Ingredients
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch cayenne pepper
- 10 oz ¹ Light Colored² – Ale beer³
- 4 lbs white fish (We generally use Catfish or Perch. But Walleye and Cod are also a very common Wisconsin choice.)
- Peanut Oil (for frying. I highly recommend this. It can hold high temp and is much less expensive than others. If you have a peanut allergy use canola or avocado oil instead.)
Instructions
- Heat Oil Heat your oil to 400°F ⁴
- Prep Fish Rinse and pat dry⁵ your fish.⁶
- Dry ingredients for batter In a medium-sized bowl put all of your dry ingredients (flour, black pepper, salt, garlic and onion powder, baking powder, and cayenne pepper) in and whisk them all together.⁷
- add beer Poor in the beer of your choice (slowly), stirring it in as you go. Start with 1/4 of the bottle/can, and whisk. If it looks too thick slowly add more, whisk, and keep going until it’s where we want it. You’re looking for a thick pancake batter-like consistency.
- batter fish After that, you take your fish fillets and submerge the entire fish into the batter, let the excess drip off, and drop it into the oil. You can put as many fillets in as you want, but keep it to one floating layer of fish at a time. You will need to rotate them around until they are golden brown.
- remove excess oil Once they are golden, take them out and place them on a drying rack that is on. a baking sheet or paper towel to remove any excess oil.
- Finish Continue this process until all the fish is fried.
Equipment
Hotec Stainless Steel Kitchen Tongs Set of 2 – 9″ and 12″, Locking Metal Food Tongs Non-Slip Grip
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Mora Ceramics Large Mixing Bowls Set of 2 – 5.5 & 3.6 Qt – Earl Grey
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Presto 05466 Stainless Steel Dual Basket Pro Fry Immersion Element Deep Fryer
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Lodge L8DSK3 Cast Iron Deep Skillet, Pre-Seasoned, 10.25-inch
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¹ You might need more beer than 12oz. It does depend on how you measured the flour that day (it’s the downfall of using cups vs. weighing).
² Light Colored Ale is a MUST! If you use a darker-colored or strong-flavored beer such as a stout or IPA it will NOT taste good. The beer will get thrown off with the garlic. Unless you really like that competing flavor… then go for it!
³ I like New Glarus® Spotted Cow however, this is ONLY sold in Wisconsin. So another more accessible good one is Blue Moon®. Or course, if you have a favorite, use it!
⁴ It’s important that your oil is at 400ºF when you start or your fish will soak up all the oil and it will not be crispy.
⁵ If you do not want to go through the process of pat drying the fish, you can take a 1/4 cup of flour and dredge the fish before putting it in the batter. I don’t do this, but I’ve had a couple of people say the batter wouldn’t stick, only to find they did not dry the fish first. So if you don’t want to dry, dredge. If you skip both, the batter won’t stay on the fish, and I can’t really help that.
⁶ If you’re buying your fish and have really thick pieces, try cutting them a little smaller, or for something fun… cut them into 1-inch cubes. the Cubes cooked really quickly and my younger kids LOVED having the bite-sized pieces to eat vs. a larger piece.
⁷ You can mix all the dry ingredients, then store the mixture in an airtight container in your pantry for a quick and easy fish batter at any time. See all the details about this on my Wisconsin Supper Club Beer Batter Mix Blog Post.
Other things you can do with this Beer Batter
You can also use this beer batter for onion rings, shrimp, and even cheese curd. If you choose to do cheese curds, you need to freeze them for a couple of hours first. Check out Beer-Batter Fried Cheese Curds for the full recipe!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American, Wisconsin
Nutrition
- Calories: 366
- Sugar: 0.1
- Sodium: 530
- Fat: 5
- Saturated Fat: 2
- Carbohydrates: 22
- Fiber: 1
- Protein: 55
- Cholesterol: 130