Description
This recipe for Crispy Beer Battered Fish delivers perfectly golden, crunchy, and light battered white fish fillets fried to perfection. The secret lies in the cold beer batter mixed with rice flour for extra crispiness. Serve alongside tartare sauce, lemon wedges, and crispy fries or baked wedges for a classic Western main course.
Ingredients
Scale
Fish
- 700 g white fish fillets (skinless, boneless, such as flathead, snapper, whiting, cod, tilapia)
Dusting
- ¼ cup rice flour
Crispy Fish Batter
- ¾ cup plain/all purpose flour
- ¼ cup rice flour
- 1¼ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup very cold beer (pale ale or lager, avoid dark beers)
Cooking Oil
- 4 – 5 cups peanut oil (or vegetable, canola, cottonseed oil)
Serving
- Tartare Sauce
- Lemon Wedges
- Homemade Crispy French fries or Baked Potato Wedges
Instructions
- Dry & Cut Fish: Pat the fish fillets dry using paper towels or a tea towel. Cut into batons approximately 7 x 3 cm or larger fillet pieces. For very thick fillets, cut horizontally in half to ensure even cooking.
- Prepare Dusting Bowl: Place ¼ cup rice flour into a shallow bowl for dusting the fish.
- Heat Oil: Heat 6 cm (2 to 3 inches) of peanut oil in a large heavy-based pot over medium-high heat until it reaches 190°C (375°F).
- Salt & Dust Fish: While the oil heats, sprinkle a pinch of salt on 3-4 pieces of fish, then coat them in rice flour. Shake off the excess flour. You may leave dusted fish for up to 10 minutes before frying.
- Make Cold Batter: Just before frying, whisk together the plain flour, rice flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the very cold beer, whisking until just combined with some lumps remaining. The batter should be thin enough to coat the back of a spoon; add beer 1 tsp at a time if too thick.
- Dredge Fish in Batter: Dunk each piece of fish into the batter, allowing excess to drip off briefly.
- Fry Fish: Carefully lower battered fish into the hot oil away from you, frying in batches without crowding. Fry for 3 minutes, flipping after about 2 minutes, until the batter is deep golden and crispy.
- Drain & Serve: Remove fish with a slotted spoon and let drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining fish. Serve immediately with tartare sauce, lemon wedges, and a leafy green salad with vinaigrette. Add crispy French fries or oven-baked potato wedges on the side.
Notes
- Keep the batter cold by refrigerating between batches to maintain crispiness.
- The recipe makes more batter than needed for 700 g fish; use batter accordingly to coat fish properly.
- Use white fish suitable for frying such as hoki, whiting, snapper, barramundi, cod, flathead, tilapia, hake, haddock, or ling. Avoid oily fish like salmon or thick meat fish like swordfish and tuna.
- Rice flour is essential for a crispy batter and to keep it crispy for 15+ minutes. Substitute with cornstarch or potato starch if unavailable for a less crispy result.
- Use very cold beer for best results; ice-cold soda water plus extra baking powder can substitute for non-alcoholic versions.
- Do not overmix the batter; lumps are fine and ensure a delicate crust.
- For large batch cooking, double fry fish: First fry 2½ minutes until light golden and crispy, drain, then fry again at 200°C (390°F) for 1 minute until deep golden and crispy.
- Oil can be strained and reused up to two more times for savory frying.
- Fried fish is best served immediately as reheating causes sogginess; batter should be made fresh for each batch.
- Nutrition is calculated conservatively allowing for a generous amount of absorbed oil; actual calories may be lower.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving (about 175 g fish with batter)
- Calories: 450 kcal
- Sugar: 1 g
- Sodium: 450 mg
- Fat: 25 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 20 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 35 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 30 g
- Cholesterol: 70 mg
