I’m a big fan of battered fried fish. Add in some freshly fried French fries, a side of delicious tartar sauce, and give me a bottle of malt vinegar and I’m one happy guy. This copycat recipe of Captain D’s batter dipped fish checks all my boxes. Slightly crunchy. Tasty. Oh, and easy. Crazy easy. This is just like the great fish you can get at the restaurant. Oh me, just looking at the picture gets me hungry again!
Yummy Bites That Don’t Last
I cut my fish into bite-sized pieces. You can leave them whole, making this more like a fish-and-chips dish. Either way they’re great. One advantage to making them into smaller pieces is that you get more of that crunchy delicious batter.
Give Us Crunchies!
When that last piece of fish goes into the deep-fryer take a gander at the bowl of batter. Got more in there, eh? What ever shall we do with that??? I know! Make crunchies! Those little nuggets of greatness in your fish-and-chips! So drizzle a bit of that batter into the fryer and let them get golden brown. Drain well and add to your fish!
I use a little Fry Daddy when I cook my copycat recipe of Captain D’s batter dipped fish. It’s perfect for small pieces of fish and it heats the oil to the perfect temperature. But for larger pieces or when making dinner for more than just a few people, I use a Dutch oven or a bigger deep fryer.
I get out my big deep fryer when it’s time to fry a large batch of food. It comes to temperature quickly and it maintains that temperature perfectly. It has a built-in oil filter and storage unit so I can re-use the oil several times.
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No matter what you use to cook your fish, make sure that you don’t overcook it. The fish will dry out and not be good at all. Also make sure you get the oil temperature high enough. Low temperatures won’t cook the fish correctly. Low oil temperature will also saturate the fish with oil. That’s not good either.
Also try my copycat Long John Silver’s fish-and-chips!
Captain D’s Batter Dipped Fish (Copycat Recipe)
Equipment
Ingredients
- Vegetable oil or canola oil, for frying
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt plus more, for sprinkling
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 ½ cups water plus more, if needed
- 2 pounds cod fillets, cut into bite-sized chunks if desired
Instructions
- Heat 3" of oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 350 F.
- In a large bowl add the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt and cayenne. Whisk to combine.
- Slowly whisk in the water. You want a pancake-like batter. If it's too thick add a bit (a very small bit!) more water and whisk.
- Rinse and pat the fish dry. I prefer to cut mine into bite-sized pieces.
- Working in batches, add the fish to the batter and turn to coat completely. Transfer to the oil and deep fry 3-4 minutes, turning once, until golden brown. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. If desired, sprinkle the fish with salt.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional values are approximate.
