Southern Fried Cat Fish – Classic Southern Fried Catfish dipped in buttermilk and breaded in spicy seasoned cornmeal and fried to perfection.
Fried cat fish conjures thoughts of finger-licking goodness and crispy crunch in every bite. When I bought these fish fillets at the market, my intention was to bake them with garlic and salt. But I couldn’t stop thinking about fried fish, buckets of fish with hush puppies dipped in tartar sauce…that did it for me – sometimes nothing can satisfy that desire but the real thing.
The baked version has been put on the back burner – for another day and time. So sorry healthy my healthy peeps.
Although not the healthiest choice, deep frying fish adds great flavor and wonderful crispiness to any fish. When it’s done right, it can’t be beat. This Southern Fried Cat Fish is one of my favorite ways of frying fish.
I remember living next to a local seafood restaurant and would try ordering everything, especially fried fish. Yep! I ate my way through the menu- from fried fish to calamaris.
Sadly, those days are long gone. Now, I have to balance out my meals. I’m not a young chick anymore. But I have to indulge occasionally. It’s pretty hard for me to completely give up a meal I really enjoy.
This recipe is made with very minimal ingredients, the Cat fish fillets are dipped in buttermilk and coated with a seasoned cornmeal – with granulated garlic, onion powder, cracked pepper, cayenne pepper and salt.
This is gluten free – no added flour. I find the cornmeal adds a gritty crunch to the fish. Which adds to it’s appeal.
If you don’t care too much for cat fish, then replace it with another white fish; tilapia or red snapper works just as well. Also you can cut in strips or bite size portions if desired.
Serve with it homemade tartar sauce here or store bought version.
Tips For Southern Fried Cat Fish
- For the best possible results, start by making sure that your fish is absolutely fresh. A fresh fish should smell like clean water. Do not buy fish that has fishy odor. Cooking won’t improve it. Speaking from experience here.
- IF it’s your first time frying fish you might want to cut the fish in smaller pieces or chunks. Strips. Whole fish fillet or large chunks can be somewhat daunting.
- Overcrowding your cast iron or deep- fryer will lower the oil’s temperature, which can result in soggy fish. So stick with a few pieces at a time.
- For crispier results, I most often use cast iron skillet or a dutch oven. They retain heat more.
- Before frying, the temperature should be around 375 degrees. This ensures that the batter reacts and creates a barrier between the oil and the food. If your oil’s temperature is too low, the food will soak up oil.
- Once you remove the fish out of the fryer, place them on a metal cooling rack above a sheet pan. It prevents it from getting soggy.
Watch How to Make It
Southern Fried Cat Fish- Classic Southern Fried Catfish dipped in buttermilk and breaded in spicy seasoned cornmeal and fried to perfection.
- 1 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1 Tablespoon Granulated garlic
- 1 Teaspoons onion powder
- 1/2 -1 teaspoons cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon white or black pepper
- 2 teaspoons salt adjust to taste
- 1 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 4 6-ounce catfish fillets (cut in small chunks)
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon finely diced onion
- 1/2-1 teaspoon mustard sauce
- 3 tablespoons hot pepper relish
- 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
- Dash hot sauce
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat a deep-fryer to 375 degrees F or In a large, sauce pan pour vegetable oil - half way .
- In a large bowl mix together, cornmeal,garlic , onion powder, cayenne, salt and pepper.
- If fish fillet too large cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Dip each strip in buttermilk and lightly deep into the remaining corn meal.
- Deep fry the fish in the fryer or saucepan a few pieces at a time, moving them around so they don't stick. Fry until brown and crispy, about 3 to 4 minutes or more depending on the size. These big chunks took about 6 minutes per side.
- Remove from the fryer with a slotted spoon place on a cookie rack to ensure crispness.. Repeat with the remaining fillets and season the fish with lemon juice. Serve with spicy tartar sauce
- In a serving bowl combine mayonnaise, garlic, hot pepper relish, onions, mustards,dash hot sauce ,salt and pepper .Cover with plastic wrap and let the flavors mellow in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving.
- For the best possible results, start by making sure that your fish is absolutely fresh. A fresh fish should smell like clean water. Do not buy fish that has fishy odor. Cooking won't improve it. Speaking from experience here.
- IF it’s your first time frying fish you might want to cut the fish in smaller pieces or chunks. Strips. Whole fish fillet or large chunks can be somewhat daunting.
- Overcrowding your cast iron or deep- fryer will lower the oil's temperature, which can result in soggy fish. So stick with a few pieces at a time.
- For Crispiest result, I most often use cast iron skillet or Dutch oven. They retain heat more.
