Jamie Oliver's Top Tip For Making Homemade Fish And Chips

It's easy to encounter mistakes when making homemade fish and chips. This meal will either leave you feeling completely satiated or utterly disappointed. All too often this fried dish winds up being too greasy, soggy, and limp — a far cry from what your taste buds are hoping for. That's why if you are going to make this very British-centric meal, you need this tip from Jamie Oliver: Do not make fish and chips at home for more than four people. 

Why? Because per Oliver's website, home fryers tend to be on the small side with the implication being, there is a tendency to try and fit as many pieces of fish and shoe string potatoes in it as one possibly can. This defies one of the most important culinary commandments when frying food: Thou shall not overcrowd. When you break this sacred cooking covenant, the temperature of your frying oil drops leading to undercooked or, even overcooked fried fish if you are trying to overcorrect, where both the taste and the texture suffer. 

"What To Eat This Week" host Jamie Oliver encourages home cooks to only make a batch of fried fish that fits in the fryer pan. If you are making fish and chips with tartar sauce for a group larger than four, you need to work in batches — which may not be ideal if you want everyone to eat at the same time since fish and chips should be served hot. You can place it in the oven to keep warm, but smaller amounts of fish frying at one time will keep the sogginess at bay.

Oliver cooks his chips in the same oil as the fish. If you are worried about the transfer of flavors and don't want your homemade French fries to have a fishy taste, you can fry them first then put them in the oven on low to keep them warm. That said, if you are planning a gathering with lots of friends and you are craving this combo, consider heading to your favorite fish and chips spot to let the pros make it. This method means less clean-up for you.