Vietnamese Fried Fish- “Cá Chiên” Recipe & VIDEO

We had lots of fish growing up and this was always one of my favorite fish dishes. Simply translated, “ca chien”, means fried fish. When cooking it this way, I just love how crispy the skin gets while retaining the inside white meat super tender and moist.

One of the tips my parents taught me was is to rub sesame oil on the fish skin because it neutralizes it from being too “fishy” and you actually don’t taste the sesame oil after it’s deep fried.

Frying fish is a quick and easy way to prepare and cook whole fish under 10 minutes with hardly any prep work! Today we used tilapia but any fish will do including catfish, red snapper or cod.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 small/medium whole fish (I used tilapia, have the fish gutted at the store)

DRY RUB INGREDIENTS

• 1 tsp sea salt

• 1 tsp Black Pepper

• 1/8 tsp MSG (optional if you don’t want to use)
  

• ~1 tbs sesame oil

GARNISH

• 3 tbs fresh scallions diced

• 1 thai red chili pepper sliced thinly

• Few cilantro sprigs (top leaf parts only, no long stems)

Sweet & Sour Nuoc Mam Cham:

• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar

• 2 tbs lime juice

• 1 cup white sugar

• 12-15 medium cloves garlic (minced, about 4 tbs)

• 1 small 1” knob ginger (*optional ingredient, great with fried fish) (peeled, minced well)

• 1 long bird’s eye chili (stem removed, thinly sliced/minced)

• 1 thai red chili pepper (stem removed, thinly sliced/minced)

• 1/4 c fish sauce (more to taste, up to 1/2 cup)

• 1/2 tbs sriracha or more for color

• 1 1/2 cups water

• Slurry: 3 tsp corn starch with 3 tbs water.

SAUCE PREPARATION

1. In a small saucepan, combine all sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

2. Simmer for 2-4 min over med high heat in small sauce pan until peppers cook down and sugar dissolves. Mix slurry and to pot, and let simmer until slightly thickened.

3. Process with immersion blender or regular blender slightly to get mixture very saucy (optional step).

4. This makes about 3 cups or so of sauce so transfer to a jar and refrigerate until ready for use. This will keep a couple weeks or more in fridge.

FISH PREPARATION

1. To prepare fish, wash (gut if not processed) and pat down fish.

2. Take a sharp knife and cut a few diagonal lines into both sides of the fish (this well help cook fish evenly, don’t cut through the bone, you just want to score the meat about 1/3” deep or so).

3. In a small bowl mix your dry rub ingredients: salt / pepper / msg.

4. Rub entire outside of fish with about 2 tbs of sesame oil (this will help neutralize the fish smell and let marinate for about 15 min). Then take some of the salt/pepper dry rub mixture and rub the fish with the dry rub, be sure to get it inside the fish and inside your slits you cut as well. You won’t use the entire salt mixture so save it for later or toss the rest away.

5. Heat up about 1/2” of oil in cast iron skillet or pan on medium.

6. Fry the fish on medium heat for about 3-5 min on each side until crispy.

7. Remove fish onto a paper towel lined plate, then plate fish with a little sweet and sour sauce and garnish with black pepper, scallions, cilantro (optional) and fresh chili.