Authentic British Fish and Chips Recipe

By : | 2 Comments | On : November 11, 2010 | Category : Restaurant Recipes

There’s only a few things associated with Great Britain more the wonderful taste of fish and chips.  It seems, everywhere you go in England you find numerous fish and chip shops or “chippers” or “chippy’s” as they’re called.  Most of the time your food is prepared to go and given to you wrapped up in the previous days newspaper.  It’s typically wrapped into a cone, filled with some “chips” or French fries and then topped with the wonderfully crisp fried cod.  On top of this is a dash of malt vinegar and then a generous sprinkling of salt.

They say you haven’t been to England until you’ve had an order of fish and chips from a local shop.  The whole idea started back in the late 1800’s with actual chips of potatoes fried along with the fish. Today, those chips look more like thick steak fries to us Americans.  The fish is almost always made with a nice cod fillet and dunked in a wonderful beer batter.  Some places will coat the fish in crumbs, but the traditionalists love the actually batter coating.  Now you can recreate these wonderful restaurant recipes at home.  Make sure you pick up a newspaper so you can serve them the way the Britts do.

Authentic British Fish and Chips Recipe
Print
Recipe type: Main, Side
Author:
Ingredients
  • 1 lb white cod fillet
  • 2 cups of flour
  • 1 egg
  • 5 oz milk
  • 5 oz of good amber beer that’s sat out and gone stale
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 5 medium sized Idaho potatoes
  • Enough oil to deep fry the fish and chips
  • Malt vinegar
Instructions
  1. Combine the salt and flour in a bowl
  2. Mix the egg and milk in a separate bowl, being careful to not mix too much
  3. Pour the egg and milk mixture into the bowl with the flour and salt and mix until you’ve introduced a good number of bubbles.
  4. Heat your oil (preferably in an electric skillet) to 375 degrees.
  5. Cut the fish fillets into 2-3” strips and try to remove any small bones.
  6. Once the oil is hot enough, you can pour the beer into the batter mix and stir to combine.
  7. Pick up the fish with a fork or tongs and completely coat each piece with batter before gently lowering it into the oil. Be careful to not add too much at one time. You risk having the oil overflow and you’ll cool the oil too much.
  8. Fry the fish until it reaches a nice light golden brown coloring.  You should turn the pieces only once while cooking.
  9. Remove the fish from the oil and let it drain on a paper towel.  Depending on how much fish you need to cook, you can keep your pieces hot and crispy in a 300 degree oven.
  10. Peel the potatoes and cut them lengthwise into ½” strips.
  11. Rinse the potatoes thoroughly to help remove the white starchy residue and then pat dry with a paper towel.
  12. Place the chips into the hot oil, being sure to avoid splattering or overflowing the fryer.
  13. If you have to cook the fries in batches, you can keep them warm and crisp in the oven along with the fish.
  14. Take a piece of newspaper and roll up diagonally to make a cone. Place a good amount of chips inside, and sprinkle with some salt.  Place a few pieces of fish on top and sprinkle with malt vinegar and salt to your liking.

Pour yourself a nice pint of good dark beer and enjoy your English tradition. It helps if you do this on an overcast and dreary day, as it helps lend to the authenticity of the moment. Cheers!

Share This Post!