Turn your limit of slabs into a delicious meal.
February 03, 2025
By Lynn Burkhead
Frying up a mess of crappie filets, even the “slabosaurus”-sized filets that northeastern Oklahoma’s Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees can produce, isn’t exactly a new recipe in the world of fish cooking.
But for Jeff Williams, a long-time former guide as well as the owner of the FleFly Tackle and Team Catfish companies, there’s a better way to go about turning a collection of sac au laits into crispy filets headed for the dinner table.
For starters, there’s the process of gathering the aquatic groceries, so to speak, the art of using Go Go Minnows and lightweight tackle to go “cast and drag” a collection of submerged brush piles along with “shooting” the shady confines of floating Grand Lake boat docks.
When done properly, even in the post-spawn phase of the year, the result can be a live well literally full of crappie, something that can almost guarantee a memorable meal back home.
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On a May afternoon with temperatures soaring towards 100 degrees, Williams went to work with his electric filet knife after a day of fishing fun on the 46,500-acre reservoir near Grove, Okla.
After retreating to the shady comfort of his nearby home, it didn’t take long to fry up his Cajun Fryer and heat the new, clean canola oil to a temperature of 400-degrees.
While the desired temperature was being reached, Williams went to work getting ready to fry up his supply of crappie filets.
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Equal parts of yellow corn meal and white flour makes an easy breading mix for crappie. First, he made his own batter mix for the filets, using equal parts yellow corn meal and white flour. Added together in a batter bowl , he then added in the crappie filets, snap closed the lid, and shook the box to evenly coat the fish with the home-made batter mixture.
One thing that Williams doesn’t do at this point while battering up his filets is to add in any seasoning, opting to wait until the crappie filets are completely cooked and done and draining on a paper towel. Then and only then will he add in some Team Catfish Gourmet Fish Seasoning to taste.
Minus the seasoning, Williams will put the battered-up crappie filets into the fryer’s wire basket, lowering it into the boiling vat of hot canola oil.
Deep fry fillets for 2-4 minutes until they are light golden-brown color and reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees. It might be good to point out that Williams is a stickler for using clean, new frying oil as often as possible since it cooks the fish up to a nice, light golden-brown hue as well as giving a crisp and clean taste on the dinner table.
To make sure that all of the above happens, Williams lets it all cook for 2-4 minutes until the crappie filets are a light golden-brown color and fully cooked, reaching an internal temperature of 145 degrees.
Once the filets are done, he’ll dump the wire basket of fried crappie – which he cautions against overcooking – onto a plate that is covered with a couple of absorbent paper towels. Afterwards, he will allow the fish to cool and the excess oil to drain off.
As the filets begin to cool, sprinkle a light coating of seasoning mix. As the filets begin to cool, he’ll sprinkle and add a light coating of seasoning, doing so to taste.
All that’s left to do after that is to serve the filets up with sides of tartar sauce, cole slaw, French fries, and maybe a few hush puppies, sitting back for a classic American summertime meal of fried crappie filets!