Crispy Oven Fried Fish

So much better than store-bought: This Crispy Oven Fried Fish gets super crunchy and will be a new favorite for kids and adults alike.

It is basically baked breaded fish, but I always have a few tricks up my sleeve to make anything oven fried extraordinarily good. My homemade breaded fish blows frozen fish sticks out of the water by far!

Baked breaded fish

Is it any secret that I’m obsessed with all things oven fried? And breaded fish might just be my favorite oven fried recipe.

• My foolproof breading method ensures a crispy, batter-like coating without making a fuss. It’s quick and easy!
• The fish comes out flaky and juicy on the inside, with a super-crispy coating on the outside.
• It is perfect served with French fries and tartar sauce as a healthier, homemade fish and chips!

Ingredients you’ll need

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

Ingredient notes

• Fish: I prefer skinless cod for this recipe, because the fillets are quite thick and firm. Tilapia will also work, though the fillets tend to be much thinner and will cook faster, but they also come out a little less juicy.
• Cornmeal: I use this to make the coating a little crisper. But if you don’t have any cornmeal on hand, you can just use more breadcrumbs instead.
• Breadcrumbs: If you’re using Panko in place of the breadcrumbs, I highly recommend dredging the fish in just seasoned flour first (vs dredging it in the mix of all dry breading ingredients). This will ensure the breading comes out right.
• Seasoning: Old Bay Seasoning can be used in place of the single spices the recipe calls for. I would go for 1 tablespoon, but use more or less according to your taste.
• Fat: Even though this is not deep fried, you do need some fat to get the breading to cook and the fish to crisp up. I like using butter for the taste, but you can also use vegetable oil or, for a very lean version, cooking spray. The cooking spray tends to be not quite enough to catch all of the dry flour, so I recommend using a little bit of oil to brush on any dry patches around 5 minutes before the baking time is up.

How to make Oven Fried Fish

1. Start by preheating the oven to 430°F. Place a dark-colored sheet pan in the oven to heat up.

2. Get your breading ingredients ready: Combine the dry ingredients in a shallow dish and beat the eggs in a bowl. Cut the fish into 8-10 equal pieces and lightly season with salt/pepper.

• 

• 

3. To bread the fish, toss the pieces carefully in the dry mixture first, to create a thin coating. Shake off any excess.

Then, dredge each piece through the beaten eggs, and finally thickly bread with the dry breading mix.

• 

• 

• 

Note: How to get the breading to stick

For the breading to stick, it’s important to follow the breading method closely (thin coating of dry ingredients, dredge through egg, thick coating of dry ingredients).

For the thick coating of the dry ingredients, I recommend the following procedure to make the breading stick well to the fish:

• 

• 

• Always use the same spoon to remove the egg washed fish from the bowl with the egg and drop it into the bowl with the dry ingredients without touching the flour (this spoon remains your “wet spoon” and you want to keep it away from the dry ingredients, otherwise things get messy).
• Once you have dropped the fish piece into the dish with the dry breading mix, use a different spoon or small measuring cup to scoop dry breading on top of the fish fillet piece (this is your dry spoon, keep it away from the egg wash).
• Use the measuring cup or the back of the spoon to pound the breading onto the fish. Pounding/pressing on the breading will slightly flatten out the fish, but it also helps to make the breading stick very well.
• Turn the fish over, scoop on more dry breading mix and pound again.

For a super-thick coating, repeat the egg wash and breading once more. This is not necessary, but if you want to have a very thick layer of “batter” on your fish, you can double up on the breading.

4. Melt butter on your preheated pan (or grease it with a generous amount of vegetable oil; OR spray your fish pieces generously with cooking spray on both sides).

Place the fish pieces on the pan (make sure there is enough space between all pieces, do not stack them!). Bake for 10 minutes, flip (add more fat as needed) and finish baking for 5-10 minutes.

You can finish it under the broiler for 1-2 minutes for a super crispy finish.

Recipe tips

To cook the perfect battered fish in the oven, there are a few things you HAVE to do (yes, HAVE TO. Nothing is optional in this recipe 😉):

Bread the fish correctly

The trick to getting batter to stick to fish for oven frying is pretty simple. It’s all about dipping the fillet pieces in the right ingredients in the right order:

• First, into a mix of breadcrumbs, flour, cornmeal, seasoning and baking powder (the baking powder helps the batter to rise a little, so the moisture from the fish makes it less soggy) for a thin coating.
• Then into beaten egg.
• And finally thickly coat with the breadcrumb mix again. So simple!

Bake the fish correctly

• do NOT line the pan

• use a DARK pan (I will often use a roaster like this one so I get less splattering in the oven – this is an affiliate link and I will make a commission for purchases made after clicking through)

• preheat the pan in the oven until it’s sizzling hot

• don’t skimp on the butter

• finish under the broiler (but don’t burn the fish!)

• let the fish rest for 3-4 minutes after baking, but not for much longer

Serving ideas

We love this so many different ways!

• in a sandwich bun with coleslaw
• with French fries or mashed potatoes, peas and homemade tartar sauce
• with rice and a big salad
• other delicious vegetable sides: creamed corn, creamed spinach or roasted asparagus

PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.

Recipe first published on 03/08/2019. Updated with new photos and text on 04/02/2021.

More easy fish recipes

More oven fried recipes

• Crispy Oven Fried Chicken
• Garlic Parmesan Oven Fried Chicken
• Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken
• Homemade Baked Chicken Nuggets
• Oven Fried Shrimp Tacos