The Strangest State Fair Foods You Can Find In The US

American state fairs are known for weird and wonderful goings on. Who doesn't have fond childhood memories of pig racing, redneck relays, giant cabbage weigh-offs, and pet rock competitions? But the weirdest and most wonderful experiences of all are reserved for your taste buds when you sample the strangest state fair foods you can find in the U.S.

State fairs throughout history have been synonymous with food, dating back to the inaugural state fair in Syracuse, New York, in 1841. The first state fair drew up to 15,000 people, and its success inspired the organizers at the New York State Agricultural Society to move the event around the state in the following years. While there's no surviving menu from the first state fair, the agricultural nature of early fairs like this one meant farmers showcasing the best of the region's meats and vegetables. Doughnuts, zeppoles, and funnel cakes hit the mainstream at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, and cotton candy, ice cream cones, and iced tea were popularized at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 (although not invented there, according to a myth-busting 2024 exhibit at the Missouri History Museum) .

However, it wasn't until the 2000s that state fair food really took a serious turn toward the weird, when every state fair started trying to deep-fry something more bizarre than its neighbor. Here's a selection of the strangest state fair foods you can find in the U.S. when your local fair rolls around.

If Dr. Frankenstein was considered a "mad genius," what should we call Abel Gonzales Jr.? Well, fans of his niche work have dubbed him "Fried Jesus" for taking America's favorite soda and finding a way to deep fry it. Originating at the State Fair of Texas in 2006, Gonzales Jr. flavored his regular batter with the classic taste of Coca-Cola, then deep-fried it before topping it with Coke syrup. Deep-fried Coke provides all the flavor, none of the fizz.

The creation of the divisive Deep-fried Coca-Cola has inspired Gonzales Jr. to attempt even more concoctions that make passerby's heads tilt and wonder, "Should we try it?" His extensive list of deep-fried delights includes fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, as well as deep-fried beer. Oh, and, of course, deep-fried butter, which is so strange it gets its own spot in this roundup.

Pepsi drinkers didn't have to wait long for somebody to turn their beverage of choice into a deep-fried dish either, debuting in 2007 at the Indiana State Fair.

After you've finished eating your Coke, you're going to need a pickle to wash it down with. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. And, is there anything more refreshing than a dill pickle iced tea on a hot day? Probably, but there are few drinks quite as strange as this state fair mashup.

From Julius Caesar to Harry Styles, people throughout the ages have professed their undying love for the salty and sour taste of pickles, which is why dill pickles have long been a classic fair fare, and yet another dish popularized at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. It was here that a certain H.J. Heinz distributed branded pickle pins for people to wear on the lapels of their jackets. Nowadays, dill pickles can be found deep-fried, as a pizza topping, and, finally, as an addition to iced tea.

Loon Lake Iced Tea's dill pickle iced tea is debuting at the Minnesota State Fair in 2025. This curious concoction is infused with dill pickle flavor and comes with a dill pickle spear on top. Having a dill pickle iced tea without Tajín, salt, and dill on the rim would be like drinking a margarita without salt, so Loon Lake added that, too. With the rise in popularity of drinks with a tangy vinegar taste like kombucha, this one could be a winner. Stay tuned for more peculiar pickle creations.

Pickles weren't the only snack floating around ancient Rome. Boiled eggs topped with spicy sauces were a refined starter for upper-class diners, and a precursor to the much-loved appetizer, deviled eggs. However, it took hundreds of years for the deviled eggs we know today to be born. Fannie Farmer's 1896 "Boston Cooking-School Cookbook" was one of the first recipes for deviled eggs that incorporated mayonnaise into the yolk.

The debate rages on as to what is truly the best way to make deviled eggs at home (have you tried adding butter?), but most home chefs have probably never attempted to make chocolate chip cookie dough deviled eggs in their kitchen. Well, that's what the state fair is for. Attendees at the Ohio State Fair can try this year's featured flavor from the Devilishly Good Food Stand presented by the Ohio Poultry Association. If you want a savory egg before enjoying your dessert egg, sample the 2025 New Flavor Flight, which features Hot Honey Everything, Sriracha Peach, Columbus Pizza, Spicy Crunchy, and Cranberry Feta.

The green chile cheeseburger is New Mexico's unofficial state food. While the origins of the first-ever green chile cheeseburger are difficult to trace, the Owl Bar & Cafe in San Antonio, New Mexico, has been serving one with the same recipe since 1948. The spicy sweetness of the combo enchanted the taste buds of people across the Land of Enchantment and is a must-try when you visit. The New Mexico State Fair hosts a green chile cheeseburger challenge annually to showcase brick-and-mortar restaurants' takes on the state's favorite dish.

