I breaded and froze some perch fillets. Now I want to bake them. Should I thaw them out first, or can I just put them in the oven frozen? Not sure how they will turn out.
Recipies & Cooking
Cooking Frozen Fish
As Bugle said, good oil and proper temperature are important in quality deep fried fish. The breading used and method of breading the fillet are of equal importance. Paper towel dry the fillets, dip in a light egg/milk wash and coat in the breading. Any flour based breading will coat heavy and thus soak up oil and not crisp up well. I use a combination of Shore Lunch Cornmeal, Golden Dipt general purpose breading and cornmeal in equal proportions for breading fish. Maintain 350 degrees for your oil, don’t overload the cooker and then lose too much oil temp to effectively fry and get good results. A thermometer is a must for checking oil temp.
I would bake them from a frozen state. In not once they begin to thaw the breading will absorb moisture from the fillet. I would place them on a wire rack to allow heat and air to pass around them to quickly draw the moisture away and prevent a soggy spot if the fillet were to lay flat on a baking sheet. How edible they will be was likely determined by how dry the fillet was when it was breaded along with how fast they froze. Freezing slow would of allowed the breading to pull moisture from the fillet and then not crisp up well when baking. Deep frying would take away the moisture quicker than baking and give a crispier fillet.