples…all day, every day!
How to Make Fried Apples with Cinnamon:
I’ve made my fried apples into rounds that I can flip like a pancake here, but you can also just pan fry apples slices with the same method. The end result is delicious — no matter which shape you choose!
I use this inexpensive apple corer to punch out the center of my apples before slicing them (you can also use a knife if you prefer). The corer just makes it so neat and easy!
The tool also comes in handy when I’m serving the kids regular fresh apple slices, which we sprinkle with cinnamon and call “apple donuts.”
What are the best apples to fry?
Honestly, my advice is to fry any variety of apple that you love best. That said, certain apples work better than others. Ideally, you want to use firm apples that stand up to the cooking process. Your best bets are Granny Smith apples or Honey Crisp apples.
My kids love the sweetness of the Honey Crisp, while I love how the tartness of the Granny Smith contrasts with the sweet buttery syrup.
To fry your apple slices, simply melt the butter in a skillet, add the apples, and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
Allow the apples to sit (without stirring or flipping) for a few minutes. This gives them a chance to brown slightly and get that great pan-fried texture. As the sugar cooks in with the butter and the apples release some juices, you’ll be left with this amazing syrup that coats your Southern Fried Apples.
It’s heaven, I tell ya!
Whether you enjoy the fried apples as a side dish this season or as a simple dessert, I hope that you’ll give one of our favorite Virginia treats a try!
Looking for other easy apple recipes? Try these favorites:
- Healthy Apple Crisp Yogurt Parfait
- Slow Cooker Apple Butter
- Mom’s Apple Walnut Cake with Caramel Glaze
- Dump-and-Bake Sausage, Apples and Sweet Potatoes
- Apple Pie Protein Smoothie
- Mom’s Easy Apple Pie
- 4-Ingredient Cream Cheese Apple Dip
Southern Fried Apples
Southern Fried Apples are a simple side dish or light dessert, and they're ready in 15 minutes! Cinnamon, sugar and butter turn the fresh fruit into a delicious, down-home treat!
Ingredients
- 2 medium apples, cored but not peeled and sliced into ½-inch thick rings (you can also just use regular apples slices if you don't want to core them)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Dash of salt
Instructions
- Heat butter over medium-low heat in a large, heavy skillet. In a small bowl, stir together sugar, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
- Place the apples in a single layer in the bottom of the skillet.
- Sprinkle half of the sugar mixture over the apples.
Cook apples for 5 minutes without moving them. Then use a spatula to gently flip (or stir) the apple slices.
Sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture and continue to cook apples over low heat until apples are tender. Be careful not to overcook the apples or they will fall apart.
- Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
Serving a Larger Family? Just multiply the recipe to prepare as many apples as you need. You can fry them in batches.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website.
I’d love the recipe for Carole’s brownies. They look amazing; are they homemade?
Hey, Teresa! They’re from a boxed mix! 🙂 I think that she may have added extra chocolate chips to the batter, though. And sprinkle the top liberally with powdered sugar once they cool!
Love the pictures and the stories that you tell with your post while sharing a wonderful. Hope to see more like this from you.
Thank you, Karl!
Hello.
I’m new to you site and think it is amazing.
Me and my family just committed to doing the 30 day slow cooker challenge from December last year and are looking farward to it.
But I have one request, if it’s possible, could you ad a button on the top of the page that jumps directly to the recipe? I have seen this on a few blogs and it’s very handy when the post like this one is very picture heavy and the recipe is on the bottom. I love reading the posts, but if I want to return to the recipe it becomes a bit of a hassle when it keeps jumping up the page because it need to load all of the pictures(I’m looking from an iPad)
Hey, Stine! Thanks for your note, and I’m so glad that you’re going to try the healthy slow cooker recipes!
I used to have a “Skip to Recipe” button on my blog, but it wasn’t compatible with a site upgrade that I made to my recipe cards. I wasn’t able to figure out how to get a new one set up, but it’s on my “To Do List” when I hire a programmer to fix a few things. Thanks for that feedback!
What a great week-so fun! We were also battling crappy weather this weekend-so the hubby and I stayed in Sunday and played Monopoly and ate popcorn for at least 3 hours!
Hey, Kendall! Yep — there was a lot of Monopoly playing this weekend! 🙂 Hope the weather clears up for you this week. Thanks so much for reading the blog!
wow this turned out to be super delicious. The taste was perfect, the shape and smell was mouth watering. Thanks for sharing
Where is the fried apple recipe? I scrolled through all twice nd never found it.
Hi, Janet! I just double-checked and it’s there! 🙂 If you look just below the long image of the Fried Apples (with the text on it) you should see the full printable recipe card.
To make it really fast, try clicking on the green “Jump to Recipe” button at the very top of my post. It will take you right to the recipe box and will skip over everything else.