The New Mexico State Fair's Unique Food Competition is another annual culinary contest that attracts experimental foodies to participate or taste the quirky offerings. In the past, judges and attendees have had the pleasure of sampling a cheeseburger with chocolate chip cookies instead of buns, an Oreo taco, and last year's winner, the Belgian waffle green chile cheeseburger from Rex's Hamburgers. This gut-busting take on the state dish features a Belgian waffle base topped with an all-beef patty, pickle, lettuce, and tomato, with green chile maple syrup for added sweetness. Oh, and don't forget the powdered sugar on top.

For another twist on the classic green chili cheeseburger, make your own in queso form at home.

Paula Deen introduced a recipe for deep-fried butter to modern audiences on the aptly named Paula's Party episode "Everything's Better with Butter" in 2007. But, Paula wasn't the first butter obsessive to want to turn butter into a standalone dish. Inventive cooks have been roasting butter since the 1600s.

However, the accomplishment of delivering deep-fried butter to the masses goes to the aforementioned Abel Gonzales Jr., aka "Fried Jesus," who sold approximately 140,000 deep-fried butter balls at the State Fair of Texas in 2009. His take on deep-fried butter won the Big Tex Choice Award for most creative dish, and has been replicated at fairs across the country, including Larry Fyfe, who served up his deep-fried butter on a stick creation at the Iowa State Fair in 2011 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Iowa State Fair's cow sculpted out of butter. Those who have had the chance to sample deep-fried butter at the state fair in one of its forms say it's less thick than it sounds and resembles a super buttery churro. 

One of the themes of state fair food is taking a sideways look at a classic dish, encouraging chefs to use their imagination to create something special. Enter, the lobster corn dog. There have been several variations of this dish over the years, including a foot-long lobster corn dog from Big Ray's in Tampa. One of the latest adopters of this taste of the ocean on a stick is Destination Grille, located just outside Des Moines, the home of the Iowa State Fair. Last year, it was a finalist in the top three new foods at the fair, beating out stiff competition from 84 entries, including a deep-fried Uncrustable PB&J and Lemonade Donut Drops.

Destination Grille's lobster corn dog has a premium price tag of $20, but it is worth it if you like the sound of a lobster tail on a stick, deep-fried with lemony aioli drizzled on top. If you want to push the boat out, order the Surf N Turf, which features a lobster corn dog and steak tip gnocchi, offering a taste of both land and sea.

We've already taken a deep dive into the world of pickles at the state fair. And, aficionados of deep-dried food will also have heard of fried Oreos, which rose to prominence when Charlie Boghosian brought them to the Los Angeles County Fair back in 2001. Boghosian went on to make a name for himself as a deep-frying deity, going as far as plunging filet mignon into his fryer for fairgoers. If the owner of Chicken Charlie's and "Fried Jesus" ever got together to make a deep-fried supergroup, nothing in the pantry would be safe.

Well, it was only a matter of time before somebody at a state fair decided to experiment with pickles and Oreos. For 2025, the Pickle Barrel at the Indiana State Fair offered up a pickle-fried Oreo. This sweet and tangy combo consisted of a Golden Oreo with a pickle slice on top, dipped in batter, and finished with dill pickle seasoning, accompanied by a side of ranch.

The Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburger makes the Belgian waffle green chile cheeseburger look like a healthy side dish. This state fair staple goes by many names, one of which is Paula Deen's Lady's Brunch Burger, one of many burgers that the celebrity chef has had a hand in perfecting, along with the A Burger, which, surprise, surprise, includes an insane amount of butter.

Another theory about the burger's origins is that Luther Vandross invented it when he ran out of buns at home but happened to have a couple of Krispy Kreme donuts, which is where the name Luther Burger originated at Mulligan's Pub in Decatur, Georgia, in 2005. The following year, minor league outfit the Gateway Grizzlies in Sauget, Illinois, introduced another take on the donut burger with Baseball's Best Burger.

Whoever wants to claim this monstrosity, it looks like it's here to stay and is usually available at the NC State Fair, among other places. You might even spot a vendor serving up a Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger with extra bacon or a Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe.

At this point, do any of these strange state fair foods come as a surprise? Bacon has had a re-imagining that has taken it far beyond being everybody's favorite breakfast food. It's now a regular ingredient in a variety of dessert recipes, including chocolate bark and cheesecake, providing the salty side to classic sweet treats. Rousso's Fat Bacon shows up at lots of events around Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, including the State Fair of Texas. Rousso's brings with it a variety of bacon-centered offerings, including cotton candy bacon on a stick, which won the 2025 Gold Buckle Foodie Award for Best New Flavor at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

The pink cotton candy is a little too close in color to the pig from which the bacon came, but if you can get over that, bacon and cotton candy lovers will relish the initial sweet-tasting cotton candy that melts away into a salty bacon aftertaste as you reach the rasher inside.

If you can't get enough of the combo, the perfect accompaniment is also available at the State Fair of Texas this year. Lakewood Brewing is serving up a Cotton Candy Bacon Blonde Ale, which features a subtle blend of sweet and smoky bacon flavors.

