Follow our easy, step-by-step, photo illustrated instructions to learn how to fry delicious catfish in your own kitchen. Printable recipe included.
Whether you catch them yourself, or buy some farm raised, Catfish is a real Southern favorite. Lightly fried, served with Cole slaw, potatoes and hushpuppies, and you’ve got a real meal.
I was in my later years when I truly discovered a love for fishing. There were many weeks that I went fishing every day but Sunday. I never fished on Sundays. I don’t fault anyone that does, but Daddy never did, so I followed in his footsteps in that respect.
I fished some with my Dad and my family when I was a kid. My brother talks now about there were times when we didn’t have any type of meat to cook, so we’d go down to a nearby pond to “catch a mess of fish,” for supper. If we were lucky enough to find them biting that is. Smile.
While I truly love the taste of fried catfish, I never did like to catch them. Reeling them in when they took your bait was always fun because they put up a good fight. But, I just didn’t want to take them off my hook. Catfish can “sting” you if you handle them incorrectly.
So, when I caught one at the local lake I spent many afternoons at with my fishing buddies, I’d just ask anyone on The Pier if they would like to have my catfish. All they had to do was remove it from my line and it was theirs. Don’t judge me. I’ve heard too many stories about how painful a catfish sting can be. I didn’t want any part of it.
I much prefer getting my catfish filet’s from my local fish market. That works just fine for me, and that’s where the one’s I’m preparing today were sourced from.
I’m sure I’ll get some Comments about not using corn meal to bread my catfish with. It’s good that way too. But, my brother owned a seafood restaurant for several years and I was the kitchen manager for it when it first opened. We fried all our fish and seafood in what is known in my area as Calabash Style. That just means it’s lightly battered and lightly fried.
Just keeping it simple.
Ready to give our recipe a try? Alright then, let’s head on out to the kitchen, and… Let’s Get Cooking!
Southern Fried Catfish – You’ll need these ingredients.
You’ll also need some cooking oil for frying, but it just wasn’t up to having it’s photo made today. Smile.
Rinse fish under cold running water, then pat filets dry with paper towels. Next, sprinkle on a bit of salt.
Then sprinkle on a little bit of black pepper, according to your taste preference. You can probably see some small traces of the skin on this side of the filet.
FLIP the filet over and repeat the process of salt and pepper on the other side as well.
Place a cup or more of flour in a dish large enough to dredge the fish in.
And now is a good time to start heating up the oil. I like to use my cast iron skillet for this. I’ve added about one inch of canola cooking oil to the skillet and set the heat to Medium. The oil will need to heat up to about 350F degrees for frying. Just be careful, take your time, and all should go well.
When you can drop a pinch of flour into the oil and see it sizzle, it should be hot enough to fry the fish.
Lay the filet in the flour and coat both sides with flour.
You only want a light coating of the flour, but be sure to coat both sides well. Shake off any excess flour before placing the fish in the skillet.
Gently lower the fish filet into the hot oil. I like to start with the skin side up.
Just leave it alone and let it fry for about 3-4 minutes on this one side, until the bottom of the fish turns lightly brown.
Turn the filet over and brown the second side. You’ll also notice that the oil bubbles will slow down a bit when the fish is done.
Place the cooked filet on a piece of parchment after removing it from the skillet. I don’t like to use paper towels, but you can if you have them. We always placed cooked fish in a large pan that had a wire rack in it so the fish would stay crispy during the restaurant days.
Enjoy!
Serve it up hot with some homemade Cole slaw, maybe some fries or a baked potato, and with a few hushpuppies on the side. I’m hungry already, how about you?
