The Best Low Carb Oven Fried Fish Recipe - THM:S, Keto, Low Carb (2024)

Low Carb Oven Fried Fish is a delicious way to serve up breaded fish – without all of the carbs! The breading is easy to make and turns into a golden crispy coating, perfect to dip into mayo!

This recipe is Trim Healthy Mama (THM S), low carb and keto friendly.

Crispy fried food is definitely a weakness of mine – but it’s also quite easy to make low carb! This Low Carb Oven Fried Fish is a great way to enjoy a healthy meal (an S-meal if you’re a Trim Healthy Mama) while feeling like you’re eating total comfort food.

It takes a little time to bread the fish, but the recipe is SUPER easy! I have not yet told my husband that this recipe is NOT made with regular breadcrumbs… So far he hasn’t noticed, this is 100% kid and husband approved. It’s so good! I wish I could eat this every day.

Ingredients you’ll need

This is just an overview of the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe – great as a visual grocery list! Scroll down to the recipe card for quantities.

Ingredient notes

• Fish: I really like this best with a firm white fish, and I pretty much always use cod. You could use Tilapia, but you’ll need to adjust the baking time for the thinner size.
• Ground almonds: I recently tried this with almond flour (since many readers ask this question), and while it works, the regular ground almonds definitely make for a much crispier breading.
• Golden flax meal: I much, much prefer golden flax vs brown flax for looks and taste here. I have never actually tried the recipe with brown flax, so I strongly recommend using golden.
• Baking powder: May sound weird, but don’t skip this! It helps with the browning.

How to make Low Carb Oven Fried Fish

1. Start by combining the dry breading ingredients in a shallow dish.

2. Whisk together the eggs in a separate bowl. It’s important you do not mix the dry ingredients with the egg! So please do use two separate bowls.

3. Now thinly coat a piece of fish fillet with the dry mix. Then, dip in the egg.

Finally, place the fish piece back into the dish with the dry breading mix. Press a good layer of the breading onto the fish. You really want to push this on and almost pound it a little with the back of a large spoon or something similar. This is how you make the breading stick to the fish.

* Quick tip:

It’s fine to keep the breaded fish pieces together on a plate while you’re finishing breading them all. They are delicate so handle them carefully, but they should not stick together.

4. I always use a black rimmed pan for this recipe, and I place it in the oven to heat up while the oven preheats.

Then, I melt butter on the pan and place the fish on.

Bake the fish for 10 minutes, then very carefully flip. You’ll need to use an offset spatula or a blunt knife to gently slide underneath each piece of fish to keep the breading from falling off.

Finish baking, then crisp up under the broiler!

Recipe tips

Stick to the breading method

This is the only way to get the crispy-yum crust on the fish (or on chicken, or zucchini fries!).

You take one shallow dish and add all the dry ingredients. And you take a separate shallow dish to which you add the eggs.

• first you dip the fish into the dry ingredients for a light dusting
• then you coat it with the egg
• and finally back into the dry ingredients where you pack on the breading

That’s all there is to it! But this combination of low carb breading and egg, in this order, bakes up as a crispy golden casing for the fish – it’s perfect!

Use a dark pan!!

A white enamel or silver aluminium colored pan just doesn’t work as well to crisp up the breading.

I sometimes use the lid of a black roaster gifted to me by my mother in law – it’s so handy for all kinds of things!

But you can just use a regular dark sheet pan!

Don’t skimp on the butter

The oven-frying really doesn’t mean you don’t need any fat.

The coating only crisps up and cooks in fat, fact. But since we’re low-carbing and not low-fatting here, that’s totally fine!

I like butter best in this recipe, but feel free to experiment. Just use a liberal amount, otherwise the fish will stick to the pan and fall apart as you’re trying to flip it. And it will not get crispy and golden.

Serving ideas

OK, I know fries or potatoes are a classic with crispy fish. But since they’re not exactly low carb (or everyday Trim Healthy Mama fare), I like to build our S meal around the following ideas:

• a low carb side like roasted radishes or mashed cauliflower
• plenty of roasted veggies, sautéed spinach or a nice big salad
• dessert 🙂 though I’m usually too full after this meal to even go for dessert, ha!

My husband and kids need lots of crossovers, so I like making them a side of brown rice or regular mashed potatoes. We also love a little mayo for dipping!

More low carb comfort food

PSIf you try this recipe, why not leave a star rating in the recipe card right below and/ora review in the comment sectionfurther down the page? I always appreciate your feedback! You can also follow me onPinterest,FacebookorInstagram.Sign up for my email list, too!

I first shared this recipe on 09/16/2018. I republished it on 01/18/2021 with new photos, better information and minor improvements to the recipe.