Southern Style Oven Fried Catfish Food

CLASSIC FRIED CATFISH

Steps:

• Whisk together buttermilk and hot sauce.
• Place catfish in a single layer in a 13- x 9-inch baking dish; pour buttermilk mixture over fish. Cover and chill 8 hours, turning once.
• Combine cornmeal and next 6 ingredients in a shallow dish.
• Let fish stand at room temperature 10 minutes. Remove from buttermilk mixture, allowing excess to drip off. Dredge fish in cornmeal mixture, shaking off excess.
• Pour oil to depth of 2 inches into a large, deep cast-iron or heavy-duty skillet; heat to 360°F.
• Fry fish, in batches, 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack on a paper towel-lined jelly-roll pan. Keep warm in a 225°F oven until ready to serve.

SOUTHERN-STYLE OVEN-FRIED CATFISH

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease a 13x9 glass baking dish with the oil, and set aside.
• Rinse the catfish fillets, and pat dry. In a shallow bowl, combine the cornmeal, creole seasoning, paprika, sugar, and black pepper. Combine the eggs and hot sauce or water in a another bowl. Dip the fillets in the egg mixture, dredge in the cornmeal mixture, and arrange in the baking pan.
• Bake for 15 minutes, or until cooked through and golden brown. Turn once during cooking. Place catfish on a paper-towel lined plate, and serve immediately with additional hot sauce.

SOUTHERN FRIED CATFISH

Steps:

• Heat the peanut oil in a 5-quart Dutch oven over high heat until it reaches 350 degrees F on a deep-fry thermometer. Adjust the heat to maintain the temperature.
• Whisk the cornmeal and flour together in a shallow dish. Combine the seafood seasoning, kosher salt, paprika, and pepper in a small bowl. Season the catfish fillets evenly on both sides with the spice mixture. Pour the buttermilk into another shallow dish. Dip each fillet into the buttermilk, flip once to coat both sides, hold over the pan and allow the excess to drip off. Coat both sides of the fillets in the cornmeal mixture. Set the coated fillets on a cooling rack and let rest for 5 minutes.
• Gently add the fillets, 2 at a time, to the hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the fried fillets to a cooling rack set over a newspaper-lined half sheet pan. Repeat method with remaining fillets. Arrange the catfish on a serving platter and serve immediately.

SOUTHERN FRIED CATFISH

Steps:

• Combine buttermilk and beer in a nonreactive bowl.
• Add the catfish fillets and refrigerate for 2 hours, BUT NO LONGER.
• Combine cornmeal, all-purpose flour, rice flour, paprika, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and mix well.
• Drain fillets and toss them lightly in the breading mixture to coat them.
• Place the breaded fillets in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and don't let the fillets touch. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.
• On the stove, pour enough oil into a heavy skillet so that it is 2 inches deep and heat it so that it is 355 degrees F. on a frying thermometer.
• Carefully drop fillets in, 2 at a time and fry them for about 2 1/2 minutes on each side or until they are just golden.
• Remove the fillets with a slotted spoon and place them on paper towels to drain.
• Transfer the fillets to a platter and keep warm in the preheated oven until they are all fried.
• Work quickly so that they don't get overdone and serve immediately.

SOUTHERN FRIED CATFISH

Steps:

• In a small bowl, mix buttermilk, water, salt, and pepper. Pour mixture into a flat pan large enough to hold the fillets. Spread fish in one layer over bottom of pan, turning to coat each side, and set aside to marinate.
• In a 2 gallon resealable plastic bag, combine the cornmeal, flour, and seafood seasoning. Add fish to mixture, a few fillets at a time, and tumble gently to coat evenly.
• Heat oil in deep fryer to 365 degrees F (185 degrees C).
• Deep fry fillets until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Avoid overcrowding so fillets have room to brown properly. Fish should be slightly crisp outside, and moist and flaky inside. Drain on paper towels.

SOUTHERN FRIED CATFISH

Steps:

• Whisk together egg, milk, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Pulse saltines in a food processor until finely ground, then stir together with cayenne and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt in a shallow baking dish.
• Dip 1 catfish fillet into egg mixture, letting excess drip off, then dredge in saltines to coat and transfer to a wax-paper-lined tray. Coat remaining fillets in same manner.
• Preheat oven to 300°F.
• Heat oil in a 4- to 5-quart heavy pot (preferably cast-iron) over high heat until it registers 360°F on thermometer. Carefully lower 1 fillet into oil (temperature of oil will drop to 340°F), then fry until golden and just cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer fillet with a slotted spatula to a rack set over paper towels to drain briefly, then transfer to a shallow baking pan and keep hot in oven. Fry remaining fillets in same manner, returning oil to 360°F each time.

SOUTHERN FRIED CATFISH

Steps:

• wash and drain well fillets.
• season fillets with salt and pepper.
• mix eggs with lemon juice, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper.
• in a recatngluar type dish for dredging mix flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper.
• dip fillet in egg then flour making sure to get a really good coating on the fish, pat the flour in to get a good seal- if desired do it twice to get a heavy coating on.
• we use a long cast iron frying pan that covers two burners on the stove to fry but you can fry outside or in a deep fryer using peanut oil which withstands higher heats. heat your oil very hot.
• fry a few fillets at a tme until golden brown and let drain on paper towels or brown paper bags.
• serve with tartarsauce, lemon juice and hot sauce if sesired.