You can’t go wrong with crappies. They are great fun to fish throughout most of the year, while they taste amazing when cooked fresh. Better still, crappie fillets can be cooked in a variety of ways, meaning there are endless possibilities for crappie fillet recipes.
Pan fried crappie is perhaps the most common way to cook crappie fillets, but there are many other ways that are well worth trying. Crappie can be combined with so many different ingredients that it’s impossible not to find something to your liking!
Crappie Fillet Recipes
If you are looking for a new way to cook your catch, check out some of these crappie fillet recipes!
Preparing Crappie Fillets
Before getting started, you’ll need to fillet the crappie. Here’s a quick guide for filleting fresh crappie for cooking:
Start by creating a vertical cut behind the gills, angling slightly towards the head, and then keep cutting until you hit the backbone. Don’t cut through the back backbone, instead turn the knife horizontally so that the blade faces the tail, and then run the blade across the entire backbone, stopping at the tail.
Pull the meat away from the body and then make a final cut to remove it – the fillet should be intact and easily lift away. Repeat on the other side and you have two fillets ready for cooking – do this on as many crappies as needed to get the desired number of fillets!
Lemon Crappie Fillets
These can be baked or fried depending on your preferences!
Ingredients:
- 1lb crappie fillets
- 1 lemon
- 3 garlic cloves
- Butter
- Salt & Pepper
- Fresh Parsley
Whether baking or grilling preheat to 350F!
Start by filleting the crappie if you haven’t already and then set them aside.
Prepare the seasoning mixture by melting around ½ cup of butter into a saucepan over medium to high heat. Wait for the butter to melt. Mince the three garlic cloves and add this after the butter melts.
Juice the lemon (you can use lemon juice if preferred) and then add this into the saucepan.
Add around 1tsp of salt and pepper into the saucepan.
Finely chop the fresh parsley until you have around ½ tsp. Add to the saucepan.
Increase temperature and bring to the boil before reducing it to bring to a simmer. Simmer sauce for ten minutes – you want a nice thick consistency.
For baking:
Place the fillets onto a baking sheet.
Then add the sauce mixture on top of the fillets – make sure all are evenly coated.
Cover the baking sheet with some foil and cook in the oven for 10-20 minutes. Check the texture with a fork – you want it to be nice and flaky, easily breaking away as you touch it.
For grilling:
Place crappie fillets over a piece of oiled foil and generously coat each one with the sauce.
Wrap the foil so the crappies are completely covered and then place on the grill.
Cook for about five minutes and check the crappie with a fork to check for a flaky texture.
