Southern Style Crispy Fried Fish

Growing up in the south, fried fish is a regular staple, especially on Fridays! My family and I enjoy serving our fish with fries, hushpuppies, or a good cold coleslaw. If at all possible, we always try to find fresh caught fish, or wild caught fish. You can fry fish using an air fryer, deep fryer, or a stove top. However, out of all of these methods, cooking fish on the stove top is still the best in my opinion! Continue reading as I share my family’s southern-style fried fish recipe.

What is the Best Fish to Fry?

This recipe is super easy to follow and designed so you can use it on any popular fish used for frying! For a true southern fried fish, I recommend frying with a firm-fleshed fish such as flounder, whiting fish, mackerel, red snapper, fresh cod, or even catfish. Firm-fleshed fish holds together well during frying. If you’re new to the world of frying fish, this is literally one of the easiest meals for you to prepare and enjoy. Before we jump into the recipe, I will share a few brief tips to ensure you serve the best southern style fried fish!

What You Will Need to Fry Fish:

To yield the best results for frying fish, you will need to fry with a:

• Deep fryer, cast iron skillet, or a heavy deep pot such as a dutch oven. 
• Heat Resistant Tongs: To properly remove your fish, you will also need a pair of heat resistant tongs OR a Spider strainer to sift oil as you remove hot fish from the fry. 
• Deep Fryer Thermometer: (Optional) – Use a thermometer to monitor oil temperatures throughout the frying process. 
• A Good Oil: The best oil to use for frying fish is canola oil, peanut oil, or vegetable oil. These oils have high-smoke points. Please avoid oils with a lower smoke points such as olive oil or butter.

Frying Fish Tips

Best Seasoning Tips for Southern-Style Fried Fish

• Smell Your Fish: Your fish should not have a “fishy” smell. Fresh fish and good fish should not have a strong fishy smell. If you smell a strong odor, your fish is not fresh and should not be cooked.

• Press and Pat Fish Dry Before Seasoning: Using a paper towel, press and dry your fish filets. This will allow you to release any excess water in your fish and will help prevent it from going soggy after frying.

• A Little Bit of Mustard Goes A Long Way: Now I know this may sound strange, but I promise lightly coating your fish with mustard will add a nice bite to your fried fish! This is a secret ingredient many southerns use in their seafood recipes and bbq. You will barely taste the mustard! Yellow mustard acts as a nice binder before adding dry seasonings.

• Season Your Batter: Whether you use corn meal, all purpose flour, or prepackaged fish fry mix (I enjoy using the Zatarain’s New Orleans Style Seasoned Fish Fri Mix), still add seasoning to your flour mixture! Your fish should be flavored on the outside and on the filet. Even though you see measurements in my recipe below, remember to have fun and do not worry about exact measurements. The seasoned fish fry mix and combination of seasonings below will add amazing flavor that does not need to be over seasoned.

Fish Frying Cooking Tips and Techniques:

• Maintain A Good Temperature: Try to keep your oil temperature around 350°F to 375°F (177 – 191 degrees Celsius). When using a deep fryer, try not to crank the temperature all the way up to the highest setting since this could cause your oil to burn. To see if your oil is hot enough to start frying, I recommend adding a small piece of dry fish batter to the pan. If the batter begins to fry, your oil is ready for frying.
• If You Enjoy Fish Nuggets, Cut At An Angle: Cutting your fish fillets at an angle to make nuggets will leave thinner ends which beautifully cook into crunchy tips after frying!

• Shake Off Excess Fish Batter Before Frying: Try to avoid huge clumps of dry mixture on your fish. I recommend shaking any excess flour off of your fish before frying. To avoid this from happening, I usually take a large resealable food-storage plastic bag, add my dry batter breading to the bag, add the seasoned fish filets, seal bag, shake, remove and fry.

• Sift Out Your Clumps: If your fish breading/batter starts to form clumps from the moisture off of the fish, simply run the batter through a sifter to separate the clumps and continue breading!

How Long To Fry Fish:

Timing is Everything. If you’re worried about how long to cook your fish once you begin frying, an easy way to know if you’ve fried it long enough is to simply wait for it to turn golden brown and wait for it to float. Upon dropping your fish filet in oil, it will sink to the bottom, but will naturally float to the top when it is ready to be removed.

If you need a more scientific approach, I recommend using a deep fryer thermometer to measure the temperature of the oil. Fried fish should always be cooked over medium-high heat. Keep the oil hot and steady around 350°F to 375°F. Maintaining the right temperature during the cooking process will result in a crispy flaky fish.

Fried Fish Storage

Once I remove fried fish from the pan, I allow to it drain in a colander lined with paper towels for 1 minute and then I move these to pan or wire rack with the oven set to a warm temperature for the fish to maintain its crispness. If you allow the fish filets to pile up on top of each other in a colander, they will begin to sweat and become soggy.

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I hope you enjoy the crispy texture of this classic southern style fried fish recipe! One of my favorite ways to enjoy fried fish is with a few sprinkles of hot sauce with a side of french fries. Let me know in the comments below how well your fried fish turns out! 

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