This chicken dish has a distinctive flavor that is sure to awaken your taste buds—it’s just a tiny bit sweet, a little spicy, and just a dash of orange. For a tasty, speedy lunch, serve over rice or Chinese noodles with a green salad.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 30 mins |
| Servings: | 2 |
Ingredients
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup water
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 pound catfish fillets, cut in strips
- 1 ½ cups fine cornmeal
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay™
- 1 quart vegetable oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Mix buttermilk, water, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Pour mixture into a flat pan large enough to hold fillets. Arrange fillets in a single layer in the pan, turning to coat each side. Set aside to marinate.
- Combine cornmeal, flour, and seafood seasoning in a 2-gallon resealable plastic bag. Add fillets to the bag, a few at a time, and tumble gently until evenly coated.
- Heat oil in a deep fryer to 365 degrees F (185 degrees C).
- Fry fillets in hot oil until crisp and golden brown, about 3 minutes. Work in batches to avoid overcrowding, so fillets have room to brown properly. Drain on paper towels.
- The nutritional analysis for this recipe reflects an estimated 10% of the oil for frying as well as the full amount of the coating and breading. Therefore, the values represented may not be accurate.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 1427 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 132 g |
| Cholesterol | 145 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Protein | 46 g |
| Saturated Fat | 13 g |
| Sodium | 800 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 79 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Raw at 3 minutes. 8 to 10 minutes works better
I know everyone likes to write how they changed the recipe. I did not. It turned out great.
Delicious breading sticks great and super flavorful
Absolutely perfect. Without a doubt the best fried catfish I’ve ever had. Did it in a deep fryer using peanut oil. If the fish is room temperature 3 minutes is perfect.
It was very simple to make and I added additional spices
Not too bad, recommended that you let the fish set after breading them to avoid the breading falling off when frying.
This is really good. Easy to make and fries up so nicely. My husband goes crazy for this dish!
2 stars is being generous. I had a pound of catfish and it looked like there would be a LOT of cornmeal so I only used 1 cup. Still was a LOT. I usually follow the recipe exactly the first time. There really needs to b a lot more seasoning. 1 teaspoon of old bay for the large amounts of cornmeal and flour is not enough. Look for another recipe with more seasoning or doctor this one up!!
Good method, though recipe directions call for at least twice as much oil and four times as much breading as needed ( wastefuul). Crispy juicy fish, though. On the other hand, I doubled the spices and STILL needed hot sauce.
This recipe was the best and easy to understand. Very tasty.
Great recipe, I did alter the recipe as my husband cannot have dairy, so I used 2 cups almond milk (no water) and a tablespoon of Braggs vinegar. Loved it and cooked in an air fryer.
Very simple
It is great
The texture of this was beautiful, but for me it needs a lot more seasoning to make it 5-stars. I used at least twice as much seasoning as what was called for and it still needed more. I’m sure it varies a lot depending on the blend you go with, I used Tony Cachere creole blend which may be pretty subtle compared to others.
I used the recipe that was posted an it was perfectly delicious! Thanks you!!!
Had no taste. Wish I could give it five stars but it’s not good. Could be due to the ambiguous “salt and pepper to taste” instruction. Not sure how to do that with a seafood breading before cooking
Meh. Very thin batter and almost no taste (even though I added much more spices that the recipe called for). Not at all like the fried catfish that I had growing up in MO. Very disappointed.
Great!!! I grew up in the South and the “gritty” texture is supposed to be there! If you want just fried fish, well this isn’t it. This is how fried catfish is supposed to taste. I did add more Old Bays, a bit of garlic salt, and a generous helping of cayenne pepper (I like me some spice). I liked the buttermilk marinade, but I agree that there was way too much flour/cornmeal left over. I’d half that next time. That would help with not having to use so much more spice to liven it up. No issues with the breading falling off. Made sure my oil was hot enough and then didn’t turn my fish over until I saw the edges starting to brown. I cooked mine longer because I like my fried stuff super crunchy. Over all, good recipe!! Thanks for posting!
The only good thing about this recipe is the kitchen didn’t burn down. Batter didn’t hold whatsoever. Desperately needs egg to bind.
This is the first time I tried this recipe. It was delicious but next time I will add more old bay. Had no problem with coating, I press the mixture into the fish. Delicious. I love it’s mild flavor.
I also want to add that if you put the breaded fish in the fridge 20 minutes and don’t disturb it while it is frying for at least 4 minutes, the batter stays on.