Restaurant-Style Fried Catfish
"Plan ahead there is a 1-1/2 hour refrigeration time for the fillets, you may omit the cayenne completely or increase to suit heat level --- for best flavor I use peanut oil for frying but vegetable oil will do fine I have even fried the fish in olive oil :)"
- Ready In:
- 2hrs 6mins
- Ingredients:
- 12
- Serves:
-
4-6
ingredients
- 6 -8 catfish fillets
- 1 teaspoon white salt
- 2 1⁄2 cups milk (to cover the fish fillets)
- 2 cups yellow cornmeal
- 1 tablespoon seasoning salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1⁄8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
- 1⁄2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- peanut oil (for frying) or vegetable oil (for frying)
- lemon wedge
- tartar sauce (Kittencal's Easy Tartar Sauce)
directions
- Place the catfish fillets in a single layer in a shallow dish (you may slice the fillets in half lengthwise if desired or leave whole).
- Cover the fillets completely with milk.
- Cover and chill for about 1-1/2 hours.
- In a shallow bowl combine the cornmeal with seasoned salt, black pepper, cayenne, onion powder and garlic powder.
- Remove the catfish from refrigerator and allow to stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Remove all the milk from the pan and allowing all the milk to drip off the fillets.
- Sprinkle the fillets very lightly with salt (using about 1 teaspoon for all of the fillets).
- Coat lightly with cornmeal mixture.
- Pour the oil to a depth of about 1-1/2 inches in a cast-iron or heavy skillet.
- Heat oil to 350°F.
- Fry the fish in batches about 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden.
- Drain on wire racks over paper towels.
- Serve with tartar sauce and lemon wedges.
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Reviews
-
Crispy, yummy and we ate it all up, so that means it's good! This is my new recipe for frying catfish! -
My BF and I went to a catfish farm recently and caught 8 of the most beautiful catfish ( if you can call them that!) you have ever seen. I even filleted them myself and decided they deserved to be fried to a crispy goodness! This made a great, light, and extra crispy coating for the fillets. We both loved them... Since the catfish was so fresh, I only soaked the fillets for a few minutes as I prepared the coating. I used 8 fillets and still had plenty of cormeal mixture leftover so I will cut back a little next time... otherwise just another great recipe! I served it with Recipe #65769 for a delicious meal my BF still raves about! -
This is pretty much a standard catfish recipe. Nothing to get too excited about but a decent stand by recipe. Soaking the Catfish left it a little mushy for my taste. Overall, this is a good base recipe and I look forward to working with the ingredients and making some changes. Thank you for posting! -
Kittencal, all I can say is you oudid yourself again.. as dh said this was the best fish i've ever fried.. so crispy and tasty.. I did cut back on season salt to 1 1/2 tsp. Will definately make this again soon. Nita
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This recipe actually brought back memories of a fish-and-chips restaurant that my husband and I frequented when we lived in Nevada! It reminded me so much of their catfish nuggets that I found myself craving a bowl of thier coleslaw. Excellent recipe!
