11 Of The Best Fried Foods From State Fairs Around The Country

Who doesn't love a state fair? The lights, the music, the crowd of carnival-goers buzzing with excitement. Sure, there are rides. We go wild over the Ferris wheels, literally go dizzy over the Tilt-a-Whirls, and go absolutely gaga over any games that promise giant prizes. But let's be honest with ourselves, what we really go for is the food.

We are talking about the over-the-top, one-of-a-kind, blink-and-you'll-miss-it carnival food that exists nowhere else on earth quite like it does at a state fair. And what is the key signifier of these legendary carnie creations? Fried fare! If it can be battered, dunked, and dropped into a bubbling vat of hot oil, you better believe someone at a state fair has done it, and probably improved it with powdered sugar, a slathering of cheese, or popping it on a stick. And friends, they have indeed. All of "it."

While we've previously looked at the strangest state fair foods, today is all about the fried fare. Join us as we take a wild, wondrous ride across the country to uncover 11 of the best fried foods from state fairs across the nation.

The Iowa State Fair always features some incredible fried foods. In 2025, this glorious culinary creation rolled up and absolutely dominated the competition. The bacon chicken ranch egg roll from Winn & Sara's Kitchen ran away with the People's Choice Best New Food title at the local festival, earning 44.7% of the vote from more than 10,000 ballots cast.

The egg roll itself is coated with a crunchy wrapper filled to burst with chicken, bacon, and white cheddar, then finished with a mouthwatering drizzle of homemade ranch. These are familiar flavors that already live on diner menus, show up at tailgates before games, and feature at our family dinner tables, but how they are presented here (packed into a fried format) is what makes one weak in the knees.

What makes this entry stand out even more — besides the incredible taste, of course — is the story behind it. This fab fried food is a family affair. Winn and Sara Nguyen and their kinfolk keep Winn & Sara's Kitchen running, and this is only the close-knit clan's second year as an Iowa State Fair vendor. In 2024 alone, the family sold around 28,000 egg rolls when all was said and done. This year's bacon, chicken, and ranch version followed their 2024 bacon cheeseburger egg roll win, earning it back-to-back Best New Food titles. At the Iowa State Fair, that is how legends roll.

"Got crabs?" is a cheeky double-entendre that definitely catches attention, and this may be one of the rare cases when we actually want the answer to be, "Heck, yeah." The crab at the center of this discussion is a showstopper from the State Fair of Texas. The crab and mozzarella arancini from Texapolitan Pizza took a classic Italian comfort dish and dropped it squarely (and literally) into deep-fried fair territory.

It all starts with an oh-so-creamy risotto, rich and soft, studded with premium Maryland blue crab and pockets of gooey mozzarella. Herbs bring everything together, before the whole thing is breaded and fried with a delightfully crisp coating. What makes this arancini extra appealing is the contrast that the Italian creation presents. Crack through the crispy shell, and you immediately hit a warm, almost spoonable inside that has the energy that mirrors more of a fine Italian restaurant offering than an item you snagged between booth-hopping at the state fair. 

Served with a side of marinara for dipping, the mozzarella stretches just enough to tease you with its taut pull in this treat, giving the whole dish that cheesy, comforting tone we all come to the table (or, in this case, the fair) craving. It's no surprise that this treat took home the Big Tex Choice Award for Best Taste — Savory in 2025.

This next item is a delicious lark from Lumpia City that feels like a hybrid between breakfast and dessert, deep-fried into one golden pocket of paradise. The ube butter banana French toast lumpia takes its inspiration from a traditional Filipino sweet, combining caramelized bananas, syrup-soaked French toast, and rich purple ube butter. All of these incredible ingredients are gathered, then wrapped tightly, fried until crisp, and finished off with a flourish thanks to a just-enough, delicate dusting of powdered sugar.

With peekaboo spottings of that iconic shade of deep purple through its golden, banana-ube-infused "wrapper," this lumpia instantly sets itself apart in a sea of fried fair fare. And that first bite? Banana bliss, according to all reports. From the initial crackle to the creamy, slightly melted banana and ube mash-up, this is one caramel-coded, French toast-tasting thrill ride for the taste buds that visitors never ever wanted to end.

Having earned a 2025 Sporkies win and consistently pulling in high ratings, this sweet treat from first-time vendor Lumpia City obliterated the competition, while bringing Filipino flavors front and center into the fair spotlight. Fans just kept coming back to this one, practically inhaling these sweet spring rolls served fresh and piping hot. The line was indeed long, but no one seemed to mind being lump-ed into the waiting milieu.

