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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I am a New Orleans girl & love fried catfish no doubt!! But needing to lose weight having anything fried is out. Came across ur recipe, thought it looked good, sounded easy enough & figured why not. Loved it!! My whole family loved it. Thank u for sharing. Matter of fact its gonna be on my Valentines Day menu. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This recipe looks so good! I love fried catfish (I’m not southern either, but growing up in Oklahoma, I definitely picked up a taste for some southern-ish food). I’m absolutely trying this!!!
Hooray let me know how it turns out.
Question for you, can I do this recipe with BASA fish as well
I haven’t tried it with that yet but I suggest any flaky fish filet of your choice to try it with.
Fellow Mississippi girl here to. I was just tellng myself the other day that I needed to come up with a recipe for “baked, fried” catfish. Well, I ran across this and it looks perfect. Ill be going home to MS for a week to take my daughter to college and I am hosting dinner at a cottage in town. I am going try this which will turn some heads and turn up some noses because it’s not fried but I am certain they are going to like it.
This fish is delicious and spicy just like I like it. All the flavor and crisp without the mess. Keeper for sure.
I’ve never cooked fish in my life. My husband fishes and he will fry it up but I’m clueless. Can I use thawed out filets from the store (we have none on reserve) or do you suggest fresh fish?
Filets from the grocery store’s fish market area is best if you can do it.
Hi Jocelyn, I made this fish for New Year Eve, and It was great , I paired it with broil shrimp in chili sauce, rice and broccoli. My Hubby really enjoyed it. My catfish pieces were really large so what we didn’t eat that night we ate with grits the next morning. I will be making it again. Thank you,
Gosh that sounds absolutely amazing!!!!
I have made this 3 times since discovering the recipe. Love it! Tonight, on a whim, I decided to try and use this same recipe for onion rings. They were FABULOUS. Unfortunately, 25 min was almost too long in the oven for the rings – maybe if I made them a little bigger – they were 1/2 inch slices – they wouldn’t get too brown. Nonetheless, we loved the rings and from now on – it is this recipe for fish and onions.
OMG I must definitely try this for onion rings. I bet it is incredible!!!
This is the best fish recipe for the oven I’ve ever used! I’ve tried many that looked promising but turned out soggy. This one does not disappoint. My husband and I love it and it’s replaced how I cook fish at home.
Hooray Debra!!!! I’m so so glad you enjoyed it. It is certainly my fave recipe!
I made this tonight – didn’t have catfish so I used Pollock filets. My wife can’t take the heat so I left out the cayenne, lemon pepper (because I didn’t have any) and the hot sauce. They were absolutely delicious. I love my deep-fried fish and this is even better and will be the go-to recipe from now on. Can’t wait to try catfish. I love traveling the south and getting all that great fried catfish. Up here in the north, for some reason, they just can’t get it to taste the same. I read an earlier comment about adding Old Bay – I will try that, too. Wish I could give this recipe even more stars than 5!!
Jocelyn, could you substitute egg whites for one or both of the eggs? Thank you,
Ann
Sure thing! Let me know how it turns out.