Thread: 2 questions regarding rookie frying crappie

375 for temp. Dry the fillets on a paper towel, dunk in the breading, shake off any excess. Then fry. One possible reason for the breading coming off is moisture on the fillets flashing to steam causing it to fall off

Beat 1-2 eggs and combine with milk. It helps the breading to bind to the fillets.

I prefer to combine either hot sauce or mustard with egg(s) before breading. Either way pat fillets on paper towels to remove moisture first

Chewy crappie are over cooked , we use one egg on our fillets beforehand and they hit the mix
Grease temp in the 375 range and when they float they are done .
My 2 cents

375, egg wash first, thin egg with lemon juice to make more of a wash. Dip in mix.
I’d guess 2’ per side or less depends on size of fish.


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All great corrections above to your fish frying. Certainly you are best served with a Dredge/Drudge approach. A science exists to frying. We let our fillets sit in a plastic container with a lid in the refrigerator with one corner of the lid intentionally left popped up to let air in. Water will continue to leak out of the fillets for at least 7 days. Every day I pour off the water while making coffee in the morning. The fish get sweeter as they age along with loosing water. We beat eggs till the white fully breaks down, the egg will run thru a fork without lumps, then I add a tablespoon of Zatarain's liquid Crab Boil and beat to mix. We remove the fish a little ahead of time to allow them to warm up a bit. Not to room temperature but well above 34-36 degrees. We add the fillets to the egg wash (Dredge) tossing then leaving soak for 10 minutes. From there they go into Zatarain's Seasoned Fish Fry w/Lemon (Drudge) letting them sit there for a couple more minutes then into 375 degrees peanut oil. So if you pay attention well to the bubbles around the fillet they are numerous, vigorously boiling around the fish making it hard to see the coating. After the fish is at the perfect point of cooked for it to stay crispy even when reheated you will see the bubbles clear, see the coating well, and there are much less bubbles in general. Cooking past that heads to chewy. This works on the smallest fillets up to chunky Catfish chunks because your reading the bubbles and they are telling you the level of water loss from steam, the steam cooks the fish not the grease. The grease heats the water in the fish causing it to expand 1500 times it's size, why it boils out. The trick is learning the right amount and size of the bubbles. practice makes perfect here. When I'm looking for the "Super Coat" like a trout fillet I plan to top with Crab Meat in a Cream Sauce I put the fillets in AP flour first, shaking off the excess and letting it work as a desiccant forming a glue so to speak. Then into the egg wash / fish fry coating. You end up with a heavier coating to support and hold the added Crab Meat/Sauce topping well.

Great info thanks