Air Fryer Beer Battered Cod with Tartar Sauce
Yield: 4 servings / Prep Time: 20 mins / Cook Time: 10 mins / Total Time: 30 mins
Light and crispy beer battered cod that that will satisfy your cravings for fried fish without leaving you feeling greasy or weighed down. My homemade Lemony cajun tartar sauce makes for the perfect dipping sauce.
Tartar Sauce Ingredients:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Juice of half a lemon
1 dill pickle, diced
1 sprig of fresh dill, roughly chopped
1/4 tsp cajun seasoning
Tartar Sauce Method:
In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients together.
Wrap with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator while you prep the fish.
Beer Battered Cod Ingredients:
4 pieces of cod, thawed and patted dry with a kitchen towel
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp cajun seasoning, divided
3/4 tsp paprika, divided
1 tsp baking powder
Any high-heat oil spray, I use avocado oil
Just over 1 cup of your favorite beer (my husband brews beer and he recommended Stout).
1/2 tsp black pepper, divided
1/2 tsp salt, divided
Beer Battered Cod Method:
Start by making the flour dredge.
In a shallow bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 tsp cajun seasoning, 1/4 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp salt.
Set aside.
Next we will make the beer batter.
In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup sifted flour, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp cajun seasoning, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp salt.
Whisk about half the beer into the dry ingredients.
Continue whisking in the rest of the beer, little by little, until you reach the desired consistency of thin pancake batter. You may not need to use all the beer, stop if the batter is getting too thin.
Now set up your station with your flour dredge, beer batter, and cod.
Place a piece of cod in the flour dredge and make sure to coat all sides of the fish.
Shake off any excess flour.
Next, dip floured cod into beer batter, completely submerging the fish.
Scrape off excess batter using the side of the bowl.
Place battered fish back into flour dredge.
Carefully pat both sides with flour and place onto a clean plate.
Continue this process with the remaining pieces of cod.
At this point you should set your air fryer to 390ºF for 10 minutes.
While you wait for the air fryer to preheat, lightly spray the battered/floured cod with high-heat cooking oil. Your want the oil to fully coat the raw flour. The flour/oil create a barrier to reduce sticking in the air fryer basket.
Using the same high-temp cooking oil, lightly spray the bottom of your preheated air fryer basket.
Place all 4 pieces of fish directly into the air fryer basket, oiled side down.
Lightly spray the other side of the fish.
Let cook until the machine tells you to turn food.
On my machine, it tells me to turn food after 7 mins. Using a small spatula, carefully turn the cod.
Continue to cook for the remaining 3 minutes.
Carefully remove from the air fryer using a small spatula and serve with homemade tartar sauce and lemon wedges.
Enjoy!
