My roots are straight up Mississippi so you know I was practically raised on fried fish and regular fish fries. When I first created this oven fried fish recipe, I was trying so hard to get all that Southern flavor with a crunchy flavorful crust but tender flaky inside. And trust me, I tested it over and over until I straight up nailed it without a pot of grease in sight. My fam absolutely adores this recipe so much that they request this as much as my OG fried catfish. Now that’s saying something.
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Video Tutorial
How to Make Oven Fried Fish
Step 1: Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper liberally sprayed with non-stick olive oil spray. In a brown bag or ziploc bag, add cornmeal, flour, salt, pepper, cayenne, lemon pepper, and paprika and shake together.
Step 2: In a deep pie plate or large shallow bowl, whisk together eggs and hot sauce.
Step 3: Add each fillet to the beaten eggs on both sides.
Step 4: Then add back into the cornmeal breading and shake liberally to coat well. Place the fillet on the coated baking sheet. Repeat with each fillet.
Step 5: Liberally spray the tops of each fillet with non-stick baking spray coating the fish well until completely covered in spray.
Step 6: Bake for 25-30 minutes depending on thickness of fillets until golden brown but still juicy in the inside. Remove fish and cool for 5 minutes before serving.
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Oven Fried Fish Recipe
Want to Save This Recipe, Boo?
I’ll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
Ingredients
- Non-stick olive oil spray
- 2/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2-2 teaspoons seasoned salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons hot sauce
- 1 pound catfish fillets or other fish like tilapia, flounder, and cod
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper liberally sprayed with non-stick oil spray. I usually use olive oil spray but any other neutral spray will work.
- In a brown bag or ziploc bag, add cornmeal, flour, salt, pepper, cayenne, lemon pepper, and paprika and shake together.
- In a deep pie plate or large shallow bowl, whisk together eggs and hot sauce.
- Add each fillet into beaten eggs on both sides, then add into the cornmeal breading and shake liberally to coat well. Place the fillet on the coated baking sheet. Repeat with each fillet.
- Liberally spray the tops of each fillet with non-stick baking spray coating the fish well until completely covered in spray. Bake for 25-30 minutes depending on thickness of fillets until golden brown but still juicy in the inside.
- Remove fish and cool for 5 minutes then serve with lemon and chopped parsley.
Video
Notes
To Store
To store any leftovers, allow it to cool completely and then place it in an airtight container lined with paper towels to absorb any excess moisture. Refrigerate for up to 2 days. When reheating, warm it in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 10 to 15 minutes to help recrisp the coating and ensure the fish heats through evenly. An air fryer also works really well. Avoid the microwave as it can make the fish soggy.Nutrition
Recipe Tips
- Go fresh: The smell will tell you a ton. If you smell a super fishy scent coming from your fish, it ain’t fresh boos. I sometimes will buy frozen and it works well.
- For more crunch: Double dredge. You can dip the fish in the cornmeal batter then into the egg then back into the batter for more crunch.
- Spray really well: And I’m really talking well. Coat every ounce of that fish so that it is oil sprayed and lacking any dry spots. The dry spots won’t get crisp and golden if you don’t.
- Remove from baking pan: After the fish cools a little, I remove the fish and serve pretty quickly because the bottoms can get soggy if they sit too long.
Serving Suggestions
- Fish Fry Faves: Sides like hush puppies or creamy coleslaw work well with this recipe.
- Chicago Style: We love our mix of fried fish with spaghetti boos. Baked spaghetti is also fantastic.
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This oven fried fish recipe is a game changer! The seasoning blend gave it such amazing flavor, and I loved how crispy it turned out without all the grease. Can’t wait to try more of your Southern recipes! Thank you for sharing!
I’ve tried different recipes and came across this one. Using parchment paper, and olive oil spray served up a delicious catfish filet that was golden brown and not greasy. Your proportions of seasonings were spot on. Thank you. I look forward to more recipes from your website.
So happy to hear that you enjoyed it!
This turned out amazing! Best oven fried recipe I’ve ever tasted. Would definitely do again. My only alterations: I used the New Orleans seasoned fish fry mix in lieu of the plain corn meal and only added some paprika and a tiny bit of lemon pepper seasoning to the eggs. I also used Canola oil nonstick spray instead of the olive oil spray.
So glad you liked it!
Love this recipe! I have made it at least a dozen times and it’s always so good. Made it again tonight and, once again, came out perfect and I even have some leftovers for tomorrow. Yea!
Thanks so much Diane!
Hello Jasmine, my wife and I are international hobby cooks.. We love foods and creating them in healthier versions. I see recipes that inspire me to recreate them more than my wife does.. A catfish and southern cuisine popped up while reading an article online and then I remembered oh yesss, lekker.. Reminds me of our last fried catfish in Florida years ago but its also similar to other fish fried “not catfish only” as you’ve mentioned, in Germany and The Netherlands both are oil fried. Yes, we live in Europe.. I’ve been baking items zucchini, eggplant and etc.. but with a crust, slowly getting better results, single and double dip versions all with less oil..Chicken is a no brainer but all types of fish in general can be tricky to bake with a crispy crunchy crust.. I’m going to do my twist on your version.. Then show my wife which is now taken the baton and learned to make fish without becoming shoe-soles or me standing over her shoulders.. :-)) With that said, thank you for sharing your recipe online, you’re getting 5 star simply because it’s BAKED and I have all my own ingredients added to our European herbs and my Caribbean/Southern US taste, :-)) it’ll be magical as usual.. Again, Thank You..
Thanks so much, doll!
This recipe was so easy and came out perfect! Makes it so easy to make catfish on a weeknight.
DELICIOUS! I used whole catfish fillets so it took approximately 35 minutes to cook, maybe even a little longer. The hot sauce adds a subtle heat to the catfish, which we enjoyed. The end results were glorious! The next day, the breading was still firm and the catfish tasted even better. All those delicious flavors set in!! My family loved it and I will definitely make this again and again!
Thanks so much, Boo!
Good recipe. Mine never turned out crunchy enough. This one works. Due to the long cooking time I thought the fish would be overcooked but it was perfect as was the crunch. Thanks
Fantastic! So happy it turned out well for you, Jean!
Truly, delicious and tastes deep fried but not greasy.
Since making this recipe, I have managed to bring back catfish to the kitchen. I rarely fry so this is amazing. I have even tried catfish nuggets. Thank you so much!