Saturday, April 7, 2012

Fried Catfish Sandwich and Potato Salad

Laura and I went fishing today but didn't catch anything.  We blame the snow two days ago which drove the fish deep.  After our failure, we decided to go fishing at the super market.  One thing lead to another, and we ended up buying a catfish fillet and some chicken.  I would have passed on the chicken, but Laura doesn't eat fish.

Our great creation were fried catfish/chicken sandwiches with coleslaw and potato salad on the side.



The top is the chicken and the bottom is the catfish.  They were amazing.  Laura doesn't really like cole slaw, but she gobbled down her fried chicken sandwich.

Laura's Homemade Potato Salad
It's basically one of the greatest things on Earth.  We should give the credit to her mother who probably created the recipe originally.  It's a mustard based potato salad that doesn't taste much of the lovely yellow stuff.  I listed it first because you really should start it first.  
  1. Cook, then skin several potatoes.
  2. Dice the potatoes to your desired chunk size.
  3. Hard boil a few eggs.
  4. Chop up some pickles.
  5. Mix together potatoes, eggs, and pickles with mayonnaise, mustard, salt, ground pepper, and paprika.
Fried Catfish/Chicken
This is a really easy way to fry fish or chicken.  In the picture below, the catfish is on the left and chicken on the right.


  1. You start by filleting your catfish and chicken breasts to manageable pieces.  You want them to be thin and able to fit inside a sandwich bun.
  2. Start your oven at 350 degrees.
  3. Start a shallow pan of oil on the stove.  We used veggie oil.  You don't want the oil very hot.  It should only be hot enough to just start sizzling when the meat hits it.
  4. Lay out two plates and a shallow pan on the counter.  A thick layer of flour in one pan, breadcrumbs in the other, and beated eggs in the shallow pan.
  5. Dip each piece of catfish/chicken in the flour, then egg, and then breadcrumbs.  Each step should thoroughly and evenly coat each piece of meat.
  6. Lay the meat in the oil immediately after each piece is done.  If you are not ready to add the piece of meat, let is set in the breadcrumbs.
  7. The meat should cook on each side until the breadcrumbs just barely start to turn golden.
  8. Once both sides are golden, then lay the meat on a broiler pan or cookie sheet.
  9. Once all meat is done or pan is full, stick the pan in the oven.
  10. Cook the meat in the oven until thoroughly, not overly cooked.  To be honest, I did not pay attention to how long that took.  Maybe 10-15 min.  I was able to watch a few chapters of The Dark Knight while they cooked.
  11. Once done, remove from oven and let cool.
 There is a change I would make in the future.  I would add a liberal amount of Cajun seasoning to the breadcrumbs when coating the catfish.

Assembly
This would be the torturous moments between having the food cook and the first bite.  Use a toasted sandwich bun.  Add as much coleslaw to the bun as you would like.  I suggest an equal amount to the meat you add.  We used a store bought coleslaw that was tasty.  It was a bit wet which made it messy.  I suggest a dryer slaw.  Then add your meat and potato salad on the side.  Enjoy.  Oh, some watermelon is good on the side with it too.