A deep-fried Oreo is a dessert or snack consisting of a chocolate

sandwich cookie A sandwich cookie, also known as a sandwich biscuit, is a type of cookie made from two thin cookies or medium cookies with a filling between them. Many types of fillings are used, such as cream, ganache, buttercream, chocolate, cream cheese, ja ...

which is dipped in batter and

deep fried Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow oil used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. Norma ...

. It may be served with different toppings, most commonly

powdered sugar Powdered sugar, also called confectioners' sugar, or icing sugar, is a finely ground sugar produced by milling granulated sugar into a powdered state. It usually contains between 2% and 5% of an anti-caking agent – such as corn starch, p ...

. Deep-fried Oreos are generally made using

Oreo Oreo () (stylized as OREO) is a brand of sandwich cookie consisting of two biscuits or cookie pieces with a sweet creme filling. It was introduced by Nabisco on March 6, 1912, and through a series of corporate acquisitions, mergers and split ...

-brand cookies, hence the name, but other chocolate sandwich cookies can be used.

Origin

Deep-fried Oreos were introduced in 2001 by Charlie Boghosian, also known as "Chicken Charlie" or "The Man Who Fries Everything," a 16-year-old Armenian settled in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, at the

L.A. County Fair The Los Angeles County Fair is an annual county fair. It was first held on October 17, 1922, and ran for five days through October 21, 1922, in a former beet field in Pomona, California. Highlights of the fair's first year were harness racing, ...

."Shatkin, E. (2009, September 02). Chicken Charlie: Southern California's deep-fry king."
Retrieved March 13, 2016 Boghosian dipped Oreos in pancake batter, deep fried them, drizzled them with chocolate syrup and served them with powdered sugar. "There are many other fried foods at the fair, but I specialize in it. I make it my life," Boghosian said about deep-fried food. Aside from the deep-fried Oreo, he has also introduced new types of deep-fried food every year in different state fairs."Cortland, E. (2009, July 29). Chicken burns Midas Touch: Turning Deep-Fried Oreos into Gold."
/ref> Since the debut of the deep-fried Oreo, it has now become very common at carnivals and is a "cult favorite."

Preparation

Deep-fried Oreos are made with Oreo cookies, batter (usually made from buttermilk pancake mix and

water Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...

vegetable oil Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or f ...

, and

."Fried Oreos Rule the Fairground , Recipe - ABC News."
(n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016

Variations

Numerous variations of deep-fried Oreos have been derived from the typical recipe since its debut, including bacon deep-fried Oreos (deep-fried Oreos which are wrapped in slices of bacon); deep-fried Oreo

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

, in which ice cream covered with egg mixture and crushed Oreo cookies is deep fried; and deep-fried Oreo burgers, which take the form of a deep-fried Oreo within a burger (including the

patty A patty or burger (in British English) is a flattened, usually round, Serving size, serving of ground meat and/or legumes, grains, vegetables, or Meat analogue, meat alternatives. Patties are found in multiple cuisines throughout the world. ...

) alongside other fillings, such as bacon.

Reception

In 2013, the deep-fried Oreo won the Annual Big Tex Choice in the

State Fair of Texas The State Fair of Texas is an annual state fair held in Dallas at historic Fair Park. The fair has taken place every year since 1886 except for varying periods during World War I and World War II as well as 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It ...

Popular culture

Deep-fried Oreos were also introduced on TV shows and viral videos by some

celebrities Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...

. In 2012, a popular Taiwanese variety show by the name of ''Kangsi Coming'' also publicized the deep-fried Oreo. In the programme, an American talked about deep-fried Oreos, referring to it as one of the most popular foods in Taiwanese

night market Night markets or night bazaars are street markets which operate at night and are generally dedicated to more leisurely strolling, shopping, and eating than more businesslike day markets. They are typically open-air markets popular in East Asia, So ...

s. In 2013, on ''

The Jay Leno Show ''The Jay Leno Show'' is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/ PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late ...

,''

Kim Kardashian Kimberly Noel Kardashian (formerly West; born October 21, 1980) is an American socialite, media personality, and businesswoman. She first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after the s ...

cooked deep-fried Oreos with

Guy Fieri Guy Ramsay Fieri (, ; ''né'' Ferry; born January 22, 1968) is an American restaurateur, author, and an Emmy Award winning television presenter. He co-owns three restaurants in California, licenses his name to restaurants in New York City, Las ...

and said about it: "It's like a once-a-year snack."

Yuka Kinoshita is a Japanese YouTuber and competitive eater. Career Yuka Kinoshita began posting on her eating-focused YouTube channel since 2014, five years after her debut in Japanese competitive eating competitions. Kinoshita uploads daily videos in whic ...

, a famous Japanese

competitive eater Competitive eating, or speed eating, is an activity in which participants compete against each other to eat large quantities of food, usually in a short time period. Contests are typically eight to ten minutes long, although some competitions c ...

, filmed a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

video of herself eating over 30 deep-fried Oreos in 2016. The video has exceeded 3 million views. In February 2023 Adam of the BeardMeatsFood channel finished 61 deep fried Oreos in a restaurant in Tennessee.

Location

The deep-fried Oreo has become worldwide since its debut in 2002 at the Los Angeles County Fair and

Texas State Fair The State Fair of Texas is an annual state fair held in Dallas at historic Fair Park. The fair has taken place every year since 1886 except for varying periods during World War I and World War II as well as 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It ...

. Outside of its birthplace, the United States, the deep-fried Oreo has been available in different countries all over the world, including Australia,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Health concerns

Deep-fried foods have been criticized for being linked to various

health problems A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that ar ...

, since they are usually high in calories,

fat In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple est ...

(including saturated fat), and

cholesterol Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell mem ...

. For instance, the saturated fat and

trans fat Trans fat, also called trans-unsaturated fatty acids, or trans fatty acids, is a type of unsaturated fat that naturally occurs in small amounts in meat and milk fat. It became widely produced as an unintentional byproduct in the industrial pr ...

in deep-fried foods increase the risk of high cholesterol, heart disease,

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

and

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's ...

. As such, deep-fried Oreos have aroused health controversies. Five deep-fried Oreos contain 900 calories and have a total of 51 grams of sugar, 950 mg of

sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable ...

, and 48 grams of fat. Deep-fried Oreos are included in a

junk food "Junk food" is a term used to describe food that is high in calories from sugar and/or fat, and possibly also sodium, but with little dietary fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, or other important forms of nutritional value. It is also known as ...

encyclopedia titled ''Fast Food and Junk Food: An Encyclopedia of What We Love to Eat'' by Andrew F. Smith."Smith, A. F. (2011, December 31). Fast Food and Junk Food: An Encyclopedia of What We Love to Eat."
Retrieved March 23, 2016

References

{{Deep frying foods
Deep Fried Oreos

Oreo American desserts