I love grilled/baked/blackened fish. I just can't do that with catfish. It is the perfect fried fish to me. Comments? capt david

Hmmmm cornmeal mix or tempura ??

Filette it. The key is to LEAVE THE SKIN! Oil the grill realy good. Lightly oil the skin and meat, as well season it the way you like. And grill. Serve skin side down, ad eat it off the skin.

The skin will hold the meat together and keep the moisture in the meat.

I like to season it with;
Tony Cs
Garlic powder
Lemon peper
Verry light extra vergin olive oil on the meat side, and a little more on the skin side. I have yet to experiment with smoking.

Notin' but cornmeal. No catsup or tarter, just Red Devil! capt david

If you like tacos you can make fish tacos. Melt some butter and dip your filets in them. Take a package of taco seasoning and lightly coat both sides of fish. Take remainder of seasoning and mix with about a cup of mayonnaise and that will be your taco dressing. Get a non-stick skillet and get it very hot and cook your fish in it. Cut up some lettuce, tomato, onion, cilantro, and jalepeno for the tacos. Spread a small amount of the taco dressing on tortilla and then add fish and other vegetables roll up and enjoy.

La Hacienda Ranch has good grilled catfish!

Catch cats, fillet them and take straight to the grill with in 20yds of the lake. Thats the only way if I don't have a fryer while camping. Nothing beats super fresh!

grilled catfish is great, i love em in tacos as well. me and the wife do some catfish tacos every other month or so. i cook mine in a cast iron skillet with butter, put it in a corn tortilla, and top with pico or onions and cilantro. personally, i don't think i'd leave the skin on, although i've never tried it. it's just catfish skin's so thick.

Obviously, I've never tried catfish that way. Iv'e cooked redfish and kingfish like that. We call it 'on the half shell'!

You can grill it on the half shell, but I like cooked skin off and blackened in a well seasoned cast iron skillet. I've also taken a big ol' yella cat fillet on the half shell and smoked it just like I would a piece of salmon. Kinda different tasting but it was good.

The wife will use the iron skillet to sear both sides of the fillet, then put it on foil on a cookie sheet and cover it with fresh pico de gallo. Then into the oven for 20-30 minutes at 350F.
Gets hard to keep it in one piece that way but really good. Or, instead of the pico use Grey Poupon mustard to cover. Both are as good to me as fried catfish and better if you have to watch cholesterol.

grill it with the skin on the fillet

I smoke skinless catfish fillets and a lot of people I share with think very highly of the product. I marinade the fillets in a secret blend and soak the hickory blocks in water overnight. I sprinkle the spices on one side only when the fillets are put on the smoker grills. Length of time depends on what you want. An hour and a half leaves it moist and very flavorful for a meal. Longer times dries and shrinks it and it is more like jerky for snacking. For big fish, I smoke the meaty backbones...yummy.
I am a heart patient so we never fry it but baked parmesan-crusted catfish garnished with sun-dried tomatos is a treat and a good catfish chowder is wonderfully comforting.

I leave the skin on for 2 reasons; keeps the moisture in and keeps it in one peace. When served, skin down and use a for to eat the meat off the skin. Disguard the skin

it makes sense, i've just never tried it. i will have to get around to doin' that. do you scrub the skin first to get the slime off? i met an asian guy who would dip the whole fish in water that was almost boiling, then scrub them with like a scotch brite. he'd then gut em and fry the whole thing. he said he'd eat the skin. sounds like a lot of work if your cleaning more than 5 cats.

I clean the piece of meat after I cut it off the fish. Its more of a rinse to get wha ever sand, mud, blood what ever. No reason to scrub the skin, the slime comes off pretty easy if you clean the fish before you gut it, after, and after you fellet it.

I've done it on th george forman, it was really good.

first attempt and it came out very tender and TASTY!

i will try leaving the skin on next time i do my stuffed catfish fillets.

Catfish is very good grilled or baked. Being a lazy man, I do the easiest way possible.

That being said, do the following:

1. Have the catfish in fillets.

2. Make sure the aluminum foil is about twice as large as you need.

3. Grease the foil, Season the catfish.

4. Lay the fillet on the first half of the foil.

5. Set the grill to a heat level that will drive the moisture out of the fillet enough so that it will be properly baked. Catfish has enough moisture in it to make it seem like catfish in gravy if the grill is not hot enough, but at the same time not too hot. Each grill is different.

6. When the first side is done, grab the foil with two pair of tongs and flip the fillet over onto the second half of the foil. This I have found is because a spatula has a tendency to fragment the fillet too much. However I will use a spatula to loosen the fillet from the foil. There is a learning curve to this technique and of course make sure you have enough extra foil there to flip the fillet over onto it.

In conclusion, once this method is perfected, the grilling of any fish works like a champ. Variables like choice of grease, seasoning and the correct temperature setting are all up to you.

i like mine covered in zatarans and fried in a little oil. mmm tasty... now im hungry