Fish and chips may have originated in England, but the dish has definitely taken root in the United States, especially here on the East Coast. In my restaurants, I serve hundreds of orders a day. People just love the crispy fried beer batter and the perfectly moist fish inside. It’s easy to make fish and chips in a restaurant, using a large commercial fryolator (deep fryer), but making the dish at home is a substantial undertaking. It is not that fish and chips is hard to make, it’s just that you need to cook the fish and the fries in separate pots in order to get all the food out at the same time, both hot and crisp. In fact, after testing this recipe at home, I have decided that making fish and chips in a home kitchen is crazy. But I also know there are a lot of crazy cooks out there, possibly a few who may want to quadruple this recipe, or more, and set up two big pots on portable propane burners for an outdoor fish fry.

This recipe is for the fish; the recipe for the chips, Boardwalk French Fries is separate—but you may want to just make the fish and serve it with coleslaw or a green salad.

The varieties of fish that make good fish and chips are many. Since the fish fillets should be fairly thin, you will need to cut thicker fish (more than ¾ inch thick), such as cod or striped bass, on a thin bias. Flounder and other thin fish fillets (¾ inch or less) can be cut straight down. It is nice to have one big 6- to 8-ounce piece per portion, but if that doesn’t work out, it’s fine to serve two smaller pieces.