Fish and Chips Recipe
My 40-minute fish and chips is a crispy beer-battered plate of cod or walleye, dredged in a sparkling water and dark-beer batter and fried until golden. I love serving this with homemade tartar sauce, classic fries, lemon wedges, and malt vinegar.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of fresh cod or walleye cut into 4-ounce fillets
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 1 cup sparkling water
- 1 cup dark beer
- sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- oil for frying
- 1 tartar sauce recipe
- 1 fries recipe
- lemons and malt vinegar for garnish
- Oil for frying
Instructions
- Heat oil to 350°.
- Fish: In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch, sparkling water, beer, salt and pepper until it is completely combined.
- Chill in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes or until ready to use.
- Next, dredge the fish completely into the batter 1 to 2 at at a time and add it to a fryer, or pot with oil at 350° for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes or golden brown and cooked throughout.
- Once they are cooked, remove from the fryer and set on a plate lined with a paper towel or on a rack over a cookie sheet tray to drain any excess oil.
- Repeat until all of the fish is cooked
- Serve the fish with tartar sauce, fries, lemon wedges and malt vinegar.
Notes
As a chef with experience, I advise seasoning the batter itself hard, because I never salt or pepper the fish directly and every bit of seasoning on the finished plate has to come out of the bowl first. I taste the batter right off the whisk on the back of a spoon, and if it does not taste almost too seasoned in the bowl, I hit it again with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper and taste it a second time. If it is flat off the whisk, I'm telling you, no amount of malt vinegar or tartar sauce on the table is going to fix that fried fish on the back end.
Pat the fish bone-dry before the dredge: Any surface water on the fish repels the batter, and half of what should be a full crust slides off in the oil. I press each fillet firmly between 2 paper towels right before it hits the bowl.
Watch the oil temperature the whole cook, not just at the start: Cold batter and cold fish are going to drop a 350°F fryer by 30 to 40 degrees the second the first fillet goes in. I crank the burner up to compensate and dial the heat back once the oil is back at temperature. Holding 350°F through the whole fry is what keeps the crust crispy instead of soggy.
Dark beer is doing more than flavor, trust me on this. The malt in a dark beer deepens the color of the fried crust from pale gold to real amber brown, and the yeasty flavor cuts past the neutral canvas of a light lager. If a lager is what is in the fridge, it works, but a stout, porter, or brown ale is what takes the batter into an incredible fish-and-chips territory.
A pot with a thermometer beats no deep fryer: A heavy-bottomed pot with enough oil to fully submerge one fillet, a clip-on thermometer on the side, and a slotted spider or spider strainer is all this recipe needs. A deep fryer makes the temperature recovery easier but is not required.
Make-Ahead: I fry the fish up to 30 minutes before serving, then hold every piece on a rack over a sheet tray in a 225°F oven so the crust stays crispy while the rest of the plate finishes.
How to Store: I stack the leftover fish between layers of parchment paper in a sealed container and keep it in the fridge for up to 2 days. Any longer and the crust goes leathery.
How to Reheat: I set the fish on a rack over a sheet tray and bake at 350°F for 6 to 8 minutes, until the crust is hot and crispy again. A microwave reduces the crust to a wet washcloth in 20 seconds, so I never use one on this fish.
How to Freeze: I do not freeze fried fish. The crust that took all that oil-temperature control to get shattering-crispy goes spongy the second the plate thaws.
Nutrition
Calories: 151kcalCarbohydrates: 7gProtein: 21gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 49mgSodium: 65mgPotassium: 468mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 45IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 18mgIron: 1mg