Active Time
40 minutes
Total Time
40 minutes plus brining
While many Southern fried catfish recipes call for a buttermilk soak, this one follows a technique from Nashville icon Arnold’s. Here, you brine the fillets in a bath of salt water and hot pepper sauce, a vinegar-based condiment steeped with small whole chiles (if you don’t have it, your favorite vinegar-based hot sauce will do fine). To keep the flavoring in check, brine the fish for no longer than 3 hours and give it a quick rinse when done. Pat the fish dry before breading it with seasoned cornmeal to ensure a crunchy crust that adheres to the fillets.
If you’ve never fried fish before, make sure you’re fully set up before you get going. Wearing an apron and an old shirt with long sleeves is a good idea to protect yourself from splatters. Fill a cast-iron skillet with at least 1” of oil and attach a deep-fry thermometer (or use your instant-read thermometer to gauge the oil’s temperature as it fluctuates). We like to transfer the crispy fried catfish to a wire rack placed in a rimmed baking sheet to best preserve the cornmeal crust, but a bed of paper towels will work fine.
Serve with Southern side dishes like coleslaw from another Nashville legend, Hattie B’s, hush puppies, and collard greens, plus tartar sauce for dipping and lemon wedges for squeezing.
Ingredients
6 servings
3
3
6
1½
2
2½
1
1
½
Preparation
Step 1
Whisk 3 Tbsp. Diamond Crystal or 1 Tbsp. plus 1½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, 3 Tbsp. hot pepper sauce, and 2 cups hot water in a large bowl until salt dissolves. Add 6 cups cold water and place 6 (5–7 oz.) U.S.-farmed catfish fillets in brine; cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 3.
Step 2
Whisk 1½ cups cornmeal, 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour, 2½ tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, 1 tsp. garlic powder, ½ tsp. cayenne pepper, and remaining ¾ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt in a medium shallow dish. Attach deep-fry thermometer to the side of a 10” cast-iron skillet or other large heavy skillet. Add vegetable oil to come a little less than halfway up side of skillet. Heat oil over medium until thermometer reads 335°.
Step 3
Rinse catfish, discarding brine, and pat dry. Dredge a piece of fish in seasoned cornmeal mixture, shaking off excess. Working with 2 fillets at a time, fry catfish in hot oil, turning halfway through, until cornmeal breading is golden brown and crispy, 10–12 minutes per batch. Transfer fish to paper towels to drain.
Editor’s note: This recipe for pan-fried catfish was first printed in our February 2012 issue. Head this way for more easy fish recipes →