While many Southern fried catfish recipes call for a buttermilk soak, this one follows a technique from Nashville icon Arnold’s. Here, you brine the fillets in a bath of salt water and hot pepper sauce, a vinegar-based condiment steeped with small whole chiles (if you don’t have it, your favorite vinegar-based hot sauce will do fine). To keep the flavoring in check, brine the fish for no longer than 3 hours and give it a quick rinse when done. Pat the fish dry before breading it with seasoned cornmeal to ensure a crunchy crust that adheres to the fillets.
If you’ve never fried fish before, make sure you’re fully set up before you get going. Wearing an apron and an old shirt with long sleeves is a good idea to protect yourself from splatters. Fill a cast-iron skillet with at least 1” of oil and attach a deep-fry thermometer (or use your instant-read thermometer to gauge the oil’s temperature as it fluctuates). We like to transfer the crispy fried catfish to a wire rack placed in a rimmed baking sheet to best preserve the cornmeal crust, but a bed of paper towels will work fine.
Serve with Southern side dishes like coleslaw from another Nashville legend, Hattie B’s, hush puppies, and collard greens, plus tartar sauce for dipping and lemon wedges for squeezing.