Hey dudes, I'm Hilah, and today on Hilah Cooking, we're making McDonald's knock off filet-o-fish
sandwich.
This is way better than the McDonald's version and I'm going to tell you a fun little story
about how it got invented.
And here's a hint.
It has to do with Jesus.
Okay to start out, duh, we're going to use some fish.
I'm using tilapia.
Try to get like as big of a fillet as you can, anything sort of firm will do well, like
halibut or cod.
And we're just going to try to cut it into squarish shapes so that it looks a little
bit like McDonald's even though it's going to taste way better.
So for this little interesting shaped thing here, it's already kind of starting to split
there.
So I'm just going to go ahead and cut it down the middle and then trim off like the little
pointy end bits.
Just to kind of try to kind of square it off a little bit and you can still like cook these
and eat them like little fish nibbles or something, but they won't go on our sandwich because
they're not perfect.
So then these ones I'll cut in half, these ones, oh my god, my mom would be so ashamed
of my language, sorry mom, bad grammar.
So there, they're not exactly square, but they're rectangular and that's a type of squares
guys.
So then I'm going to just put them in a little bowl here, all the little pieces.
Some of them are maybe too tiny and then squeeze some lemon juice over.
Awesome.
So that's just going to like brighten up the flavor a little bit, we're just going to let
this marinate in the lemon juice for about ten minutes.
In that time we can make our McDonald's rip-off tartar sauce.
I just want to make sure all the little fishies get covered.
If you don't have lemon, you could use a little bit of like white wine vinegar something,
or tarragon vinegar would make it a fancy French filet-o-fish, filet-o-French and that
would be something else entirely.
Okay, I'm going to get set up and we'll make our tartar sauce while we wait on this marinade.
Obviously tartar sauce starts with a mayonnaise base.
Now if you would like a more fancy type of tartar sauce, I have a recipe for one with
parsley and capers and garlic and all this other shit, on our website if you want to
do that, but this is what I think is closest to the McDonald's tartar sauce which really
just kind of tastes like pickles.
So I just add a little pinch of salt, I'm going to add a little bit of white pepper.
This is my unfancy touch.
I'm sure it's not in the real thing, but it tastes really good.
And then to make it look McDonaldsy, this is just some diced up like hamburger dill
slices, just mince them up really tiny and then add in a little bit of that pickle juice
in there too.
So dump that in.
Just dump it all in there.
And then some super minced up white onion as well.
And just like the tinier you can chop it the better.
I'm a magician with a knife.
You could use a food processor if you have bad skills.
And we'll just mix it up.
There's salt on my finger, better give it to the devil.
Oh, that reminds me.
So the story of the filet-o-fish: there was this guy in Ohio that had a franchise when
McDonald's first started franchising and he wasn't making any money during Lent because
his area was like 89 percent Catholic or something.
So he like called Ronald McDonalds himself and he was like, look Don, sorry I mean Ron
I'm not making any money over here in Ohio, I need to make a fish sandwich stat before
I go broke.
And Ronald McDonalds was like, I don't think so buddy.
Then he tasted it and he was like, wow, this is the best sandwich ever, not better than
my hamburgers, but you have my permission to put it on your menu and that saved his
restaurant and then it went nationwide like the next year.
So, there you go.
It's time to bread the doughnuts, I mean the fish, I mean the doughnuts.
Okay, so I drained the lemon juice off of the fish fillets and now I'm going to add
some milk because milk is a wholesome thing and it does your body good; just enough to
cover.
Don't need to waste it, I'll drink that later.
Some white Russians, okay.
So just get them all in there, they're hanging out, that's fine.
And then for the breading part, what I've done is I've mashed up some oyster crackers
here until they're very, very fine.
These are oyster crackers.
They taste like saltines, but they look like oysters, I don't really know why they're called
that, but that's a good enough reason I think.
I like to use these when I'm breading stuff instead of saltines because one, they're cheaper
than saltines by like a few cents, but I'm a frugal b-otch and also they're already in
tiny pieces so they break up faster.
