Do You Have A Favorite Breading For Frying Fish?

Although I don't eat fried fish too much and like to make my own breading most of the time, my to go breading mix for fishes are Zatarain's and McCormick's Golden Dipt Beer Batter. Zatarain's is a all around good mix for any type of fish baking, which I like the Crispy Southern Style the most. Golden Dipt Beer Batter is great to use and eat, especially when I'm at a BBQ and drinking beer too! However, I still like making and eating my homemade batter, which doesn't have all the preservatives most of these pre-made batters are made of.

 

Definitely a beer batter for me, I find that adding beer makes it much lighter and fluffier. I also really enjoy eating deep fried foods coated with Japanese breadcrumbs, I feel that it gives a crispier, crunchier texture.

 

I like Zatarains also. Before I moved last year, my store used to carry cajun fish mixes and there was one I liked but can't think of the name. However, I recently came across an experiment.

The store that sells the other fish mix is closed permanently so I went into my pantry to get something that would complement cod. I tried NOH spicy chicken mix with a little flour and it tasted good.

 

I got to tell you this. I have gotten to the point where I read labels on food ingredients very carefully. I wanted to bread some chicken breasts and you would think that buying bread crumbs would be easy. I read the label and have no idea what the heck half that stuff in there even is. I certainly do NOT want to eat stuff I can't even identify. Bread crumbs are easy- Bread and spices right? What I ended up doing was crushing up organic herbal crackers. It tasted very good. I will make my own bread crumbs from now on. Store made bread is scary, but those cans of bread crumbs were down right frightening.

I never even looked at Zatarains, although I have had their rice products which are good. It might be more in line with what I might expect for breading. Even Panko breading was a disappointment.

 

I never paid attention to the brand because it's Japanese and I can't read it but my favorite breaking for fish is panko because I hunk that adds so much more crunch to fried dishes. I also love using it for all other breaded dishes like chicken or pork. It's really my go to breaking and I only ever stray away from it when the recipe calls for something closer to more traditional breeding.

 

I like Golden Dipt but sometimes I use Gilda Cuban cracker meal for breading, which is pretty much sold everywhere in Miami.

 

We very seldom fry our own fish or anything for that matter, because I don't like to waste all that oil and we don't have an oil thermometer either. At most I may shallow fry some fish from time to time, when I am in the mood to do so.

I don't often use the commercial fish breading mixes in the store because most of them are loaded with a lot of MSG. My mom likes to use cracker meal and some salt and pepper to coat her fish. Typically, I will just opt to bake the fish, so I will generally go with a seasoned panko breading, and brush the fish with some oil so it will stick, and bread the top of the fish. I don't bother with the bottom because it just gets soggy.

However, one thing I've been pondering over is trying out some Masa Harina as a fish breading. I bought two bags of Bob's Red Mill brand Masa Harina with the intention of making Arepas, only to discover I bought the wrong stuff to make them. I tried it anyway and they came out way too dense and heavy. So I've been thinking this stuff might be good on some fish - sort of like a corn meal breading, but the Masa Harina is actually cooked corn and it has more of a "tortilla chip" smell to it. I will share how it comes out once I try it.

 

We eat fried fish all the time, but I never buy store-bought stuff! We just use flour mixed with a bit of salt and pepper. First, dip the fillet in an egg wash (egg mixed with about a tbsp. or two of milk), and then in the flour mixture. I love it because it isn't too thick- just nice and crispy.

Our favorite fried fish for this is bluegill or perch.

 

Sometimes it really depends on the type of fish you're frying. When I fry, say, catfish I normally use a cornmeal style breading seasoned according to where my entire dish is headed. When I'm frying pollock or tilapia I use something less heavy like Panko or homemade while again seasoning that appropriately. You'd be surprised how simple it is to make your own & cost efficient. Now there is a purpose for those bread ends. I rarely, if ever, get preseasoned crumbs/breading of any kind.