My gold standard for beer battered fish and chips is halibut or leopard shark, with a batter using an English amber or brown ale. An English mild beer is perfect, but they can be hard to find.
Recipe by Hank Shaw on July 2, 2012
Prep time: PT20M
Cook time: PT20M
Total time: PT40M
Rating
4.85 stars (32 reviews)
Keywords
best beer batter, how to fry fish, how to make beer batter
Ingredients
2 pounds fish, (skinless and boneless)
Salt
Oil for frying
About 1/2 bottle beer
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup self-rising flour
2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, (sliced into 1/8-inch thick rounds)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Categories
Main Course
Cuisine
British
Steps
Salt the fish and set it aside at room temperature. Get your oil going: You want it to be 350°f to about 360°F. Turn the oven to the "warm" setting, and put a cookie sheet inside. Place a cooling rack on top of the cookie sheet.
Mix the flour, salt and beer together, stirring all the while. You want enough beer in the batter to give it the consistency of house paint, or melted ice cream. Put the batter in the fridge to rest for 20 minutes.
While the batter is resting, slice the potatoes and put them into a large bowl of cold water. When you are done slicing, remove the potatoes and pat them dry with a paper towel.
The oil should be hot by now. Fry the potatoes, a few at time, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until they start to brown at the edges. Don't cook them until they are uniformly brown or you will overcook them; they will continue to brown a little out of the fryer. Salt each batch the moment it comes out of the fryer. Store each batch on the wire rack in the warm oven.
When the potatoes are done, take the batter out of the fridge. Dredge the fish in the batter and let the excess drip off for a second or two. Lay each piece gently into the hot oil. Do this by letting the bottom end of the piece of fish fry for a second or so in the oil before you let the whole piece get a bath. This helps prevent the fish from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Keep a chopstick or something similar around to dislodge any pieces that do get stuck.
Fry in batches until golden brown, about 5 to 8 minutes depending on how large the pieces are. Keep each batch in the warm oven while you finish the rest. Serve at once when you're done.
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories: 509 kcal
Carbohydrates: 51 g
Protein: 52 g
Fat: 11 g
Saturated Fat: 7 g
Cholesterol: 113 mg
Sodium: 713 mg
Sugar: 2 g
Reviews
Casey Tester on 2026-06-22 (5 stars): The batter guide helped with halibut; I'd love suggestions for oven crisp leftovers.
Martin Jaqua on 2025-07-27 (5 stars): I've cooked a lot of fish over the past decade or so, but never tried to replicate basic fish & chips until I tried this recipe from Hook, Line & Supper. It turned out great the first time the subsequent times as well, with both halibut and ling cod.
Not only did that help bolster my status as a star seafood cook at home, since my girlfriend absolutely loves fish & chips, last night I used the recipe on razor clams, my girlfriend's second-favorite food after Dungeness crab.
We are fortunate to live a couple hours from the Oregon coast where razor clams are plentiful, and we've been avid clammers for about three years now. It's great to find a Hank Shaw recipe that suits them perfectly.
Yvette on 2024-06-14 (5 stars): your link to the gluten free option is a game changer. I'm gluten free out of necessity and only cook gluten free. The gf version is amazing and everyone I have served it to raves about it. Halibut, rock, ling are all fabulous with it.
Kelly on 2024-01-16 (5 stars): I used this batter tonight for my battered mushrooms and they were delicious! Thank-you so much it is easy to make and light and tasty to eat. Thanks again
Carrie Ashwell on 2023-07-29 (5 stars): This batter recipe is AMAZING!!! For my first time ever attempting to make fish n chips it turned out so well! My husband loved it and I did mushrooms too! It is definitely my go to now
C Dickinson on 2023-02-04 (5 stars): Oh my GOODness! Hubby fishes Alaska every summer and brings home lots of halibut. But... I only have one "go-to" recipe for that: halibut slathered with sour cream/mayo and baked in super hot oven. Great, but boring after a while.
THIS RECIPE made the most amazing Fish and Chips! Never had success with deep fried fish before now. Better than any we've ever eaten at restaurants - here in the PNW, that's saying a lot!
Followed your directions TO THE LETTER, and even made an amazing first batch ever of crisps.
Bravo! Will be using this one for ever and ever... Husband is in heaven with this recipe!
Paul on 2023-02-03 (5 stars): Recipe worked great with some farmed steelhead, not ideal fish for this but still turned out very good. I really appreciate the temperature range you provided as my my deep fryer on the “fish setting” was only at about 310 degrees when sitting outside in the sub freezing temperature. Was able to ramp up the temperature to get it where it needed to be to ensure crispy success. Thx Hank!!
Shawn Revels on 2022-08-12 (5 stars): This is my standard for fish and chips. Rockfish, shark, halibut, etc… this recipe is great.
Chad on 2022-06-11 (5 stars): Made this tonight with cod and scallops. We skipped the crisps and did fries/chips in the air fryer. Everyone loved it!
Sue J on 2022-03-24 (5 stars): We’re visiting our family in Haines, Alaska. They were gifted with beautiful halibut and my daughter-in-law asked for my help as she’s new to deep frying. We came across this awesome recipe and made it tonight. Everyone loved it!! We had a good time with this.
Win/Win!!!
Thanks for the great recipe and helpful tips!
Ray on 2022-01-14 (5 stars): Great site but let me tell you, this recipe would be a fail in England. Ireland fine, but the Brits like their fish and chips soggy. Crisp batter doesn’t make it on that island.
Dave Langridge on 2022-01-14 (3 stars): USe Guiness for the batter, doble fry the chips (1/4" thick no thicker!)
You CANNOT get Rock (shark or Dogfish) in the North of England at all! It is a Southern dish.
One fillet at a time after the first chip fry (stick them in the oven and do the 2nd fry after all the fish are done and in the oven).
Four, teaspoon of baking powder to the flour will help, flour the fish before dipping in the batter.
Other than that add a wally (gherkin - pickle to you Americans but NOT DILL, use a german barrel pickle or similar) or get some real English pickled onions, add malt vinegar and a sprinkling of salt and you will be in fish n chip heaven :)