Crispy Fried Catfish

Ingredients

5 cups - All Purpose Flour

1 bottle - McCormick's Hot Shots

1 Tablespoon - Salt

1/2 cup - Creole Seasoning

Catfish (of course)

Bowl of Water

note* I usually make about 2.5 lbs. for 3 people and their is plenty of batter for another batch.

Preparations

I don't have a deep fryer so I just use a deep skillet on stove top. Pour about 1 1/2 inch of oil into the skillet and set heat to a medium high (on a 1-10 stove set to 7). While that is heating up, grab a big mixing bowl, pour in your flour, salt, creole, and about 3/4 of the bottle of Hot Shots and mix by hand until evenly distributed.

Cooking

You will know when the oil is hot enough when u toss in a pinch of flour and it starts to sizzle and cook. Now, I use a double dip method which gives you an extra crispy crust, but feel free to only batter the fish once. Dip the catfish in the water, then toss into the batter. Mix around until fish is completely covered, then quickly dunk into the water again and repeat the process. Once in the oil, the fish takes about 15 minutes to cook until golden brown (fish will be floating and barely sizzling).

note* Do not prep the fish in the batter while waiting for the previous batch and stay away from old oil. Letting the fish sit in the batter while waiting will cause the flour to soak up the water and make it soft even after cooking and old oil creates WAY too much smoke! Your best bet is to just wait out the previous batch before battering the next (the sooner you can get the fish from the batter to the oil, the crispier it will be.)

                                        

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