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.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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Trying this tonight!!! Can’t wait to see my husband and mother’s face when I tell them it’s baked!
Hooray I hope you enjoyed it Marita!
CANNOT believe this is baked! Looks so crispy!
Yes girl! It is like magic!
I made this for my wife and I tonight – WONDERFUL! Crispy, flavorful, it had it all. Thank you for putting this recipe out there. I love fried fish and love the fact that this “fried” fish is not fried. Nice heat too! The only downside was that I forgot to grab a darned lemon!
Oh fantastic! I’m so so glad you enjoyed it! It is a fave in my house as well!
The breading looks like perfection. Can’t wait to try this!
Thank you so much doll!
I love this!!! You’ve become my new fav cook to refer from!! Thanks girl!
Absolutely and thank you for the sweet message! I hope you enjoy!
I looked all over this post searching for the nutritional data, and didn’t find it. It seems to me if you are going to post “healthier” recipes then you should have shown the comparison between fried vs unfried. I came to your site to view the recipe posted because it was baked, We are trying to switch our eating habits over to a healthy diet because the love of my life is seriously overweight and I am afraid he will have a heart attack. I’m sure there are other women who have the same fears. So please consider adding the comparison and nutritional data. Btw, I’m originally a Texan so I grew up eating southern foods, and from what I have seen of your site I will bookmark it and use more recipes.
I agree that the nutrition data should be there. Thanks for the feedback. I have updated my website and now most if not all my recipes now have nutrition data including the spicy oven fried catfish.
I tried this recipe tonight and it did not turn out well. The batter had a weird texture and you couldn’t taste to much of the seasoning.
Got me a batch in the oven, smelling great, I’m thankful I found this. I just made a half batch considering its just me, got to fix the picky one steak on the grill. Fixing fries in a cast iron skillet with cheese and jalapenos on one side.
Sounds delicious!