Every corn dog and donut, fried in 100% avocado oil.

What we fry in, and what we do not

Our fryers hold avocado oil and nothing else. No soybean oil, no canola, no palm, no blends sold as "vegetable oil." There is no separate cheaper oil for the busy hours and no different standard at one store versus another.

This is not a seasonal promotion or a single-item feature. It is how the whole menu is cooked, from the Hot Cheetos Corn Dog to a plain Original Ugnut.

Donuts and corn dogs also get their own separate fryers. Same oil in both, but a donut is never fried in oil that has cooked meat, and it does not come out carrying the flavor of the corn dog before it.

Why avocado oil

Two properties matter in a fryer, and avocado oil is unusually good at both.

It holds up to heat

Refined avocado oil has one of the highest smoke points of any common cooking oil, roughly 500 to 520 degrees Fahrenheit. Deep frying happens around 350 to 375. That gap matters: an oil pushed near its smoke point starts to break down, and food fried in broken-down oil tastes heavy and stale no matter how fresh the ingredients were. Our oil spends the entire day comfortably below that line.

It does not add flavor

Avocado oil is close to neutral. A corn dog fried in it tastes like batter, sausage, and cheese. It does not pick up the flavor of whatever was fried before it, which matters when donuts and corn dogs come out of the same kitchen minutes apart.

What it changes about the food

• The crust sets faster. Oil at a stable temperature seals the outside quickly instead of soaking in, so the coating turns crisp rather than greasy.
• It stays crisp longer. The difference is most obvious ten minutes after you order, on the walk home or in the car.
• The food tastes like itself. No fryer aftertaste sitting underneath the flavor you actually came for.

This works together with the other half of how we cook: nothing sits in a warming case. Each item is made to order, so it reaches you at the point where clean oil actually pays off.

Why almost no one else does this

Cost. Avocado oil runs several times the price of the soybean and canola blends most quick service kitchens buy, and a fry-forward menu goes through a lot of oil. For most operators that math ends the conversation before it starts.

We decided the difference was worth carrying, and we built it into how a store is supplied so it cannot quietly get swapped out later. As far as we know, no other Korean corn dog brand in the United States fries exclusively in avocado oil.

Where this applies

All of it, everywhere. Every fried item on the menu, at every Ugly Donuts location: American Dream in New Jersey, Bushwick in Brooklyn, Forest Hills in Queens, and Pearland in Texas. You can find addresses and directions on our locations page.

If you want the longer version of how we landed here, we wrote about it in the Journal.

Common questions

The things guests ask us most about the oil.

What oil do you fry in?

One hundred percent avocado oil, and nothing else. It is the only frying oil in our kitchens, at every location, for every fried item on the menu.

Do you use seed oil blends?

No. Most fryers run on soybean, canola, or palm blends because they are inexpensive. We do not use them. Our fryers hold avocado oil only.

Why avocado oil instead of a cheaper oil?

Refined avocado oil has one of the highest smoke points of any common cooking oil, roughly 500 to 520 degrees Fahrenheit. Deep frying runs near 350 to 375, so the oil stays far below the point where it starts to break down, even through a long service. It is also close to flavorless, so it does not carry taste from one batch into the next.

Does it actually change how the food tastes?

Yes, in two ways our team notices every day. The crust sets faster and stays crisp longer instead of turning soft, and the food tastes like itself rather than like fryer oil. A corn dog fried at the right temperature in clean oil absorbs less of it.

Is avocado oil healthier?

We are not making a health claim. We chose avocado oil for how it behaves in a fryer and how the food tastes coming out of it. If you are tracking specifics for dietary reasons, avocado oil is roughly seventy percent monounsaturated fat, and you are welcome to ask our team anything else.

Are the donuts and corn dogs fried in the same oil?

No. Donuts and corn dogs go into separate fryers, both filled with the same one hundred percent avocado oil. So a donut is never fried in oil that has cooked meat, and it does not come out tasting like a corn dog. If you have a specific dietary question, ask our team at the counter and we will walk you through how an item is made.

Is the oil the same at every store?

Yes. Every Ugly Donuts location fries in the same one hundred percent avocado oil. It is written into how we build and supply a store, so it does not vary by owner or by city.