Whether it’s tailgating or homegating, fans of the Buffalo Bills are known to be elite tier when it comes to food. Wingin’ It returns for it’s eighth season of Mad Hatter-esque recipes taking inspiration from the Buffalo Bills and their opponents.
Filet-O-Squish (the Fish)
You’ve probably seen this as a meme before. No one prepares you for just how often you’ll have the “what should we have for dinner” conversation as an adult. Now imagine if your household included a jerk who insists on creating themed recipes for Buffalo
Bills game days.
That’s my segue into telling you all how my youngest daughter made me a recipe book to break out when I need ideas. One of her ideas was a clone recipe for a certain “very famous fast food fish sandwich.” Now obviously I need to make it my own to avoid stealing other people’s work, which is how we end up with the Filet-O-Squish (the Fish).
Filet-O-Squish (the Fish)
Makes: Four servings
Active Time: 10-15 min
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
Canola oil (for shallow fat frying)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
2 Tbsp water
1 cup pulverized Buffalo wing-flavored pretzels
Salt and pepper to taste
4 cod fillets, 1/3 lb each
1/4 cup bread and butter pickles
1 Tbsp Weber’s horseradish mustard
1 tsp hot sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
American cheese
Hamburger buns
You may need: Sauté pan, pie tins or similar for dredging stations, blender (recommended), paper towels, food processor (recommended), meat thermometer
- Preheat 1/2-inch oil in sauté pan on MED/HIGH heat (see below).
- Set up dredging stations: flour in one, egg and water whisked together in another, and pulverized pretzels in the third.
- Blot cod fillets dry with paper towels; salt and pepper fillets.
- Dredge fillets in flour, then egg wash, then pulverized pretzels (remember “dry hand, wet hand”).
- Gently place fillets in oil, fry for about 5 min.
- Carefully flip fillets and fry for another 5 min; remove when breading is a golden brown, check to be sure internal temperature has reached 140 degrees.
- Make Skaretar sauce by blending pickles, mustard, hot sauce, and garlic powder together (food processor recommended).
- Serve fillets on hamburger buns with one slice of American cheese and Skaretar sauce.
Wingin’ It Tips and Prep Gallery
Just to be clear, “pulverize” is indeed a cooking term (Look it up Thurman!). So let’s talk about pulverized pretzels as I’m using that term quite deliberately. You can certainly go with crushed pretzels but be cautious as even one tiny, hard piece can be unpleasant if you’re chewing and don’t expect it. Using a blender to turn the pretzels into dust prevents that (“pulvis” is Latin for dust, hence “pulverize”).
One other thing on the pretzels, as I should temper expectations. I buy the Snyder’s Buffalo Wing pretzels, which are very flavorful. Take a second and contemplate the pretzel-to-seasoning ratio on these. Yeah, there’s still way more pretzel than seasoning. The breading on these is a subtle shift away from the panko you might expect from the original sandwich.
When it comes to the oil and temperature, things can be a bit tricky. I mention a half inch above, but aim for being able to at least half-submerge the fillets. When I say MED/HIGH for temperature, know that I have zero clue what your stove actually has as a scale. Mine for all intents and purposes is a 0-10 scale and what I cooked at was 6. Following the MED/HIGH idea you might think 7 and that’ll likely work, but keep an eye on things so you don’t burn the fillets.
Speaking of the cod, the ones I got were about a third of a pound each, which is way bigger than the fast-food variant and why it took me 10 minutes of fat frying to cook them through. If you can get your hands on littler guys, adjust accordingly.
