These Homemade Crispy Fried Calamari aren't as hard to make at home as you might think. Whether you use frozen squid or frozen calamari, you can make perfect breaded calamari every time.
Pair crispy fried calamari with marinara sauce for an authentic appetizer before your main dish.
Try my recipe for grilled squid for a change or one of my other appetizers like Coconut Shrimp or my Sicilian Vota Vota recipe.
Jump to:
- Can you Air Fry Calamari?
- Ingredients
- Are Squid the same as Calamari?
- Cleaning and Preparing Frozen Calamari
- How to Make Crispy Fried Calamari
- Do You Need a Deep Fryer to Fry Calamari?
- Substitutions and Variations
- Top Tip
- Using an Air Fryer to Make Fried Calamari
- Leftovers and Storage
- Other Appetizer and Drink Ideas
- Recipe Details
- Top Tip
- PIN Here
- Food Safety
- Comments
Fried calamari are great perfect as an appetizer, whether they're deep fried or air fried. And they don't take that long to make.
Your friends and family will love them and they will love you for making these delicious Crispy Fried Calamari.
Can you Air Fry Calamari?
Of course you can make fried calamari in the air fryer. It's real simple to do. Make sure that your frozen calamari are thawed out fully and pat them dry with a paper towel. Dip your calamari in egg wash and flour and then lay them in a single layer in the air fryer. Spray with cooking oil. Turn through cooking spray with cooking oil again and let cook. And voila you have got air fried calamari.
Ingredients
Whether you deep fry or air fry calamari, the ingredients needed are basically the same. You'll need:
- Fresh or Frozen Squid or Frozen Calamari
- Egg
- All Purpose Flour
- Lemon
- Salt
- Ground Black Pepper
- Cooking Oil or Nonstick Cooking Spray
Ingredient quantities are on the recipe card.
Are Squid the same as Calamari?
No, they are two different things. Can you believe it? Squid are a lot tougher and cheaper than calamari. By definition they are a different species. However, I think we can all agree that they are virtually the same thing! Both are interchangeable in dishes that call for the other. So don't panic if you go to the market and can't find calamari, but can find squid. Just buy the squid and use them in this crispy fried calamari recipe or the air fryer calamari version.
Nowadays, it's so easy to make fried calamari because most local supermarkets carry them in the freezer section as a frozen item or carry frozen squid.
Cleaning and Preparing Frozen Calamari
But if you do get courageous, and you do buy whole squid, do the following to clean them:
- thaw your frozen calamari or frozen squid
- pull the head off
- cut the head off just below the tentacles but above the “eye”.
- keep the tentacles
- discard the eye
- reach into squid cavity and slide out the entails and remove the purple membrane.
Or you can watch this video.
How to Make Crispy Fried Calamari
So you have your calamari and they are clean and ready to go. Stop! Make sure that your frozen calamari are fully thawed out and are not cold or wet. Particularly, if you have thawed them from the freezer.
Take a paper towel and blot the calamari until all the excess water has been soaked up by the paper towel. This make take more than one paper towel. That's ok. Make sure that they are fairly dry so that when you dunk them in the egg wash it will stick to the calamari rings . Then when they hit the fryer, the flour coating won't fall off the calamari rings and you will get a crispy calamari ring.
Do You Need a Deep Fryer to Fry Calamari?
No - you don't need a deep fryer to fry calamari. Sometimes instead of using my deep fryer, I use a pot which is much more convenient and quicker as far as clean up goes.
Use a small pot, not a fry pan with about 1 to 2 inches of vegetable oil. Frying them in a pot will cut down on the spatter versus frying them in a fry pan.
I use a small pot, a pot I normally boil pasta in when I want to quickly fry calamari. I also make sure that the oil is hot enough and has reached between 350 to 275 degrees F.
Substitutions and Variations
Fried Calamari are great on their own, but here are a few options you can incorporate into your deep fried calamari or air fryer calamari:
- Marinara Sauce - dip your calamari in an easy homemade marinara sauce or buy pre-made sauce.
- Gluten Free - use gluten free flour to make your fried calamari gluten free
- Grilled Calamari - skip frying all together and make a grilled calamari with a vinaigrette sauce.
- Panko Breadcrumbs - dredge them in panko instead of all purpose flour for a crispier texture.
Top Tip
Do yourself a favor and buy yourself cleaned squid (calamari). You might even find, cleaned calamari rings in the freezer section at your local grocery store. Buying them already clean means that you don’t have to slave and do the cleaning yourself. You will save yourself at least 30 minutes in preparation.
