Fish Tenders

My best friend from college got married this weekend, she was beautiful, the scenery was gorgeous and the reception was amazing.....but the hangover was far from it.

Needless to say Sunday morning wasn't cute and to follow neither was Monday. Dragging through Monday all I could think about was a nice 'greasy' dinner. Unfortunately us we don't like fast food so "greasy" food is not as cheap and easy bc I usually try to make it at home. This is the first half of the meal; the second half is nachos with homemade tortilla chips (post to come soon) So really this isn't greasy or fat, but made us feel like we were eating deep fried fish.

4 Flounder Fillets (tilapia and any other white fish for the most part would work)

About a mugful of breadcrumbs, I used panko

Old Bay

1 egg (optional)

The reason I call these tenders is because you see where the line in the middle of the fillet is you can cut along that line and get a tender, instead of a huge breaded fillet..

Before

After

So if you are using the egg, beat the egg in a seperate bowl, dry the tender, dip into egg bowl (gently) sprinkle a little bit of old bay, cover tender with bread crumbs and place on greased cookie sheet. Do not salt the fish if you are using old bay, old bay is salty on its own. When using the egg you guarantee a thick coating of breadcrumbs on your tender so really its your preference.
If you are not using the egg, dry the tender, sprinkle old bay, coat in bread crumbs and place on greased cookie sheet. With this method the tender isn't drenched in breadcrumbs and I prefer it this way when not serving guests.
Bake @ 350 degrees for about 8-10 mins (depending on the thickness of your fish) bring out the cookie sheet, flip over the tenders and place back into the oven for another 8-10 mins. By now the fish should be fully cooked and therefore you can start to broil to get them 'crispy.' I like to broil on LO for almost 10 mins. Again with broiling every oven is different so monitor this process closely and brown to your liking, I did another flip half way through the broiling to ensure both sides were crispy.



Serve the fish tenders with cocktail sauce!
Homemade cocktail sauce recipe:

ketchup +horseradish (not the creamy kind, straight up horseradish)