isithalal.food · Recipes

Beer-free fish and chips

Crisp battered cod or haddock with oven chips, using sparkling water instead of beer and vegetable oil instead of beef dripping.

British · Main · Moderate · 2 plates · 90 min

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

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Why Halal checks matter here

Pub and home batters often use beer, and some chip shops fry in beef dripping or share oil with pork sausages; the fish itself is not the problem.

Halal-critical ingredients

• Beer in the batter: Beer batter is a standard pub and home method; beer is an intoxicant and cooking does not remove all of it. Sparkling water in this method. See Beer.
• Frying fat: Traditional chip shops fried in beef dripping or lard; dripping outside Muslim countries is rarely from Halal slaughter, and lard is pork. Fresh sunflower or rapeseed oil. See Fish and chips.
• Shared oil: Oil that has fried pork sausages or battered black pudding transfers to the fish. Fresh oil at home; ask in a chip shop.
• Malt vinegar: Malt vinegar is made by fermenting malted barley to an alcoholic wash and turning that into vinegar. Many scholars permit vinegar after full transformation; some consumers prefer a certified bottle. A Halal-certified malt vinegar, another vinegar, or lemon. See Malt vinegar.

Ingredients

Batter

• 50 g (⅓ cup) plain flour
• 50 g (⅓ cup) cornflour
• 5 g (1 tsp) baking powder
• a pinch (a pinch) ground turmeric, for colour (optional)
• 150 ml (⅔ cup) very cold sparkling water

Fish and chips

• 400 g (14 oz) skinless cod, haddock or hake fillets, halved
• 2 tbsp (2 tbsp) plain flour, for dusting
• 750 g (1 lb 10 oz) floury potatoes such as Maris Piper, peeled and cut into thick chips
• 30 ml (2 tbsp) sunflower or rapeseed oil for the chips
• about 1 litre (about 1¾ pints) sunflower or rapeseed oil for frying (never beef dripping or lard)
• to serve (to serve) salt, lemon wedges, and malt vinegar you have checked

Method

1. Make and rest the batter. Whisk the flour, cornflour, baking powder and turmeric together. Pour in the cold sparkling water gradually, whisking until smooth. Rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. The bubbles and the baking powder do the lifting that beer's carbonation does in a beer batter.
2. Oven chips. Heat the oven to 200 °C (180 °C fan). Boil the chips for 2–3 minutes until the outsides just soften, drain well, toss with 2 tbsp flour and the 2 tbsp oil, and roast for about 30 minutes, turning once or twice, until golden.
3. Heat the oil. Heat about 1 litre of sunflower or rapeseed oil in a deep, heavy pan, filled no more than a third deep, until a drop of batter sizzles and crisps at once (about 180 °C). Use fresh vegetable oil; do not reuse oil that has fried pork sausages or other non-Halal food.
4. Batter and fry. Pat the fish dry, dust it in flour, then dip it in the batter and let the excess drip off. Lower it into the oil away from you and fry for 6–8 minutes, turning once, until deep golden and crisp. Fry in batches so the oil stays hot.
5. Drain and serve. Drain on kitchen paper and salt straight away. Serve with the chips, lemon, and malt vinegar if you use it; see Malt vinegar.

Allergens

fish, gluten

How this recipe was researched

Method specified editorially from BBC Good Food Middle East's battered fish with chips, with its lager replaced by sparkling water, and from the batter and frying-fat notes on Wikipedia's fish and chips article, plus this site's Fish and chips, Beer, Cod and Malt vinegar pages. Timings follow published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Photograph from our ingredient library, not the finished dish.