When people started saying "Don't drink the Kool-Aid," the intention wasn't to encourage people to eat it instead. However, that's precisely what you can do when you order a Kool-Aid pickle, or Koolickle, from state fairs across the country.

Originating in the Mississippi Delta region, where the love of pickles runs deep, and you'll find fried dill pickles on most menus, Kool-Aid pickles first came about to provide a sweet twist on traditional pickles. The most common flavors used in Koolickles are cherry, fruit punch, or tropical. While you can make your own Kool-Aid pickles by adding a packet of unsweetened Kool-Aid mix and half a cup of granulated sugar to a jar of dill pickle spears, you'll have to wait around seven days for the flavors to develop. Whereas, you can get your pickle kick instantly at the state fair.

Kool-Aid Pickles aren't the only way to give pickles a glow-up. The Fruity Pebble pickle is on the menu at the State Fair of Texas, and the Pop Rock pickle made its debut at the Florida State Fair in 2024.

From incredible bug collections and etymology exhibits to a callout to fairgoers to kill an invasive bug at the Ohio State Fair, bugs are always buzzing around the state fair in one way or another. While it's usually a wasp buzzing around your ice cream, bugs are appearing more and more on the menu, too.

There's an ever-growing case for eating more bugs, but the health benefits of chowing down on a protein-packed creepy crawly are somewhat diminished by delivering them on top of a Long John donut like the Bavarian Cream Bug Donut at the Wisconsin State Fair. This devilish dessert by All Things Jerky features Bavarian cream with edible ants inside, chocolate icing on top, along with crickets, grasshoppers, worms, and a scorpion on top.

The Wisconsin State Fair boasts even more bug-inspired dishes in 2025, too. All Things Jerky is also serving up bug chow mein, cricket choco chunk cookie, an iced larvae latte, bug juice, and more. The jerky-specialists don't just make buggy bites. Jerky lovers can sample the innovative jerky-specialist's fried peanuts and maple bacon jerky, too.

If you're into eating bugs, you may not be adverse to taking a bite out of a creature that would gladly take a bite out of you, given the chance. Head over to the Exotic Meat Grill at The Wisconsin State Fair after your buggy appetizer to sample perhaps the strangest meal on a stick in this whole roundup, an alligator claw on a stick — with scales! Native American tribes in the Southeastern region of the U.S. have been hunting and killing alligators for hundreds of years, always ensuring they use every morsel. Cooking alligator meat was passed on to early Cajun settlers in Louisiana. Due to their popularity, alligators were overhunted during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which led to their inclusion in the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966. Regulations still exist on when and how many alligators can be hunted in different states like Florida and Louisiana.

Nowadays, fairgoers can sample gator meat, which has a texture like chicken and a slight taste of fish, without having to worry about hunting one themselves. The Exotic Meat Grill's menu also includes Alligator Cajun mac & cheese sundae, alligator taco, alligator nachos, and smoked gator legs. Bayou Bob's Gator Shack at the Minnesota State Fair also specializes in gator meat, keeping it simple by serving deep-fried and seasoned alligator, as well as sautéed alligator in garlic olive oil.

Pizza cones seem to be the great white buffalo for pizza lovers everywhere, and who can blame them for searching for a way to make pizzas more portable? Despite forecasts in 2022 that pizza cones would be the next big thing, using dough as a cone and filling it with cheese, marinara, and the usual toppings has yet to reach the predicted heights in the U.S.

Kono Pizza, which originated in Milan, Italy, in 2004, is one pizza joint determined to make pizza cones a thing in the U.S. However, the Raleigh, North Carolina, franchise takes it one step further by also offering dessert pizzas. In addition to savory options like Swedish meat and buffalo chicken, the regulars at the North Carolina State Fair served up peach cobbler pizza cones, made with peach filling, cinnamon crumbles, and icing, and s'mores pizza cones filled with marshmallow and chocolate, to intrigued passersby during the 2024 event. Visitors to the Wisconsin State Fair will find a buffalo chicken pizza cone available at concessions in 2025, too.

We've come full circle, and unsurprisingly, that leads us back to the deep-fat fryer for our final strange state fair food. Like state fair food, jelly beans took a turn to the weird in the early '00s when the biggest manufacturer of the candy, Jelly Belly, introduced Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans®, inspired by the candy creator in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." The collection included flavors like Booger, Earthworm, Earwax, and Rotten Egg.

These flavors weren't weird enough for the state fair. Instead, Marion's Fried Foods decided to take flavors like the most popular Very Cherry, dunk them in funnel cake batter, and deep-fry them to give the jelly beans a sweet and crispy casing. Marion's Fried Foods is a regular at The Big E, the world's only multi-state fair, and also offers its take on deep-fried butter, as well as other deep-fried state fair classics.