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
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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. ÂNutrition
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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Made this tonight and it was a great! Thank you for sharing!
Hooray! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!!
My daughter shared this recipe with me. I cook catfish every week. Can’t wait to try this recipe. Will let you know how it turns out.
Yes let me know how it goes. I love this recipe!
Made this for lunch today. Great seasoning and flavor! The crust is just crunchy enough (although I prefer the true fried, crispy crunch, thiis is a great alternative.) Thanks for this recipe!
Thanks so much Nicole! I’m glad you enjoyed this!
I followed the recipe exactly as stated, and i was not successful in appearance or flavor maybe frying is a better choice.
Hi Michelle, I’m so sorry you had trouble with the recipe. So many people write to me via email or social media or even below in the comments talking about how good the recipe is and how delicious it turns out. Not quite sure what went wrong. Did you make any substitutions or changes at all?
This was an excellent recipe. Thanks for sharing…shoot I even made shrimp. Whew, that was a good neal. 🙂
Fantastic!!!! I have to try it with shrimp next!!
Pinned! I actually had the fish battered and ready to bake, but decided to deep fry anyway because I already had the oil in the pan. Well, it was fabulous deep fried!!! I used tilapia, excellent! I’m a Georgia boy & this was wonderful!!! Next time I’ll try the oven, maybe!!!
Fantastic! I am so glad you enjoyed it!
Can you use another fish other then catfish for this recipe????
Surely! Try different fish and see what works for you!
LOVED this recipe! I used sriracha as my hot sauce and subbed the salt for garlic salt. I can’t get enough of this fish, and it’s got a great crispness to it while still being tender and juicy inside. Thanks so much, sharing this with all my fellow fried fish aficionados!
Hooray that sounds absolutely wonderful Alexandra. I might need to try it with sriracha next time!!!
This was SO very good. I am not big on seafood, but I love fried fish. However, I don’t like the mess or the lingering smell that accompanies it. I saw your recipe a while back and just couldn’t believe from the pictures that this was done in the oven. I finally got around to making this last night and it was so good. I don’t think I’ll ever make my “fried” fish any other way. It was perfectly crispy, the fish was flaky and juicy and clean up afterward was a breeze. I switched up the spices in my cornmeal batter because, for me, Southern fried fish has to have Old Bay. It’s the reason everyone’s in LOVE with my Uncle Gino’s fish. Thank you for this recipe. Look forward to trying others!
Thank you so much Nique! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Honestly I haven’t fried catfish in years. This is the only way I make it now!