Steer Clear Of Non-Stick Skillets For Super Crispy Fish Skin

If you’re going to serve fish with the skin, you want it to be crisp, not unappetizing and soggy. Your first instinct may be to reach for a non-stick skillet, but that won’t get you the best result.

Serious Eats tested non-stick, cast iron, and stainless steel against each other. Here are the results:

In the photo above are three pieces of snapper, which I cooked in three different skillets over the exact same heat setting on an induction range. As you can see, the cast iron and stainless steel (at left and middle in the photo) produced very similar results; I’d say they’re just about equal. The nonstick (at right) was close, but the skin wasn’t quite as crisp as it was with the other two.

Furthermore, non-stick pans can lose their coating over time if you use them for high heat cooking (like pan frying fish skin).

Using the right skillet is just one part of the larger process to getting the crispiest fish skin, so check out Serious Eats’ complete guide at the link below.

How to Make the Crispiest Pan-Seared Fish Skin [Serious Eats]