- Before frying the temperature should be around 375 degrees it ensures that the batter reacts and creates a barrier between the oil and the food. If your oil's temperature it too low, the food will soak up oil.
- Once you remove the fish out of the fryer, place them on a metal cooling rack above a sheet pan. It prevents it from getting soggy.
I had this fried catfish tonight. It was so good. My grandfather had fried catfish and every Friday night. He made Ketchup, hush puppies, fries, and slaw with the filets. It was so good. I crave it a lot on Fridays.
Thank you for such a warm memory recipe.
Janet Willerson
Awwww.. the pleasure is mine too, Janet. I am so glad I was able to get you to walk down memory lane with this recipe. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Your tartar sauce recipe calls for mustard sauce. What exactly are you referring to? Yellow mustard or something else! Thanks!
It’s dijon mustard .
I’ve used this recipe on catfish several times and it is amazing for CRAPPIE too!!! The only thing with Crappie is the butter milk makes it fall apart, it’s very brittle. So I forgo the buttermilk and sprinkle Tabasco sauce on the fish before dredging in corn meal. It’ll change your life.
Turned out quite good. I’m finding that when AfricanBites turns up in my recipe search it’s usually worth checking out. Nicely done.
Awesome .Thanks so much!!!
I have one catfish recipe that I always use but its not a buttermilk fried fish. I ‘ve always wanted to try buttermilk when frying fish. I tried one recipe and it was terrible. Me and other ppl who commented agreed that fried fish needed seasonings. So I will not be making that recipe again
Now, I have come across your recipe. And it looks and sounds mighty tasty. So I will give it a go. TFS
Looking forward for you to try this. And would love to hear your thoughts on this. Enjoy!
i dont like butter milk so can i use egg instead?
Yes, you can. But there’ll be just a difference with the taste.
I grew up eating catfish, rainbow trout, smelt and salmon fried this way. Haven’t had fried fish in years. I will be frying up some lingcod soon, this made me hungry! With fried taters and onions, green beans and deviled eggs….Nilla Vanilla wafer banana pudding for dessert! Wash it down with ice tea!
Loved this recipe! I used it for snapper, oysters and shrimp. I added some lemon pepper to the mix and that gave it a nice little kick. I didn’t have a problem with the cornmeal coming off. It was PERFECT on my first try. Thank you!
Do I use yellow or white corn meal?
Either works just fine.
OOOHH Girl, I love the way you think! LOL. Got this ol country boy from Louisiana smacking his lips and dreaming of some tasty catfish!
Why does it say cook time is 58 minutes, but when reading the instructions it says 3-4 minutes per slice?
I have updated recipe. The cooking time varies – 3-6 minutes per side depending on the size of the fish. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Can this be used with any other kinds of fish.
Hello Gladys. Yes, you could use other kinds of fish, but the cooking time would vary depending on the kind of fish.
I would love to have them can you email them to me
What are your thoughts on marinating the fish in milk or 1/2 milk and 1/2 buttermilk overnight. Some people do ya know. Does this recipe contain a lot of Heat?
I was wondering the same thing!
You don’t marinate fish overnight, 30mins is okay for the fish to soak in the marinade (remember it’s fillet, it’ll easily soak in, I’m less than 10mins, and in that case, you might need a deep fryer to get the crisps on the outside, and transfer to your wok,on a low heat to cook on the inside). Nevertheless, you want it firm and crispy on the outside so you don’t want to marinate overnight, believe me. I hope this helps!
Agreed. If you buttermilk the fish for more than an hour or two, it will start to dissolve due to the acid and *at best* you’ll have unpleasant mush instead of fish. Chicken (for fried chicken) can go overnight, but not fish.
What kind of cornmeal is best to use when frying the catfish?
I use regular cornmeal , available in most supermarkets.
White Lily white version
Phil
Can I use self rising cornmeal? I use it for my cornbread, or doesnit have to be plain corn meal? I dont use cornmeal mix because it has flour in it.
Love your catfish recipe! It’s the best! Thanks so much!
Hi Mary,
Thank you so much ! So happy to hear it worked out well for you.
your fryed fish sounds exserlent i am not good at spelling but you sound like a good cook
Yummy recipe ImmaculateBites. As soon as i get myself a fillet knife i will cook it up. Really excited.
Amazing recipe. Thank you for sharing. I wanna try this recipe
Amazing recipe. Thanks for posting, I’ll never use another one.
Yaaay! Thank you so much!
My grandmother really loves fried catfish. I want to learn how to make it for her. It is good to know that I should coat the fish in cornmeal. I might want to ask a restaurant that makes fired catfish how to fry it well.
