A Wire Rack In Your Oven Is The Key To Crispier Baked Fish

One element of baked fish that makes this meaty dish so delectable is the crispy outer layer that delivers a flavorful, flaky crunch in every bite. If you enjoy making baked fish, you may have grown accustomed to simply placing your fish on a baking sheet and letting it bake in the oven. However, you may actually be missing out on getting even crispier fish by not using another item to rest your fish on. That item is a wire rack. 

If you place your Green Goddess baked fish or Manila Style baked fish on a wire rack in the oven, the openings throughout the wire rack will allow the oven heat to contact and crisp every part of your fish. This results in an incredibly crispy outer layer that provides the perfect textural contrast to the tender meat inside of your baked fish. But, there's one important step you must do before you put your fish on a wire rack and pop them in the oven.

Let's say you place your baked fish on a wire rack and pop it in the oven. The wire rack openings allow for the oven heat to evenly circulate all around on your fish and the entire outer layer of your fish gets cooked to a thorough crisp. But when you try to take the fish off of the wire rack, your meat tears from the wire rack, leaving beautiful crisped pieces adhering to the rack while your meat loses its even crispy coating. You can avoid this by spraying your wire rack with cooking oil spray before loading it with your fish. 

While there are some unexpectedly awesome uses for cooking spray, one of its typical uses is to prevent food from sticking to pans. This is why cooking oil sprays are usually referred to as "nonstick" cooking spray. Cooking oil spray will certainly prevent your baked fish from sticking to the wire rack while not adding any oiliness to the surface of your fish. Simply coat the entire wire rack with cooking oil spray before you arrange your fish on the rack. When your fish is done baking, you'll be able to easily remove the meat from the rack with your super crispy fish intact.

Another way to ensure you get super crispy baked fish is by coating the fish with a crunchy topping before baking the fish in the oven. One of the most common crunchy toppings for baked fish are breadcrumbs. Coating your fish with breadcrumbs can create a super crispy crust while seasoning the breading with other ingredients, such as parmesan and herbs, will give your baked fish more flavor.

Another fish-cooking hack is using cracker crumbs as a crunchy topping for your baked fish. To get cracker crumbs for your fish, break a bunch of whole crackers into pieces and use a food processor to blend the cracker pieces into crumbs. Combine the crumbs with your other preferred ingredients to create the breading for your fish. Crushed potato chips also make for a great crunchy topping for baked fish. Simply combine the crushed chips with the other ingredients for your breading before coating your fish with the mixture. Regardless of which crunchy topping you choose, don't forget to bake your fish on a wire rack to create an unforgettable crunch.