How to make deep fried fish (beer, restaurants, skillet, freezer)

[Observation]

How do you make that fried fish that seems to be in every single resturant in America?
You know the kind that they have at Long John Silvers, Captain D's and even places like chillies.

I don't have a deep fryer, I will be cooking it in a skillit. Is it still possible to make this super fried delicious treat?

[bluesky42day]

Go for it, pan frying will work just fine. Just go pick up some fish batter at your local supermarket. At least it's that easy here in Nashville, land of everything being fried

Good luck!

Courtney

[Ishouldknow]

Just use a boxed pancake batter mix. For the liquid use beer or soda water.

[rainroosty]

Can you get cod or haddock?

[Observation]

Yeah I get cod. And will the beer or the pancake mix get the results I want?
I already know how to regularly fry fish. I do it quite often and use my own mix to coat them with.
What I'm really looking for is that over the top crunchy fry that you find at places like Captain D's.

[Observation]

Also does the quality of the beer matter. I have a couple olde english 40 ozs and I'm wondering if they would work good for this recipe.

[Wilson513]

Cod has a lot of moisture in it and that's why it works so well deep fried. I love fried cod and we have the best fried cod place I've ever been to anywhere here called the Alabama Fish Carryout. http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/32/36003...Bar-Cincinnati

But, when you do cod at home in a skillet it tends to get a little soggy unless you cook it for ever then a little dry. If you want to do cod, cut it into 1 1/2" chunks and deep fry it in 4" of peanut oil in a 6 quart sauce pan with a deep fry thermometer in it. But who wants to use a quart and a hlf od peanut oil for one meal? You can't do anything else with the oil after the fish has been in there. Some people say it stinks up the freezer if you put it in glass and freeze it.


I really prefer what we call "whiting" for batter frying in a skillet. And, for someone who has not done it before, I'd use pancake batter made with beer instead of milk. Dry the fish, salt and pepper, dust in flour, dip in batter (make it pretty thick) That will be a good way to start. Get a nice deep skillet and put 1/2 inch of peanut oil (no olive oil or butter) and heat it to 350 F and drop battered fish in. When the sizzling slows down 3 minutes or so, flip it over and repeat. Don't crowd the fish and keep the heat up to 350 F. Use light beer. Nothing with much beer flavor. Seriously.

Advanced course: skip the flour, dip in batter and let it sit on a drying tray for 15 minutes then dip again. Cook as above.

Notes: You can't batter fry fish with lots of strong oil like salmon. Don't even think about it.
Restaurants use a lot of salt and pepper in the batter to give it flavor. Work up to this if you have decent fish. Just salt and pepper the fish.

[jade408]

Growing up, my parents used cornmeal to batter fish. No flour. Cornmeal, salt and pepper. Totally different fried fish experience.

[Grannysroost]

Using Alaska halibut, I cut in smaller chunks, maybe about 2" x 2" or so... dry off well so the batter sticks. My batter is 1 cup of flour, 2 Tbsp of baking powder (will puff it up), 1 tsp kosher salt, I dump in paprika for browning color, and add whatever seasoning, I usually put in about a tsp or so of garlic powder, mix well then add 1 cup of liquid from regular water to beer, mix well and let stand for about 30 minutes, it will foam up and get thick...then fry for the least amount of time you have to, don't crowd the pan, leave some room between pieces. I do about 3 to 4 minutes per side in my fryer at 350. Flip when they float, then drain well adding some salt when out of the fryer...I keep warm in a low oven to not lose the crisp...Happy fish

[Bulldogdad]

Nothing like a good batch of fish n chips sprinkled with malt vinegar. finish off with a Stout.