How To Make Fried Fish Taste Like A Restaurant’s, According to a Professional Chef

Have you ever heard of using mustard as a substitute for… eggs? Well, now you have! In this clip, professional chef Roscoe Hall (who you may remember from turning the most blah mac-and-cheese to a 5-star masterpiece) shares a clever trick for crispy fried fish—every time—without a lot of fuss. The secret: Use yellow mustard instead of eggs to douse the fish before dredging it in a cornmeal coating. The result is restaurant-level good.

The Trick for Restaurant-Level Crispy Fried Fish

Typically, the process of frying anything requires dipping a meat or vegetable in a liquid dredge, like beaten eggs, before covering it in a breading mixture and frying it. But Roscoe has another trick up his sleeve, and it’s a condiment that you probably already have in your refrigerator: Yellow mustard.

“Mustard replaces the egg and flour in the dredging process,” says Roscoe. “All you gotta do is coat it in mustard, dredge it in cornmeal and BOOM—off to the fryer.”

So, next time you’re at the helm of the fish fry, don’t bother with eggs (which can be expensive and hard to manage when you’re cooking up a storm). Instead, generously coat each fillet with mustard, and proceed with the breading process. Roscoe uses cornmeal, but you could also use all-purpose flour or a combination of both.

Why It Works

So, what makes this work? The dredging process of frying anything can be tricky to nail down—no matter how seasoned a chef you are—and dipping slippery fish fillets into eggs and flour can get a little messy. While it may seem too good to be true, using mustard instead actually makes a lot of sense:

• Mustard is a 1:1 replacement for eggs—and flour. Mustard helps the breading stick, because it’s viscous, forgiving, and easy to see. This makes it a great substitute for the typical dredge layer of eggs and flour, which is common in fried chicken recipes as well. The breading easily adheres every time, eliminating the need for an extra flour-coating step, and creates the same crispy protective layer between the hot oil and the tender fish fillet.
• Mustard seasons the meat. The combination of ground yellow mustard seed, vinegar, and salt naturally seasons the fish.

In other words, the mustard pulls double duty—in addition to holding the cornmeal coating together, it also interacts with the fish to create an exquisitely juicy, moist, and flavorful interior that you can only really get at a restaurant—until now. (You might still want to sprinkle some salt on top before slathering it in mustard, too, depending on your taste.)

Other Recipes That Use Mustard

It doesn’t stop with fish—or even with frying, for that matter! Many other recipes include a dose of mustard to help breading adhere, or even simply to season the meat. Check out a few recipes that use mustard in similar ways: