Messed up frying fish .Doh!

[JeremyCampbell]

I don't usually do the frying I have someone else do that.Now I know why.So I had some walleye and attempted to fry it and the 2 filets fall apart into 30 little piece filets.I first dipped then in a seasoned bread crumb mixture and waited for the veg oil to get hot and put them in Then turned them little at a time and then they broke up.So what did I do wrong to make this happen?

[Rick G]

Oil too hot, little over done.

[pushbutton]

My thought too. 360ish best....not much higher than 375....try to immerse slowly. Walleyes are overrated ....lol.

[KEN W]

yup.....oil to hot.Did you use a thermometer to measure temp before you put them in?

[JeremyCampbell]

I didn't use thermometer.I just put a couple of drops of water in to hear it sizzle.Thanks never accured to me to use a thermometer.

[deets22]

Fry in an electric skillet with a temp dial helps alot

[pike79]

I fry my fish in a Presto Fry Daddy, wait for the oil to get hot and never gets too hot. Works great on small batches and almost foolproof.

[ozzie]

put your burner around a 4 on the dial, just shy of, and then only flip once if possible.

[charliepete]

I don't usually do the frying I have someone else do that.Now I know why.So I had some walleye and attempted to fry it and the 2 filets fall apart into 30 little piece filets.I first dipped then in a seasoned bread crumb mixture and waited for the veg oil to get hot and put them in Then turned them little at a time and then they broke up.So what did I do wrong to make this happen?

It doesn't sound like too hot of oil to me, it sound like you over managed the fish and started turning them too early. Get the oil to 375 (I use peanut oil because vegetable can't take the heat as well), put the filets in and wait for 4 minutes before flipping them. If they are breaking up as you turn them at 4 minutes let them sit a minute or two more before flipping. Instead of doing whole filets, chunk up the Walleye into smaller pieces. You can start out with frying up just one chunk so that way you get a little practice without wasting a whole filet.

[JeremyCampbell]

I was flipping them wild.I didn't let it fry enough.I just kept turning them like a teed off fry cook at a Mexican restaurant.I use to be a Forman of a painting crew and the Mexicans on my crew liked to eat on Friday and go to a Mexican place where the cook was in a bad mood sometimes and handed us a plate of sloppiness lol.That's what my fish looked like when it was done

[leech~~]

About 4-5 min's on one side, flip 4-5 mins on the other done! Sounds like you left them in the pan to long.

[eyeguy 54]

notin but flour is my wifes favorite way. old tick is to put a match in the oil. when it lights ,put the fish in. then turns it down a little. brown and eat.

[BLACKJACK]

Another trick is to add some butter to the oil, helps with the browning. Also give the fish some 'standing time', meaning brown one side, flip, brown second side, take out and put on plate with lots of paper towels, cover with another plate and let 'stand' there a few minutes, they will cook some more while they're piled on the plate, you don't have to over cook in the pan.

[SkunkedAgain]

a plate of sloppiness

That's a good line that I'll have to remember!

Good suggestions above. If you were willy nilly flipping the filet, that's likely the problem. Whole filets are especially hard to deal with, which is why most people cut into chunks. Plus with chunks you get more fried breading!

You can also mess with that breading recipe a bit more. One method is to do a dry dredge in flour, then the wet mix, then into the main breading. You can modify how liquidy the wet mix is - runny versus gooey. That can have an effect on how well the breading holds the filet together

[JeremyCampbell]

Well I did better frying some fish I caught today.As soon as I got home I cleaned the catch and used breadcrumbs,but this time I used a low temp and only turned them once.made a cool recipe for tartar sauce too.