Fried catfish is a delicious quick to prepare main seafood dish. The seasoned cornmeal coating creates a golden crispy crust. Serve with your favorite Southern-inspired side dishes.
Dinner from the ocean is a real treat! Try more seafood meals like this The Best Lobster Tail Recipe, Garlic Butter Herb Scallops, or Cajun Garlic Butter Shrimp.
Pan Fried Catfish
If you’re looking for a quick and delicious fish dinner, fried catfish is a satisfying dish. The flakey white fish is perfect for pan-frying. The fillet is lightly coated with a cornmeal coating and fried until crispy. Plus, it only takes minutes to prepare and cook.
Serve with savory side dishes for a complete meal. When my family is craving southern comfort food, if I’m not making buttermilk fried chicken, this fish recipe is always a hit!
How to Fry Catfish
- Season the catfish fillets with salt and pepper.
- Combine cornmeal, flour, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne.
- Dredge the fish in the cornmeal coating.
- Heat vegetable in a cast iron skillet until it reaches 350ºF.
- Fry the fish in batches until golden brown on each side.
Preparing the Fish
Catfish comes in large fillets, about 6 to 8 ounces per piece. I like to cut them in half so that each piece cooks more evenly and faster. Once the fish is cut in half, I season with salt and pepper. The fish doesn’t need to be dried before. You want a little bit of moisture for the coating to stick to.
Making a Crunchy Coating
A light coating is added to the exterior of the fillets. I use a combination of yellow cornmeal and a small amount of flour to help it stick. The ground dried cornmeal adds the perfect amount of crunch to the fish without being overpowering. Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a little bit of spicy cayenne powder and a nice savory flavor. Make sure to completely dredge the surface for complete pieces.
How Long to Fry Catfish
Use a large skillet like cast iron or nonstick to fry the fish. Use a high smoke point oil like vegetable oil because you will be frying between 350 to 360ºF. You want to add just enough oil to come up to at least halfway up the fish’s sides, about 1-inch high. The moderate temperature will ensure that the fish cooks through, and the crust gets golden and crisp. It only takes about 3 to 4 minutes per side.
What to Serve with the Catfish
I like to serve lemon wedges, tartar sauce, and hot sauce with the fried fish. Collard greens, candied yams, cornbread, or mashed potatoes are excellent side dishes to add to make it a complete meal.
More Tasty Seafood Recipes
Sheet Pan Salmon & Green Vegetables With Herb Garlic Sauce
This healthy and nutritious sheet pan baked salmon with herb & garlic sauce and green vegetables is quick and easy and suitable for paleo, keto, whole30 and AIP diets.
Not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been obsessed with quick and easy sheet pan meals recently. You might have tried my chorizo, chicken and asparagus bake, this quick and easy baked spiced cod with Brussels sprouts, my mushroom with balsamic chicken and onions, or my Italian sheet pan baked eggs. Today, I’m giving you a nutritious, delicious, super food packed meal of baked salmon with zesty herb and garlic sauce and green vegetables.
This sheet pan meal ticks so many boxes: paleo, keto, AIP and Whole30 friendly, it’s a perfect meal for anyone doing a reset. It has loads of green veggies, it has omega-3s rich fish, it’s quick and easy, and most importantly, it’s full of flavour.
Cook’s notes
I am using salmon fillets because I love oily fish and my partner really likes this particular type of fish. You can use any other part of salmon, like salmon steaks which are cheaper, or any other fish that suits your budget and location.
You can also make this with prawns or chicken instead of fish. For prawns, start baking the vegetables earlier and add the prawns in the last 5 minutes as they don’t need much time to cook. For chicken, it’s the other way around. Slice the chicken fillets into thinner strips and bake for 5 minutes before adding the vegetables, then cook for 15 more minutes together, so a total of 20 minutes for thin strips of chicken.
Description
This healthy and nutritious sheet pan baked salmon with herb & garlic sauce and green vegetables is quick and easy and suitable for paleo, keto, whole30 and AIP diets.
For the sauce
For the rest
- Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F.
- Mix together the sauce in a small bowl and set aside.
- Grease a large sheet pan or flat-ish baking tray with about a tablespoon of olive oil and place the salmon fillets in the middle, leaving about an inch of space in between. Spread even amounts of the sauce over the top of each salmon fillet.
- Scatter the green vegetables around and in between the fillets, overlapping each other is fine. Drizzle the vegetables lightly with olive oil (about 2 tablespoons) and the juice of half of the remaining lemon. Sprinkle with a few pinches of sea salt and pepper.
- Place the tray in the oven for 15 minutes, rotating halfway if your oven is slightly uneven in temperature (like mine).
- Serve while hot with any additional vegetables, salads, or starchy carbs, if you needed.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 403
- Sugar: 4.4 g
- Sodium: 458.2 mg
- Fat: 22.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 14.8 g
- Fiber: 5.5 g
- Protein: 41.7 g
- Cholesterol: 82.9 mg
Keywords: Salmon, Sheet Pan, Dinner, Asparagus, Sprouts, Healthy, Gluten-Free, Low-Carb, Keto
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Nutrition Facts
Amount per serving
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- Total Fat N/A
- Saturated Fat N/A
- Cholesterol N/A
- Sodium N/A
- Total Carbohydrates N/A
- Protein N/A
Hi, I'm Alex!
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