How To Panfry Crappie – Or Any Other Panfish

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Frying freshwater panfish is very easy to do and will give you one of the tastiest meals you will ever have. In this post, I'll show you how to panfry crappie - or any other panfish. And you can even cook this way for walleye, northern pike, trout, perch and many other inland species of fish.

Panfrying doesn't take much equipment or culinary skill. It also doesn't take very long so you don't have to spend all that much time in the kitchen.

The result will be a very tasty meal that you will be proud to serve to anyone.

Supplies Needed

Presto 06857 16-inch Electric Foldaway Skillet, Black
Shore Lunch Fish Breading /Batter Mix, Original Recipes, 3.5-pounds
Vegetable or canola oil
Salt
Pepper

Step by Step Instructions

First, heat up your frying pan with vegetable or canola oil... some even use peanut oil. You will want to put about 1/4" oil in the frying pan - but you can use more or less depending on personal preference.

We like to use an electric skillet - but a cast iron frying pan will also work.

Heat the oil to around 300 degrees - just good and hot and sizzling.

You can use beer or water to moisten the fish before you put the batter on them.

Coat the fish fillets with the Shore Lunch batter. Many people simply prefer just using flour or maybe flour with egg added. We have found the Shore Lunch Original Recipe to be very tasty, but not overly heavy.

By the way, Shore Lunch also has other flavors of batter - so feel free to try some of the others.

You may also salt and pepper either at this time - or after cooking - or both.

Now place the fillets in the pan and cook 3-5 minutes per side depending on the size and thickness of the fillets. They should become golden brown and will flake nicely indicating they are done.

Remove and let cool briefly.

Frying fish is relatively simple and most anyone can do it quite well. The benefit is being able to cook a really tasty meal of panfish. Crappie, bluegill and perch are some of the best tasting fish you can prepare with ease.

Using the right frying pan and the right ingredients is not hard to learn. Just follow our step by step recipe and you will do just fine.