Gluten Free Fish and Chips ft. Skinny Lager
My Gluten Free Fish and Chips recipe created the lightest, crispiest batter and the chunky chips are exactly what you’re hoping for too! Sounds tricky? Promise its not! You only need 5 ingredients, its SO easy and it will rival any fish and chip shop.
Why I created this gluten free fish and chips recipe
(1) All the fish and chip shops around were closed in lockdown and to be honest, it’s a nightmare to get a gluten free version anyway (unless you’re happy with a random Tuesday night takeaway?!)
(2) I was sat drinking Skinny Lager and thought this would make the BEST gluten free fish batter because its so light and tasty
(3) My recipe is cheaper and healthier than the fish & chip shop anyway we can have it more often 😉
Ingredients
5 basic ingredients:
- Gluten free flour (self raising or plain + baking powder),
- Potatoes
- Fish
- Skinny Lager.
- Oil – sunflower or equivalent
Thought I might give you a little more info about Skinny Lager:
- The facts: Skinny Lager is Coeliac Certified. It is only 89 Calories per bottle which is 35% fewer calories than other premium lagers. As well as Skinny Lager being Gluten Free, they are Vegan Certified and Kosher friendly too.
- The lightness of the lager creates the BEST batter. Not only is it my fave gluten free lager to drink, but now it’s also my fav to cook with!! Genuinely, I’ve tried a few different options, and nothing created a batter quite a light and tasty as this.
- A true story you need to know! My boyfriend is not gluten free. He only shares my gluten free food when having gluten-full version in the house could cause cc nightmares in our kitchen – breadcrumbs for example. When it comes to beer, I’d be completely cool with him having a “normal”, gluten full version in the house because the odds of it causing any issues for me is minimal. YET HE DECIDED TO DRINK SKINNY LAGER. That is how good it is!!
- Want to buy some: Available in Asda, Tesco, Ocado, Morrisons and Amazon
I find its best to get them on Amazon ? click here!!
What pan should I use to fry my gluten free fish & chips in?
I use a Wok or very large saucepan. You need a deep, wide pan that fits the following requirements:
- Big enough to fit a minimum of 1 litre of oil
- Deep enough so that your pan is no more than than 2/3rds full of oil (it spits and bubbles so its safer this way)
- The fish needs to be able to float in the oil without touching the base of the pan so your oil needs to be at least 1 inch deep too (I go for 2 inches just to be sure!)
I haven’t got a thermometer – can I still make this?
You sure can but its really recommend getting a thermometer if you can (they’re pretty inexpensive and useful for lots of things – from testing the temperature of oil and meat and nougat and homemade sweets).
Making do without a thermometer? To test the temperature:
- For 140oC – first time you fry the chips: Takes about 5 mins on a medium/high temperature for 1 litre of oil to get to140oC. Test a chip to check the temperature – you’re looking for a little sizzle (no sizzle = oil isnt hot enough) but it shouldn’t go instantly brown (too hot!). When cooking them, I’d suggest you keep an eye on their colour rather than my time guidance. You want them to go slightly golden. Don’t worry too much… chips can be very forgiving!
- For 180oC – fish and second time you fry the chips: Takes about 3-5mins at a medium temperature to increase from 140-180Oc. Drop a tsp of batter into the oil – you’re looking for a sizzle again – slightly more aggressive than last time but the batter shouldn’t go brown within a few seconds of being in the oil. If it does, turn down the heat a little and wait a few mins.
Just so you know: if your oil isn’t hot enough, the food will soak it up more and the batter/chips won’t be quite as crispy. Not the end of the world but not ideal either! If your oil is too hot, it’ll all crisp up verrryyy quickly. Doesn’t matter so much for the chips as you can just reduce cooking time – when you boiled them, they would have cooked through to the middle anyway. However, you’ll still need the same cooking time for the fish to cook through, so that batter might crisp up a little more than you’d like!
Any other tips & tricks?
1. Don’t try to make your batter ahead of time. Follow the steps carefully and make the batter minutes before you’re about to cook your fish. Why? (1) you don’t want the lager to go flat and (2) if you leave this batter to sit, it starts to separate a little so you’ll have to get your whisk out again anyway!
2. Use a timer on your phone/watch to help you keep an eye on all of the times suggested in this recipe. 3 mins can go by quickly!!
3. My fave potatoes for the job: Maris Piper or King Edward.
4. There’s loads more help in my recipe – see all the bits in italics
Homemade Gluten Free Fish and Chips ft. Skinny Lager
Ingredients
- 3 medium sized potatoes - my fave: Maris Piper & King Edward
- 2 pieces of fish
- 1-2 litres of sunflower oil
- 1 bottle of Skinny Lager
- 225g gluten free self-raising flour & an extra bit for dusting - or use plain flour & 1.5tsp baking powder
Instructions
Twice cook the chips
- Peel your potatoes. Cut into chip shapes – about 1cm square.>Ideally, you want them to be all roughly the same thickness so they cook evenly.
- Rinse in a colander to remove any excess starch.
- Add to a pan of cold water. Bring to the boil and leave boiling for 3 mins, or until the chips are just starting to soften.
- Drain. Place on some kitchen towel to remove the excess water. Allow the chips to cool to room temperature.>5 mins should be enough time
- Whilst they’re cooling, heat a pan of oil to 140oC>See “what pan should I use?” & “Haven’t got a thermometer?” above for tips
- Once it has reached temperature, *carefully* place a handful of chips in the pan at a time. Cook for 3 mins.>You’re looking for the chips to form a shell/crust on the outside, but they shouldn’t be browning yet. Like this picture…
- Quickly increase the heat, ideally bringing the oil to around 180oC, and cook the chips for another 2 mins (so the chips are cooking for 5 mins in total). At this point, they should be golden and cooked through.
- Remove with a slotted spoon & place on some kitchen roll to remove any excess oil.
- Repeat this for all your chips and then set aside whilst you start to cook your fish
Cook the fish
- Place the beer and flour into a large bowl. Whisk until reaaally smooth.>You can use a hand whisk or an electric whisk>Make sure you get right to the bottom of the bowl – flour tends to sneakily sit there.
- Scatter some flour on a plate/your worksurface. Place the fish onto the flour, making sure it gets a light dusting all over. Flip and dust the other side too.>This helps the batter to stick.
- Turn the oil up to around 180oC>I like to leave it at around 18ooC for a few mins before moving onto the next step. This is to make sure its at a consistent temperature and not slowly getting hotter and hotter!
- Take 1 piece of fish. Hold it by one end & lower it into the batter mix. Lift it out, allow any excess batter to drip off for 5 seconds and then CAREFULLY lower the fish into the oil.>It will spit so be careful!!!
- Cooking more than 1 piece of fish?*If they can comfortably fit in the same pan, coat the other pieces of fish and lower into the oil too.*If they can't fit, don’t worry they stay hot for ages. Cook the first and place on some kitchen roll whilst you’re cooking the others. This will absorb any excess oil and keep the batter crisp. You could use a cooling rack instead.
- Leave for 3 mins, then flip and cook on the other side for 2 mins.
Plate up and eat!
**This recipe was written in collaboration with Skinny Lager, but as always, all of the views and recipes are my own!**
