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Beer Battered Fish (Fish and Chips)

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Guinness Battered Cod

Since I started food blogging I have not been eating out nearly as often. When I was eating out it was commonly at pubs and every once in a while I get a craving for pub food. One of my favorite things to order at a pub is fish and chips. Up until now I have not tried to make fish and chips at home as I was worried about deep frying. It had been too long since I last had fish and chips and I was craving it. It was time to try making fish and chips at home! I had seen the fish described as being beer battered on several menus and I wanted to try making beer battered fish. I went with cod for the fish but you could use pretty much any white fish such as haddock or halibut, etc. For the beer I went with Guinness and it gave the batter a nice dark colour. I was surprised by how easy the Guinness battered cod was to make! The batter was nice and light and crispy and the fish was moist and tender and so good! To complete the pub fish and chips experience, I served the fish with chips , cole slaw , tartar sauce , lemon slices, malt vinegar and of course a pint of Guinness.

Fish and Chips

Beer Battered Fish (Fish and Chips)

Beer Battered Fish (Fish and Chips)

Prep Time:15 minutes Cook Time:15 minutes Total Time:30 minutes Servings: 4
ingredients
  • 1 bottle beer
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 large egg (lightly beaten)
  • 1 pound cod fillets (or halibut, or haddock, etc., cut into serving sized pieces)
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • oil for frying
directions
  1. Mix the beer, flour, baking powder, salt and egg into a batter in a bowl.
  2. Season the fish with salt and pepper.
  3. Dredge the fish in the flour and shake off any excess.
  4. Dip the fish into the batter.
  5. Fry the fish in preheated 375F/190C oil until cooked, about 4-5 minutes.
Option: Serve with Chips (French Fries), Tartar Sauce, Cole Slaw, etc.
Similar Recipes:
Crispy Beer Battered Fish Sandwich
Fried Calamari
Cod Wrapped in Crispy Potatoes with a Dill and Caper Sauce
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lina says

    July 10, 2008 at 10:13 pm

    wow~ that looks just like the fish and chips I had in Scotland last month. youre pro. I want to try this at home too. it look so crispy!

    Reply

  2. magpie says

    July 10, 2008 at 11:03 pm

    This looks awesome. My vegetarian brother is visiting me so I think I’m going to make 2 versions of this – one with fish, and one with tofu!

    Reply

  4. Paula says

    July 10, 2008 at 11:10 pm

    I haven’t had beer battered fish in a long time; I miss it! I don’t have a deep fryer … do you think this could successfully be accompished frying in a skillet? As always, your food presentation is lovely.

    Reply

  8. Pam says

    July 10, 2008 at 11:58 pm

    I just had some fish and chips the other night at a local brew pub. Unfortunately, it was not good! I have got to learn to make my own at home.

    Reply

  13. Manggy says

    July 11, 2008 at 1:06 am

    Arh, I’ve been aching for true-blue fish fillets for some time now! You’re right to go with the beer batter– absolutely the best way to do it. And lovely close-up pic too!

    Reply

  14. Mrs Ergül says

    July 11, 2008 at 1:17 am

    I love being able to replicate food from eating out at home! Fish & chips is almost the thing I always order at cafes! Yours look great with fries and coleslaw!

    Reply

  28. tigerfish says

    July 11, 2008 at 3:11 am

    You don’t eat out as often? I thought you eat in everyday since you have something up your cooking sleeves almost every day. Where ever did you get the time to cook something new everyday?

    I love love love fish and chips. This is definitely not enough for me. I need 2-3 pieces of that beer battered fish!

    Reply

  31. Bridgett says

    July 11, 2008 at 4:10 am

    I love a good fish and chips. Yours looks perfectly crunchy with a nice sized piece of fish. Sometimes you get barely any fish in all that batter, but yours looks spot on!

    Reply

  32. Kelly Grace says

    July 11, 2008 at 5:14 am

    I am new to your blog today, and have to tell you how impressed I am. You are fantastic! I have sat here tonight and looked through nearly all of your recipes (pathetic I know) and am so excited to have found you! Thank you for sharing your amazing talent!

    Reply

  34. Clumbsy Cookie says

    July 11, 2008 at 7:55 am

    Your batter looks perfectly crisp! Fish and chips allways remind me of UK, they have that almost everyday for lunch, but I must say you’re lokks much better than most of theirs, lol!

    Reply

  39. Helen says

    July 11, 2008 at 12:11 pm

    Oh this is fantastic! A classic British meal. I love beer in the batter, which look sreally crispy by the way. Tartare sauce is one of my fave condiments too.

    Reply

  47. Cara says

    July 11, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    Yum! I love fish and chips! I made it for the first time a few months ago, and I was also surprised at how easily it came together. How did you make your “chips”?

    Reply

  48. Jeena says

    July 11, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    Perfect fish and chips recipe Kevin it looks delicious. I bet the beer gave it a great taste, it looks just like from the chippy. 🙂

    Reply

  49. Dragon says

    July 11, 2008 at 3:45 pm

    The last time I had fish and chips I was sick for 4 days. We think the restaurant was using very old oil to fry the fish. This was a couple of years ago and I’m still squeemish about trying it again.

    You do make it look good though. This is quickly becoming one of my favourite sites to visit each day. 🙂

    Reply

  53. Deborah says

    July 11, 2008 at 5:25 pm

    I love fish and chips! I’ve been craving it lately, too, but there’s no where around here to buy decent fish and chips. I guess I’ll have to make it myself!

    Reply

  57. Dawn says

    July 11, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    I just bought a good amount of cod from Whole Foods the other day and was hoping to make fish & chips. Does the beer really help to make it better? Bobby Flay has a really good recipe for fish & chips with a habenero tartar sauce (he puts hots in almost everything).
    Your fish & chips look so crispy. I can’t wait to try this Kevin.

    Reply

  66. Mick says

    July 13, 2008 at 3:26 am

    Kevin

    As an Englishman marooned in Oklahoma I must say that your fish and chips look absolutely delightful. You’ve inspired me to talk my wife into buying a small deep freeze so we can purchase and store better seafood than is obtainable locally. This would enable us to enjoy tasty seafood such as shown here.

    Thanks
    Mick

    Reply

  68. DocChuck says

    July 13, 2008 at 5:06 pm

    WOW! The last Fish & Chips that I had that looked that good was in Tobermory, Scotland.

    And you did it in what you call a “closet kitchen”???

    Great job.

    Reply

  70. melissa says

    July 13, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    I’ve done the beer battered to make fish tacos. I was surprised how easy it was to make them well too. Good fried fish is just awesome.

    I was hunting around for dinner ideas for this week. May take this one. 🙂

    Reply

  79. Anonymous says

    September 1, 2008 at 10:25 pm

    Dear Kevin,

    I just came across your simple, but fabulous recipe for fish and chips. I am so glad I found your site. I intend to cook up many of your recipies.

    The Yard of the Week featured in last week’s Mt. Vernon, Illinois Register-News is almost my Aunt ßetty’s house in Florida. I got to stay with Aunt ßetty for a couple weeks when I was a kid of about nine years old. I remember Uncle Bob and I made a crystal radio set. Oh, it was so fun. And Aunt ßetty cut up an avocado for me to eat, it was good but I thought it smelled strange. I’d give anything to smell it now, as I lost my sense of smell about four years ago due to my allergies. And despite having sinus surgery earlier this year, alas, my smell is still gone. Oh, and those special, special Tupperware containers Aunt ßetty kept her cereal in.

    I used to catch those little lizards in Aunt ßetty’s yard. Oh, I’d pop them right in my mouth and bite their juicy and crunchy little heads off. And then their little headless bodies would do that little devil-dance for a minute or two.

    Anyway, Aunt ßetty’s house was the same kind of sea-green color. And to make a long story short, the Yard of the Week is right down there near the end of my street, Airport Road! Last year I could have nominated my own house for House of the Week, but that da-gummed Ameren went and killed our pretty pine tree.

    You know, the irony of where I live will astound you. I am sandwiched in-between teacher neighbors. To the east, we have my Niece and Nephew’s kindergarten teacher at Belle Rive. To the west is my own Kindergarten teacher’s from Belle-Rive house, who sadly passed away a couple years ago. Her grandson lives there now. He and I occasionally drink some beer and talk (argue at times) politics. He is a right-of-center Republican and I am a left-of-center Democrat.

    I sure wish Uncle Bob was still around. I accidentally dropped and broke one of his magnets one time and instead of scolding me, Uncle Bob explained to me the electro-magnetic force. He passed away back in the early eighties. I wish him and I could get together and talk scientific stuff. I am named after him, after all. I’d love to talk with him about Super-Symmetric String Theory. I’d love for him to see the brand spankin’ new Large Hadron Collider that is about ready to go online. Poor old Uncle Bob, I sure do miss him. Remember the Mr. Wizard science show for kids? Going to his house was like going to see Mr. Wizard live in person. He even looked like Mr. Wizard.

    It is time for me to make a pilgrimage to Clearwater, Florida. I want to be down there at Uncle Bob’s grave on September 10th, the day the Large Hadron Collider at CERN officially goes online, so I can just sit near his- one of my greatest mentors- grave and tell him that one of Humankind’s greatest scientific instruments has finally gone online.

    Reply

  83. Dennis says

    March 25, 2009 at 9:57 am

    I like cooking and I live in Japan, so you can imagine the problems I have with getting real western food. I usually surf the net looking for recipes that have a taste of home. I’m from the US, but I love fish and chips as does my family.　When we decided to make fish and chips I googled for a recipe and your came up and I chose yours. I was very good.
    The only thing I would like to is that you recipe makes quite a bit of batter. For a family of three half would be fine.
    Again good recipe!
    Dennis

    Reply

  85. Anonymous says

    June 14, 2009 at 11:49 pm

    Maple salmon yesterday, beer battered fish today… Your blog is fast becoming an influence on our cooking here…

    I'm sure to try some other stuff

    Reply

  86. Samitestar says

    April 18, 2010 at 8:24 pm

    I made this fish last night. The batter was light, flavorful and not too thick, just what I was hoping for. I didn't have Guinness and I think the batter would have been better with the darker beer. But it was still delish. I was worried about not having enough batter, my piece of cod was 1.69lbs, so I did a batch and a half and ended up with a lot of leftover batter and nothing fun to fry (I want to try frying a Mars Bar next time). Thanks for the wonderful and easy to follow recipe!

    Reply

  88. Anonymous says

    January 25, 2011 at 6:47 am

    I really like your blog and the recipes I have tried so far are great.

    However it would be nice to see some recipes that use fish that are sustainable such as pollock, pouting or one of the many other under used fish species. Cod and Haddock are massively over fished and we should all seek to guard them for future generations.

    Reply

  89. Terri-Lynn says

    February 20, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    Well…I made it, ate it, loved it. And now I'm going to retire my deep fryer for another 6 years (no joke)…thanks for another winner.

    Reply

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