Homemade fish sticks

Do you have kids that you are trying to win over with real food? If green smoothies aren't winning them over, give these gluten free homemade fish sticks a try.  Most people out there are wanting to clean up their family's diet, but often go to extremes with the latest "health" food craze, strange powders or salads for every meal.  That will lead to burn out and a high grocery bill very fast! If you are wanting to keep this healthy food lifestyle for the long term, I recommend skipping the fads and fancy weird stuff, and just go for simple real food. What did your family like before?  Whatever it is, just make it with real whole ingredients and before you know it, you have overhauled your family's diet.

I love to makeover classic frozen "kid food" or quick fix meals to make them with real food ingredients. It's like a comfort food throw back but something I still feel good about feeding my family.

Even if your family isn't crazy about fish, this fish still has a good chance for winning them over for a few reasons.  It had a mild fish taste.  It’s breaded, which is always a selling point for kids.  You can eat it with your fingers.  And most importantly, it’s perfect for dipping.

This is not a difficult recipe. The most difficult part is standing by the stove waiting for the fish to turn brown before you flip. If you can master that, you can make these homemade fish sticks.

For the breading you have a couple of different options depending on your dietary needs.  You could use all cornmeal, or half cornmeal and half flour, or all flour (regular, whole wheat, or gluten-free), or almond flour.  They all work just fine.  For the fish, I frozen cod filets from Aldi for budget purposes, but you could also use fresh if you have access to great fresh seafood.  

Print Pin

Homemade fish sticks

Simple homemade fish sticks like the frozen ones you ate growing up, but better.  

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword fish sticks

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Servings 4

Author Tara Buss

Ingredients

• 1 lb cod
• 1 cup cornmeal, almond flour, or breadcrumbs
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• ½ tsp cayenne
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• 2 eggs beaten
• 2 tbsp oil olive, coconut, avocado, etc.

Instructions

• Heat a large skillet over medium heat with fat of choice covering the bottom.

  Cut fish into sticks about 3 inches.

  Mix salt, spices, and cornmeal/breadcrumbs/almond flour in a bowl.

  Dip fish sticks into the egg, then into the breading, then place in hot skillet.  

  When brown on one side, flip to the other side to brown.

  Repeat with remainder of fish sticks, taking care not to crowd the pan with each batch.  Serve immediately while hot.