The Dirty Dancing egg roll is a specialty egg roll from J & J A Taste of Home Catering & Food Truck that earned heavy praise at the Indiana State Fair in 2025. The quirkily named culinary treasure quickly became a social media favorite, and just one look tells you why. Fairgoers feasted their eyes on a thick egg roll, fried hot, then decadently drenched in savory sauce.

The flavor combination is key. Think hot honey, lemon pepper, and buffalo sauce that come together to coat the roll in a blaze of vibrant orange glaze that not only brings the heat, but also tacks on a slight tang, plus subtle sweetness to seal the deal. A ripple of ranch dressing delivers a nice balance to bring it all home. As for the filling? It's hard to go wrong with chicken, peppers, onions, and spices all holding their own amid the sauce instead of disappearing under its blanketed weight.

There is nothing neat or tidy about this egg roll. Saucy, sticky, and intentionally over the top, this treat feels quite fitting for the rowdy, wondrous, and big electric energy embodied by this favorite Indiana fair. The egg roll attracted a slew of positive reviews, pushing the format even further after 2024's spaghetti and meat sauce egg rolls.

This next one may not be as extreme a fair food as deep-fried butter, but it does have a stick, and similarly slaps. The Cinna Mozza takes a classic mozzarella stick, batters it, fries it golden, then encases the whole thing in a creative crust-combination of cinnamon and sugar. The mouthwatering result lands somewhere between dessert and snack, a lip-smacking fair food you can't quite put your finger on (unless it's literally to grab for seconds). It is perhaps this coy, impossible-to-corner-into-a-category nature of the cheesy cinnamony fried pastry that helped it stand out so much at North Carolina's state fair in 2025.

On the outside, it eats like a traditional churro – warm, sweet, lightly crunchy, and dusted generously with cinnamon sugar — but that's where similarities end. This is because you next hit the cheesy center, where mozzarella meets your palate as it's busy pulling apart in soft, salty strands. And that pull. It should have its own fan club for all the social media clips paying homage to its oh-so-satisfying stretch.

The pairing of sweet on the outside, savory on the inside is already a killer combo, and Golden K Dog (the vendor behind Cinna Mozza) leaned fully into that divine duo's voodoo power. The dish won the Deep Fried Media Best New Sweet Food award at the 2025 N.C. State Fair and quickly became one of the most talked-about items. It was also named one of the 10 must-try dishes at the fair by local news outlet WRAL.

Y'all know Smucker's Uncrustables – those lunchbox champs that sealed in all the goodness and stayed frozen just long enough to be perfectly thawed by the lunchtime bell? If you adored them as much as most of us in our youth, this next one is for you. The Uncrustaburger is a Minnesota State Fair novelty that stacks a 4-ounce cheeseburger patty with pickles and special sauce between two deep-fried peanut butter and grape jelly Uncrustables.

The first thing you notice is the literal hot mess of it all — albeit a mess at which you are 0% mad. These Uncrustables come out of the fryer hot, crisp on the outside, and soft on the inside, with the peanut butter and jelly already fully melted. Then comes the burger and cheese, which only adds to the impossible task of even remotely attempting to tackle this thing politely. No worries, here, however, because state fair food has always run the spectrum from sticky to downright sloppy (and we love to eat it up).

A surprisingly satisfying marriage of savory beef and cheese plus sweet grape jelly, the peanut butter brings a salty quality that somehow manages to bridge what would be an otherwise pretty big gap. The pickles and special sauce? They pierce through the sweetness, keeping it all from veering into the dreaded cloying category.

S'mores churro fries from Saz's BBQ take a familiar fair favorite and layer on notes of pure nostalgic indulgence. It all starts with a foundation of churro fries, served crisp, warm, and coated in cinnamon sugar. Then comes the mountain of marshmallow creme and smooth chocolate sauce, finished with a dusting of crushed graham crackers.

You could confidently say these fries hit all the notes of a classic (and beloved) campfire s'more, just minus the smoke and the stick. Unsurprisingly, they earned strong recommendations from fairgoers and food reviewers alike, especially for getting the ratios right (churro dominating the flavor profile first, followed by s'mores as a strong second). That balance keeps the offering from feeling like a sugar bomb and makes it dangerously easy to keep eating.

There is something fair-y perfect about this Sporkie-nominated novelty dish. Perhaps because it is slightly messy, quite shareable, and unapologetically sweet. Oh, yeah, and fried to within an inch of its life. Incredible.

The Minnesota State Fair has pretty iconic food, and 2025's Sweet Squeakers took cheese curds in a wild new direction, with which they more than "squeaked by." What's got everyone so stoked? Only a wondrous mix of white cheddar cheese curds coated in funnel cake batter, deep-fried, then topped with a scoop of fresh lemon whipped cream and a drizzle of berry sauce.

