Homemade Fish Fingers In Air Fryer

Delicious homemade fish fingers in air fryer. Made with Morrison’s cod loin fillets, and a quick flavoursome homemade breading. It’s hard to believe that these crispy fish fingers were made in the air fryer.

Whether you call them fish fingers, or fish sticks you will love them made from scratch in your air fryer.

Air Fryer Fish Fingers

Yesterday, we showed you how to make fish nuggets in the air fryer and today, we wanted to show you how you can use the same method to make homemade air fryer fish fingers.

I don’t know about you, but fish fingers are one of my favourite foods from childhood.

I would love to eat fish fingers, chips, and beans. They were like the best 90’s after school dinner ever. My mum didn’t do them very often and when she did, I thought it was the best food in the world ever!

Now I think of fish fingers as the hangover food as that is how my dad always enjoyed them most. Fish fingers and a fried egg in a sandwich.

But of course, I am taking here about frozen fish fingers not homemade and what if you made a healthier version of fish fingers at home in your air fryer.

In a similar way to air fryer fish and chips and then served them for dinner.

That is exactly what we are doing today with our homemade fish fingers in the air fryer.

Go and grab some fish fillets and lets get started!

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Air Fryer Fish Sticks

If you live on the other side of the pond to us in the US, then you are likely to refer to them as air fryer fish sticks or air fried fish sticks.

Note that it is one of the same.

Whilst we call them fish fingers in Britain, over in the US they are referred to as fish sticks.

Even better, we have both metric and imperial measurements in the recipe card, making them easy to follow, no matter where you live in the world.

Can You Cook Fish Fingers In An Air Fryer?

Yes, you sure can cook fish fingers in the air fryer and they are delicious. The same can apply to many other breaded fish foods too, such as air fryer fish nuggets, air fryer fish cakes and so on.

Beyond this, you can also cook most breaded foods in the air fryer. For example, we love air fryer KFC chicken, air fryer spam fritters, air fryer breaded pork chops and even an air fryer KFC Zinger Burger.

Can You Cook Frozen Fish Fingers In The Air Fryer?

Yes, you can also go frozen in the air fryer too. Refer to our air fryer frozen fish sticks post for up to date cook times and temps and recipe suggestions.

Though, I much prefer to make my own homemade fish fingers.

What About Air Fryer Fish Goujons?

The same applies to air fryer fish goujons. Simply cut them up into smaller pieces and then air fry them like our air fryer chicken nuggets.

Or if you make our air fryer fish fingers and have leftovers, use the leftovers to make some fish goujons with.

What Are The Healthiest Fish Fingers?

The healthiest fish fingers are your homemade fish fingers in the air fryer. You are using your own homemade breading and they are much less calories than deep frying.

That is because when making fish fingers or fish sticks in air fryer, it is like you are baking them in the oven.

No extra oil is required, and you can control exactly what ingredients are added.

Fish Fingers Air Fryer Ingredients

Fish – I recommend using a fish that is chunky enough to make fish finger shapes and also doesn’t hold a lot of water. My favourite choices are cod, haddock, catfish, or salmon. I also recommend 2 fillets for a good batch of fish fingers. We used 2 cod loin fillets.

Breading – You will need a breading production line (more on this below) with a beaten egg bowl, a breadcrumbs bowl, and a flour bowl.

Seasoning – I also recommend adding extra seasoning to your breadcrumbs bowl and your flour bowl. This adds extra flavour and otherwise this recipe for fish fingers can be rather bland. I recommend parsley for your flour and then dill, parsley, and basil for your breadcrumbs. Then season for fish before breading with salt and pepper.

Optional – I also add some lemon juice to the egg mixture as this gives it extra flavour.

Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this fish fingers air fryer recipe it has just been our Cosori air fryer. We have this one and its wonderful for many types of air fryer recipes.

Plus, we recommend you head over to our air fryer recipes category as we have more than 500 tried and tested air fryer recipes and have been air frying for 10 years.

Breading Fish Fingers For The Air Fryer

This process for breading fish fingers for the air fryer is the same for all our breaded fish and learn this system and then you can rinse and repeat with other recipes.

Also note, you can do batches of different recipes at the same time. For example, we did air fryer fish fingers, air fryer fish nuggets and a batch of air fryer fish and chips.

You start with three bowls:

• 1 for egg wash
• 1 for flour
• 1 for breadcrumbs

The number #1 chef tip is to use one hand for the flour and egg and then the other hand for the breadcrumbs. That way you won’t have to wash your hands inbetween or get eggy hands on the breaded fish.

The number #2 chef tip is to have a clean chopping board ready for placing the breaded food on once you have breaded it.

The number #3 chef tip is to have the bowls next to each other in the right order. I.e. flour first, then egg, then breadcrumbs.

The number #4 chef tip is to freeze leftover bread as breadcrumbs and then you can pour some into a bowl whenever you want to bread food.

The number #5 chef tip is to flavour the breadcrumbs and flour depending on what you are breading. For example, swap these flavours for our KFC spice blend and make our air fryer KFC chicken.

Here are our bowls with seasoning ready for making air fryer breaded fish fingers:

Then once you have mixed the seasoning in your bowls, you’re ready for breading and then air frying.

How To Air Fry Fish Fingers?

• Dry. Firstly, place your fish fillets onto kitchen towel and let it sit for a few minutes to remove excess moisture. This is especially needed if you are air frying catfish.
• Bowls. Whilst the fish is on the kitchen towel, set up your production line. With one bowl for flour, one bowl for eggs and one bowl for breadcrumbs. Then add seasoning to flour and breadcrumb bowls and beat your eggs. I also recommend adding in some lemon juice to your eggs.
• Season. Next remove the fish from the kitchen towel and cut lengthways and then in half to create fish finger shapes. Season with salt and pepper.
• Batch. Then working in batches load the fish into the flour, then the egg and then using your other hand into the breadcrumbs. Place onto a clean chopping board as they are done and let them rest for 5 minutes.
• Cook. Load into the air fryer and air fry fish fingers for 10 minutes at 180c/360f.

And I am sure you can see now how easy it is cooking fish fingers in air fryer and why you should be doing it too!

How Long To Cook Fish Fingers In Air Fryer?

The fish fingers cooking time is JUST 10 minutes, which is fantastic for a quick batch of homemade fish fingers.

If you have loads of fish fingers to do you can also do them in batches.

Also note, we went with a larger size fish finger, because fish can break very easily and then you are keeping your shape.

How To Make Breading Stick To Fish?

The secret behind perfect breaded fish is the process we do in this air fryer fish fingers recipe.

That is to make sure:

• You pat dry the fish fillets first to remove excess moisture
• You make sure the fish fingers are well coated in the flour, the egg and the breadcrumbs
• That you don’t turn the fish fingers whilst air frying

Though the most important, is that they are well coated in everything as otherwise it will not come out as perfectly crispy fish fingers.

Homemade Fish Fingers To Freeze

You can also make our homemade fish fingers to freeze. Simply prep them and then place them on a baking tray.

Load into the freezer for an hour.

They will now be partly frozen.

Next remove (after that hour) and transfer to a Ziploc bag and keep them in the freezer until you plan to cook them.

More Air Fryer Breaded Fish Ideas

• Air Fryer Fish & Chips
• Air Fryer Homemade Fishcakes
• Air Fryer Thai Fishcakes
• Air Fryer Fish Nuggets
• Air Fryer Frozen Fish & Chips

Your homemade fish fingers air fryer recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.

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