I’ve never tried to fry fish. Living in Mississippi, there are catfish restaurants all around. However, my husband was in Florida recently and caught a some fish he wanted to fry. This recipe was excellent, even though none of the fish were catfish. It’s in my recipe box now. Thanks!
Thank you for the kind words, Jeannie. This sure is a keeper. 🙂
I made this just now with Bob’s Red Mill gluten free corn meal and it came out perfect! I fried the fish in a cast iron skillet to use less oil and doubled the garlic, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. So crunchy and yummy!!
Yaay! Glad it turned out great for your, Hanna. Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback. 🙂
So I’m googling various fried fish recipes and I stumble upon this one, which is arguably the best I’ve seen. I click the about me page since, well, I must know who I am learning from, only to find out it is MY VERY OWN AUNTY IMMA! I love you so much aunty and I will definitely let you know how this recipe works out!
OMG! Khadijah? So happy to hear from you, my Sweet Niece. We need to talk. I hear graduation is coming up… SO EXCITED for you. Can’t believe you are going to be a College Graduate- Damn, am getting old!
You know, you can make fish tacos out of that fried catfish! Yum!
Yes , you sure can.
The hot pepper relish, is there a receipt for that? Or where do you buy it?
Check it out at Walmart. Or replace with pickled relish- readily available in most Supermarkets.
Totally giving this a try tonight for dinner with my Boyfriend! Fingers and toes crossed lol I’m hoping for a great outcome, I’ll certainly post back with my conclusion! Thank you so much for sharing this!
No worries you are going to NAIL it ! Can’t wait for your feedback. Happy Cooking !!!
Wow, that Cat fish recipe is really mouth watering, but i have one question that i have recently read somewhere online that cat fish can cause brain related illness, is it true?
Hi Melissa! Sorry to say am not an expert on that subject. So don’t have much advice here.
Fried catfish is unlikely to give you a pathogenic brain disease because to the temperatures involved (assuming cooked fully). However, catfish are bottom feeders, and if they’re living in a toxic environment, they can pick up and concentrate the toxins. So if, for example, the water the catfish are taken from is polluted with mercury or lead, you can get neurological impairment if you eat enough of them. Best to know where your food is coming from.
Hi
You recipes look awesome and delicious.
I would like to know how do you make the african
Fish & Chicken Curry.
Keep doing the good work.
Regards,
Praveen Ramachandran Nair
Bangalore- India
Thanks Praveen ! Have you check this other recipes here https://www.africanbites.com/slow-cooker-jamaican-curry-chicken/ and this here https://www.africanbites.com/curried-goat-stew/. Easily adaptable to suit fish and chicken.
Do I have to use milk could I just mix in the cornflower and fry it??
The corn meal would not adhere to the fish that much resulting in very little coating for the fish. If you must then cornflour would be slightly better.
I use half flor and half cornmeal . It adheres well and u can skip the mill. Very crispy!
Thanks for sharing, Dana!
We caught a 3 lb catfish last nite. Our first, my eight year old daughter reeled it in. We soaked it overnight in buttermilk and fried as above. Wonderful!!!
Three pound cat fish? Wow! That’s huge. That must have been some experience for your daughter. Pleased to hear it worked out well for you Marijeanne. Thanks for the feedback!
Your catfish looks delicious. I’ve been searching for a good cornmeal coated catfish so I gotta try this one. Should I use fine or coarse cornmeal? Than for your response.
Hi Taysha! I use the regular store brand – from walmart, or your local supermarket. Have tried different variety and they all do just fine.
Omg omg omg, the best fried fish ever. Ty for posting this recipe! By the way I cooked swai fish instead of catfish, it’s a cleaner tasting than catfish to me.
Wow! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it Jess, thanks for letting me know! Saw is a good alternative too!
All of your recipes are awesome!
Thanks for taking the time to let me know!
Imma, yours is one if the best and most enjoyable food blogs I’ve come across on the internet in a long, long time. I’ve become addicted to your recipes and ideas. I had some good friends from Jamaica and shared great times (meals, etc) together in Papua New Guinea years ago. You’ve sparked so many great memories for me. It’s going to be cruel if you stop uploading. Thanks so much.
Aww thank you so much! Michael, just made my day!!!! You’ve given me one more reason to keep it going even when my body tells me to take a break. Happy Cooking!
this look so yummy. It will feel to good to have them in my tummy 😀 5start from me ^^
Never had a cat fish, it looks yummy prepared your way!
Thanks Ryan!
I will try this recipe. Thanks Africanbites
Hi
Nice to see some one presenting something from Africa,keep yup good job.
Thanks mwebelha, let me know which recipes you make.