I hate standing over a pan of hot, popping grease to do traditional deep frying. But I do love me some fried fish. It’s a Southern tradition, fish fries. Wish my husband were as fond of fried fish as I am. 😦
Unlike every coating I’ve tried doing with flax meal, this recipe really came out crisp! Even the bottoms of the filets were crispy and browned nicely! This coating also works well with cut-up chicken. Best of all, this recipe is Atkins Induction friendly!
Though I mention tilapia and swai below, any mild fish will do for this recipe. If you don’t want to make up the homemade mayo for this, I have, in a hurry, just used sour cream to coat the fish and this cooks up just as well with sour cream! 🙂 Though I have not tried it yet, it has been reported by my blog readers that this fish, when leftover, reheats nicely in the microwave and STILL STAYS CRUNCHY! It of course, will reheat just fine in the oven, too. To be quite honest, I never have any leftover to test that out. We just LOVE fish done this way, and my husband even enjoys this one! 🙂
INGREDIENTS:
30 oz. tilapia or swai filets (six filets about 5 oz. each)
6 T. homemade mayo
3 oz. crushed plain pork rinds
½ tsp. Seafood Spice Blend
1 T. olive oil
DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 450º. Rub a metal baking sheet (preferably non-stick) with olive oil. DO NOT USE A GLASS/CERAMIC PAN OR SILICONE PAN LINER OR THESE WILL NOT BROWN PROPERLY. Been there; done that. Trust me on this one, use a metal pan.
Crush pork rinds and place in shallow bowl. Add spice blend and stir well. If you like things real spicy, you might want to increase the spice blend a bit or add more cayenne. Most important step here: Pat surfaces of fish dry with a paper towel. Then brush each fish filet on both sides with a tablespoon of mayonnaise. You want to be sure not to miss any spots. There doesn’t have to be a LOT of mayo, but the entire surface must be moistened with it for the coating to adhere. If you substitute a commercial mayo, you will have more difficulty getting good coverage, as it is so thick.
Holding the filets up (one at a time) by the tips, between your index finger and thumb in one hand, and with your other hand, spoon the coating over each filet on both sides to coat well. I find if you just dip them into a plate full of the coating, the first two get coated nicely and you run out of coating before all are coated! That’s ever so annoying! When all are coated, lay each filet onto your oiled pan. Place in hot 450º oven and bake for about 20 minutes total or until done and crispy on top. There’s actually no need to turn the filets over during cooking as the bottoms get even browner than the tops! For more even browning, you could turn them at the 10 minute mark if you wish.
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 servings, each contains:
364 cals, 22.9 g fat, 0.43 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 0.43 g NET CARBS, 41.4 g protein, 338 mg. sodium
Buttoni's Low-Carb Recipes 
I made it. Edges were crispy and fish still moist. I’d never used mayo as glue between breading and meat before. Will cook again. A+++
Welcome, J.B. I’m delighted your fish came out so well. I honestly don’t even dream wistfully about traditional fried fish anymore. This recipe just comes out so darn good every time I make it! My husband isn’t very fond of fish, but he NEVER backs away from THIS recipe. You may not have noticed over in my Veggies category, this same coating/oven-fried approach is used successfully on yellow squash slices, zucchini slices, okra, eggplant, onion rings, and even for chicken fried steak! It’s FANTASTIC on everything I’ve tried it on.
OMG! I have tried and failed at so many fish recipes, but this was fantastic! Thank you…now my husband won’t lament, “Fish tonight?” every time.
I’m so glad you guys like this Diane! It’s my favorite fried fish recipe now. I’ll never do mine conventionally with cornmeal again. 🙂
Hi Peggy; I adore your website and many of your recipes! I’ve been having some trouble with this one, though. The pork rind crumbs never really get crispy for me; they usually end up sort of soggy and gummy in texture when the fish comes out of the oven. I use commercial mayonnaise (Best Foods/Hellman’s) for the recipe, and I make sure to coat the fish evenly, but it just doesn’t seem to work as well as traditional high-carb coatings, or even flax meal, for me. Any suggestions?
Funny you mention flax coatings, because I’ve not had any luck with those and those coatings ALWAYS come out soggy for me.
Is your oven hot enough? The temperature stated in the recipe is essential. Also, be sure the fish filets have been patted dry of all moisture before brushing with the mayo. Using commercial mayo shouldn’t make any difference at all, but sealing the filets with it is also important, so no juices bleed out of the filet. Frozen filets would be more inclined to bleed out juice than fresh, of course. I’ve never EVER had this come out anything but super crisp, so I suspect either juice is bleeding out of your fish or your oven wasn’t hot enough.
I think my oven temperature is okay–it’s usually at least a few degrees above the set temperature. I do use frozen tilapia, though. That’s probably my issue. Why didn’t I think of that? =D
Do you think it’d help if I gave them a little pan-sear and then patted them dry before coating them?
Thanks so much for your help. =)
I don’t think searing them is necessary. I use frozen filets all the time and like I said, have never had the issue you described. Just pat them dry with paper towels before coating with the mayo. And be SURE the mayo covers every bit of the fish to seal it.
Just checking…..Pork “rind” is the same as English pork crackling huh?
So you get the dry crisp stuff and crush it down to breadcrumb sized pieces…..?
Thanks ….new cook. 🙂
One in the same thing, James. I would crush them until VERY fine. You don’t want to get any of those larger, “hard” bits on your fish and bite down on one. I’ve gotten some tiny bits in cracklings before that would crack a tooth!! 🙂 Hope you like this recipe. It’s our favorite way to have fish filets now. The secret is going to the trouble to make up a batch of the spice blend. There lies the magic of the recipe. 🙂
Hi, I’m for UK and not quite sure what your notation T. means, is the tablespoon or teaspoon (or something else altogether)?
Welcome to the site, Hirop! Sorry for that confusion. I forget folks across the pond aren’t so familiar with our abbreviations. 🙂
T. means Tablespoon
tsp. means Teaspoon
Using pork rinds for crusting is genious! Crusty with guarantee! I’ll have to try this soon 😀
Thank you very much!
Not my idea really. I got the idea for this recipe for fish from all the low-carb recipes for pork-rind coated chicken on the net. My husband and I think the Seafood Spice Blend is what takes away the pork rind flavor 100%. Without the spice, I think this coating wouldn’t be quite as good. Hope you like this when you try it!
I found this on the atkins forums and I tried it tonight. It was AMAZING!!!
I’m truly pleased with it, too. I never had much luck getting traditional cornmeal to stick to fish like this coating sticks to my fish now. And it tastes good, too! Best of both worlds and ever so easy! Glad you liked it too!
Came across this recipe on Chowstalker- very cool idea!
Well using pork rinds for the crunch isn’t really my idea, but using my Spice mix in the rinds IS. 🙂 Hope you like this when you try it.
Definitely gotta try this. It looks like regular breaded fish!
Tastes like regular breaded fish; texture is the same in your mouth, too! You’ll definitely like it! DO go to the trouble to make up the spice mix though, as that’s what make this ever so good!
these look great, I have some tilapia in the freezer, I just need the pork rinds 🙂
Let me know how you like these! Fried is still my all-time favorite way to eat fish, so we do this every other week or so. 🙂 This is good on pork chops and chicken, too! And eggplant slices as well!