So all I did was put some of them into this little zip top baggy and crushed them up until
they're fairly fine.
Most of them are powderish and I'm going to go ahead and add a little bit of plain dry
bread crumbs to that too.
If you wanted to just use bread crumbs, that's fine, but I felt like the crackers kind of
gives it a better coating.
So just mix that together and the crackers already have salt on them, so we don't need
to add any salt to this, it's enough salt with just what's on the crackers.
And now we're just going to do the standard milk, crackers, milk, crackers, plate.
Okay, alright, fish fingers.
Okay, once they're coated you want to put them in the fridge for at least ten minutes
up to two or three hours, so you can make these ahead of time a little bit.
That's going to help that coating adhere so that when we fry it, it doesn't just like
fall off into the frying oil either.
So I'll see you back in ten minutes.
To fry the fish, I've got just under about a half inch of peanut oil here, you can use
canola oil, vegetable oil, whatever, you know, stuff like that.
And I've got it heated up to about 350.
If you don't have a thermometer, you can just throw in a little bread crumb like this, just
a crumb and it's all like, not it's not peeing, that's a sizzling sound.
And we'll put our filets in.
And you remember when I cut them up, I ended up with two that were a little bit thicker
and two that were a little bit thinner.
So the thicker ones obviously are going to take little bit longer to cook, so I don't
know.
It's kind of easier sometimes just to do them together, do the thicker ones together and
then the thinner ones, but basically we're just going to cook these for about a minute
on the first side, they'll be nice and golden brown.
Flip them over, do another two minutes or so on the other side until that's golden brown
and by then, the inside should be perfectly cooked and beautiful and flaky and moist like
a fish sandwich.
There we go.
So just check it.
The second side usually browns slower than the first so see, it's still pretty pale,
so let it go maybe another minute or so.
If you wanted to make these lower fat, you can also totally bake them.
Just do the breading, spray it with a little bit of you know, spray oil or something, and
bake it on like a tray with a rack like this.
I'm going to use this for draining, but you can just bake it on here at 450 for about
fifteen minutes.
It's not going to get like as delectably golden brown as these, but it will be crispy and
cooked and it will be much healthier than this or a McDonald's filet-o-fish.
So, I should have taken a note myself, but...
I just need to stand up straighter.
Okay, there we go, now we're talking.
So like I said, just drain it on a little rack over here.
And I'll go ahead and fry my other fish.
While those are cooling, I'll microwave a couple little hamburger buns to soften them
up and get them nice and squishy like the ones at McDonalds.
Okay.
Okay, we're ready, to have fish sandwiches, fish sandwiches, fish sandwiches.
I've got a little bun here, like I said I just stuck it in the microwave for literally
ten seconds and it gets nice and pliable and warm.
I'm going to top it with some American cheese.
Now at McDonalds they're skimpy little bastards and they only give you half a slice of cheese.
What the hell is American about that?
So we're going to go ahead and do a whole slice, thank you very much.
And then we'll top it with a little fish patty.
Let's see, this one looks good and a big, big hefty blob of your tartar sauce.
They do like this much there.
I know, because I just ate one the other day.
And then there you go.
There's a gorgeous filet-o-fish sandwich for you.
Then of course you would put the top on and eat it.
If you like this recipe, also check out my Chick-Fil-A knock-off.
If you like fried meat sandwiches and if you don't want to watch that one, then you can
watch my chicken fried steak video because I do the same, a very similar cracker crust
and you can just see how gorgeous it is.
It's delicious.
Fried meats for the win, right people?
Okay.
Give it a taste.
That's what's supposed to happen, that little--shit, that's good.
Do I have something on my face?
I do.
Alright, there you go, homemade filet-o-fish, way better than McDonalds.
I hope you try this, I hope you love it.
Please leave a comment below and visit me at hilahcooking.com for principle recipes.
See you guys later, thanks for watching.
Bye-bye.
I'm going to try to fit this whole thing in my mouth.
That's not going to happen, sorry.