Battered Fish and Chips Recipe

Battered fish and chips (or if you’re reading from America fish and fries). We’ve all had great fish and chips, lightly battered, golden fried, succulently fresh and crunchy. It’s about as quintessentially kiwi as gumboots and L&P (which I don’t suggest frying).

But how do you get that same great, crispy texture at home? Well, you’re about to find out.

First of all, forget all that beer battered fish nonsense. This is the perfect crispy make-at-home fish batter recipe. And how do I know of this perfect batter for making such delicious crispy fish at home… ?

I’m going to let you in on 2 great secrets.

The first is my Mum’s secret fish batter recipe (thanks Mum!). The second is a tip for making chips I picked up from a chef while working in the kitchen at Vinnies in Raglan (many, *ahem* many moons ago). Vinnies was Raglan personified, laid back, beachie, rock up with sand on your feet, and enjoy hot wedgies and a beer. It’s long since changed hands, and changed with the times. But I have fond memorises of the place… And they made seriously, seriously, good fried chips.

The fish – It’s gotta be fresh!

Let’s start with the fish first.

It has to be fresh people. And that means getting down to your fish-mongers, or better still buying it straight from the wharf if you have that option where you live. There’s lots of places in New Zealand, and around the world, where you can do this. And it’s definitely worth your time buying direct from the source.

And, of course, it goes without saying, if you can catch your own fresh fish. Well, you’ve got the best product of all.

There’s just nothing fresher than fish just caught. Whether it be from your own boat, or direct from the fish-monger. And once you’ve had super-fresh, day-old fish, you’ll never look twice at those slightly greying, limp fillets at the supermarket again!

Now that you’ve found a great source for fresh fish, what sort of fish should you buy? In New Zealand, I recommend either gurnard, or small fillets of snapper, or trevally if you can get it. The larger fillets don’t shallow fry well at all.

In Australia it’s probably snapper or barramundi. These fillets are often quite large. So you might need to slice into 3 or 4 smaller pieces. You may even need to slice the fillet lengthwise through the middle to create 2 thinner fillets.

In the UK, it’ll be cod or halibut. Cod is really the perfect fish for battered fish and chips made-at-home. Just make sure you’re buying fresh, it makes all the difference.

There’s quite a few options for y’all over there in the United States. If Alaskan cod, or black cod, is available, that would be perfect. But any firm, white-fleshed fillet that’s smaller in size, or can be cut into smaller pieces should work fine.

The chips (or fries) – fluffy is best!

As for the chips, any good quality roasting potato will make a good chip. You want to look for something fluffy in texture and fairly uniform in size and shape. The more floury or fluffy the potato the better for crisping up!

So you want to look for something like:

• Agria in New Zealand
• Russet Burbank in Aus
• Maris Piper or King Edwards in the UK
• And in the US either the Russet Burbank, or maybe Yukon Golds

When you slice your Agria potatoes into 1cm strips, try to slice them as uniformly as you can.

The easiest way is to slice each potato lengthwise into 3-4 1cm thick pieces. Then slice each of these in half. This should more or less give you a chip that’s 1x1cm.

Note the tip in the recipe below about blanching the chips in boiling water. This is the great tip I got when I was working in the kitchen at Vinnies.

Blanching the chips in boiling water seals the outside of the potato, creating that perfect crunch.

And then you bake them on a crazy-high heat. And I mean hot, like 250c is a good start. That seems really hot, but you’ll open the oven a couple of times during roasting, which will let some heat out. If you try and bake your chips at 200c, like many recipes suggest, letting all that heat out will result in a limp, soggy chip.

And, that’s not good!

The batter – Mum’s secret is out!

And now for the super-secret fish batter tips.

It’s probably not all that secret actually. I’m sure my Mum would have gotten her batter recipe originally from a Women’s Weekly magazine or something!

But she’s very proud of her secret batter recipe. And it definitely makes an awesome fish batter.

Her first super-secret tip is to always use self-raising flour. This is what creates that light, puffy batter that crisps up to perfection in the hot oil.

Her second secret tip is to lightly dust the fillets in flour before dipping them into the batter. This helps the batter to stick, and creates a crispy skin between the fillet and the batter. This little pocket of air prevents the fish from being steamed too much inside the batter.

Roll on crispy-ness!

And Mum’s third top-tip, is to only fry 2 – 3 fillets at a time in your deep fryer. As soon as the cold batter hits that hot oil, the oil will cool down really quickly. If it stays too cool, for too long, because you filled up the fry pan with fish, the batter won’t crisp up and the fish will take too long to cook. This results in over-steamed, soggy fish.

And that’s not good!

To serve

Although this recipe makes a really light and crispy fish and chip, there’s still a lot of oil involved. You definitely want to serve this up with a really fresh summer salad to cleanse the palate a bit, or maybe mushy peas for that authentic chippie experience.

Don’t forget the classics: a squeeze of lemon and a splash of malt vinegar to really bring out the flavour of the fish.

Our favourite fresh salad is just a bed of crispy rocket leaves with sliced tomato, capsicum, radish and cucumber. That’s it. We might add a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. But sometimes we just squeeze over some of the lemon juice, and that’s it.

And to really get that Raglan vibe, wash down this summer Kiwi classic with a really light lager, like a Corona with a lemon slice, or a really citrusy Reisling.

Bliss!

Battered Fish and Chips Recipe

Print

Battered Fish and Chips Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 6

Author Ingrid Aronson

Ingredients

Fish

• 6 gurnard fillets
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• Canola oil for deep frying

Chips

• 8-10 large Agria potatoes (or any floury potato)
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp chicken salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 250c. 

2. Slice the potatoes lengthwise into 3-4 1cm thick slices. Then cut each slice into 2-3 1cm chips.

3. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the chips, and blanch in the boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain the water, then leave the chips to drain on a teatowel.

4. Lay them in a single layer on a large roasting tray. Drizzle liberally with olive oil, then sprinkle over chicken salt. Toss to coat.

5. Bake in the hot oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy. Turn the chips twice during cooking.

6. Add at least 5cm of canola oil to a high-sided, heavy saucepan, and heat on the stovetop on a high heat.

7. Lightly dust the fish fillets in a little flour to coat.

8. Add the self-raising flour and salt to a bowl. Mix the milk and water together, then gradually beat into the flour. Keep adding in the water/milk mixture until the batter is about piklet batter consistency.

9. Test how hot your oil is. Add a drop of batter and it should hit the oil and bubble instantly. If the oil begins to smoke, it's too hot, remove from the heat straight away.

10. Drag fillets through the batter to coat, then fry in the hot oil, 2-3 fillets at a time.

    Fry for around 2 minutes, then flip, and fry for another 2 minutes, or until golden and crispy.

11. Drain the fillets on each side on paper towels as you fry the rest. Pop them onto baking paper in a warming oven, if you have one.

Recipe Notes

Season the chips with more salt if required. Serve with lemon wedges, and a fresh summer salad of rocket leaves and raw veg. Don't forget the Tom Sauce!

For heaps more super-easy, family favourite recipes, check out our Dinner recipes section.