Its base is uber-familiar if you know the Minnesota State Fair (cheese curds, duh!). This version of the classic Midwestern staples showcases a foundation of curds that are warm and squeaky inside and crispy outside. Nothing groundbreaking here — until you factor in that these cheese morsels are coated in funnel cake batter of all things. That batter shifts the whole experience, as it's a lighter, sweeter covering than is typical for curds.

This twist pushes the cheesy dish into dessert territory. If you ask foodie fairgoers, it's the toppings that really sell it. Lemon whipped cream adds brightness and keeps the richness from running amok, while the berry sauce brings a touch of sweetness and a zing of color. The combo has been compared to having whispers of lemon meringue pie. Sweet Squeakers became a major viral hit in 2025, with fans praising the unexpected success of sweet cheese curds.

The State Fair of Texas is known for its wild fried desserts, and funnel cake fries are already a fair favorite. But this version sends them skyrocketing straight into the luxury dessert stratosphere, and everyone seemed to want to sign up for space exploration this year. The Dubai chocolate funnel cake fries begin with crispy, golden funnel cake fries, then cover them with pistachio cream and rich chocolate. Almost too pretty to be consumed (we said almost, mind you), the fries themselves are served piping hot, crisp on the outside, and soft inside. 

The pistachio cream and chocolate combo brings that same smooth, nutty quality and decadent cocoa richness that Dubai chocolate fanatics have come to adore in any iteration of their beloved favorite dessert. And we can't ignore the clincher of knafeh pastry pieces, which are pretty much a must for any version of Dubai chocolate anything. They also create that extra crunch that keeps things interesting and staves off the soggy scaries.

This Dubai-inspired dish earned finalist status in the 2025 Big Tex Choice Awards, and even by just aesthetics alone, it makes perfect sense. It looks dramatic, almost over-the-top, in a way that fits the scale of the Texas fair perfectly. But it is not just about physical appeal, as reviewers note that it tastes phenomenal, too.

If there was ever a shoo-in of a dish that seemed ideally engineered to win the Unique Foods Contest, this just might be it. The sweet and spicy Spam fries from B&B Concessions took top honors at the New Mexico State Fair in 2025, and one peek at this peculiar pairing explains exactly why.

With this savory and surprising selection, Spam is sliced into long, fry-like strips, battered, and deep-fried until it reaches a level of extra crispy that not even the choicest bacon may have seen before (by which we mean they're very crisp). From there, believe it or not, things just get better. The fries are then glazed with a sweet syrup and topped with a spicy aioli, igniting a flavor combo that can best be described as pure fire, checking all the salty, sweet, and heat boxes on our mental "must-have" fair menus all at once.

If you know anything about Spam, you're already aware it has a long, well-loved history in American food culture, showing up everywhere from breakfast plates to musubi. New Mexico's take leans fully into that familiarity, while also forging its own path into completely new, totally out-of-the-box territory. Presentation scores big points here, too, with fans loving how the fries are served in an original Spam can, somehow turning the whole experience into a delicious, semi-spoof that tastes as comforting as it feels to snack on.

This deep-fried pecan pie goes to show that sometimes the best fair foods are the ones that take a classic and simply fry the living daylights out of it. The decadent dessert earned a top-three finish in the Sweetest of Sweet category at Oklahoma's 2025 food contest, coming from Taste of OKC. Each slice begins as a traditional pecan pie, then is wrapped in batter and dropped into the fryer.

The outside comes out crisp and golden, while the inside stays comfortingly warm, oh-so-ooey-gooey, and mouthwateringly rich. Once the pecan-infused slab hits the plate, it's then doused with a coating of caramel sauce before being served piping hot and finger-licking sticky. The flavor of this preferred pie is unmistakably Southern, showcasing those signature notes of sweet, nutty, buttery indulgence.

Reviewers mention it is so rich that sharing is probably a smart move, but probably not one that will realistically happen when factoring in its deliciousness. Taste testers have also described it as pretty dang sweet, but still enjoyable enough that you do not regret the choice of chowing down. This is the kind of dessert you save room for, pass up fair rides to revel in, and then come back later for that second (okay, maybe third) slice.

When it came to choosing the best fried fair foods, we wanted to keep things fair (pun intended). We looked at award winners, viral fair foods, and the menu items that attendees could not stop talking about online. From Reddit threads and Instagram reels to local news coverage and official fair contests, we focused this list on the dishes that sparked real excitement and repeat mentions.