Anytime you fry, it's always best to use a thermometer to monitor the cooking temperature reaches the appropriate frying temperature for the food you are frying.
Using an Air Fryer to Make Fried Calamari
You can very easily make air fried calamari using this recipe. The only difference is that you will lay your calamari in the air fryer basket in a single layer and spray them with cooking oil. Half way through cooking, you turn them over and coat the other side with cooking spray and then continue cooking.
Leftovers and Storage
If you have leftovers, you can store your fried calamari in an airtight container for not more than 2 days. The longer they sit as leftovers, the more they taste like the oil you fried them in. Try to consume them the day you make them. And obviously, these crispy fried calamari shouldn't be made in advance.
Fried calamari don't freeze well, they'll loose their crispiness and just become soggy.
Drop a comment below if you made these homemade crispy calamari. I’d love to see your pictures as well as know how they turned out.
Other Appetizer and Drink Ideas
Recipe Details
Crispy Fried Calamari
https://easyhomemaderecipes.caIngredients
- 17 oz calamari rings or whole calamari 1 bag of rings or 4-6 whole calamari
- 1 cups all purpose flour
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 lemon to garnish and spritz
- 1 cup vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
Deep Fry Instructions
- Heat up your deep fryer to 180°F degrees. If you do not have a deep fryer, you can use a saucepan filled with about 2 inches of canola oil, just make sure that the oil is at about 180°F degrees, use a thermometer - don't guess.
- Whisk the eggs in a small bowl so that they are well combined. In a medium bowl place the flour and salt and mix with a whisk.
- Make sure that before you start to handle the calamari that they are thawed out completely. Use a paper towel to absorb any water or moisture on the calamari before dipping them in the egg wash. If there is too much moisture on the calamari the egg wash will not adhere to the calamari and ultimately the calamari will not fry up crispy.
- Dip the calamari in the egg wash a few at a time and then transfer them into the bowl of flour, dredging them so that they are covered. If they look like a mess and are clumpy, that's ok, they will fry up crispy.
- Place calamari in oil to fry for about 3 to 5 minutes until golden and crispy. Transfer fried calamari onto a plate covered with a paper towel to soak up excess oil from the calamari.
- Repeat until you have fried all the calamari. Season with more salt if desired and add sliced lemon to spritz at the table if desired.
Air Fry Instructions
- Whisk the eggs in a small bowl so that they are well combined. In a medium bowl place the flour and salt and mix with a whisk.
- Make sure that before you start to handle the calamari that they are thawed out completely. Use a paper towel to absorb any water or moisture on the calamari before dipping them in the egg wash. If there is too much moisture on the calamari the egg wash will not adhere to the calamari and ultimately the calamari will not fry up crispy.
- Dip the calamari in the egg wash a few at a time and then transfer them into the bowl of flour, dredging them so that they are covered. If they look like a mess and are clumpy, that's ok, they will fry up crispy.
- Lay flat in your air fryer and spray with your favorite cooking oil. Cook at 400F for 10 minutes.
- Half way through cooking, flip and spray the other side with cooking oil. Continue cooking.
- Remove once cooked and crispy. They may not be brown, but that's ok. Leaving them in until they get golden may result in chewy and tough calamari rings.
- Since all air fryers are different, you'll need to play around with the timing to get the perfectly cooked calamari rings.
Notes
Top Tip
Do yourself a favor and buy yourself cleaned squid (calamari). You might even find, cleaned calamari rings in the freezer section at your local grocery store. Buying them already clean means that you don’t have to slave and do the cleaning yourself. You will save yourself at least 30 minutes in preparation. Anytime you fry, it's always best to use a thermometer to monitor the cooking temperature reaches the appropriate frying temperature for the food you are frying.Nutrition
PIN Here
Food Safety
Note that the storage guidelines provided on this page and site are estimates from personal experiences. We are all adults and as an adult you are responsible to ensure that the food you eat is safe to eat. Since, I'm not a food safety expert, you are responsible to review your local guidelines on food storage prior to storing any food left-overs.
Remember to:
- Not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
- Wash hands after touching raw meat
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
For Canadian Guidelines check the Government of Canada Food Safety Guidelines or see more guidelines at USDA.gov.
Wendy Wiseman says
This recipe is just what I was looking for--air frying frozen calamari--so thank you! But the word "calamari" is just Italian for squid, and it's used as the culinary name. There is no difference at all, though there are different grades of squid, it's true.
AmyG says
Hi Wendy,
Glad you found the recipe!
AmyG says
This is a great recipe to try!